MARKETS

Angry Hunter Valley residents in the Australian state of New South Wales protested on Tuesday the coal mine expansion plan of mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO). The anti-mining protest was held on the day that the NSW Supreme Court heard arguments about the future of the Mount Thorley Warkworth coal mine.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 113 points or 0.7% while the S&P lost 0.5% to 1685 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.4%.

There was a bit of everything for investors today. Some gains, some losses and then the end result - a flat finish.

Investors tried it all this morning, with the Australian sharemarket a little higher on the open, in the red around an hour into trade and completely flat at lunch.

There would be lesser flights by Australian flag carrier Qantas to the Middle East in 2014 when the Dubai Airport undergoes runway repairs for three months. Dubai Airport authorities advised Qantas in April for the air carrier to reduce by 50 per cent its flights to the second-busiest international airport in the world while two runways would undergo maintenance.

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday that it filed stock fraud charges against four Canadians and five Americans who cheated $140 million from thousands of investors from the U.S., Canada and other countries using a penny stock scheme.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 33 points or 0.2% while the S&P gained 0.3% to 1694 and the Nasdaq added 0.

The Australian share market performed strongly again on Tuesday, as buying in key stocks the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and CSL Limited (CSL) ahead of their earnings results tomorrow fuelled a rally. Positive sentiment across Asia also helped while Treasury's release of its Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) failed to inspire investors when it was released on market open.

The Dow fell 93 points yesterday. Gold fell $19 an ounce - closing below $1,300 an ounce.

By Greg PeelLast week an institutional buyer entered the spot uranium market looking for offers on one million pounds of U3O8, setting off a scrambling run on prices from their dreary depths.

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportThere is no better time of the year than September to ask the question ? is the market going up or down.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 5 points while the S&P lost 0.1% to 1689 and the Nasdaq gained 0.3%.Japan posted June quarter GDP growth of 2.

After some toing and froing in the first hour of trade this morning, buyers were able to assert themselves thereafter. The key to the improved performance for the overall market was the improvement seen in the resource sector. Commodity prices, and metal prices specifically, ended last week on a strong note in response to a number of encouraging economic reports from China on Friday.

The 'Dog Days' continue. Not much action on Wall Street. Everything is on hold. The future will have to wait.

The Australian sharemarket is improving, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.6 per cent. In the first hour of trade, the local market was slipping for the fifth time in six sessions.

The world's second-largest miner, Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) will push through with its $5 billion plan to expand the Pilbara iron ore mine despite the lower price of iron ore in the international market. The mining giant has planned the expansion in 2011.

With election campaigning in full swing here in Australia and financial markets going nowhere, let's look elsewhere for some relief. We'll take a world tour..

Yesterday we promised to try and figure out the Australian dollar's behaviour using the Grattan Institute's new report on the mining boom. Analyst Jim Minifie's work isn't a bad read because it has lots of pictures. His key points are that Australia can transition quite well into and out of a mining boom, but we've failed to make the most of our latest one.

In the good times generosity abounds. Everyone gets to share in the spoils. Investors, fund managers and financial planners all make money. It is only when the good times stop investors sharpen their focus on the genuine value derived from fees.

A civil lawsuit was filed against Bank of America for misleading investors in an $850 million mortgage-bond deal known as BOAMS 2008-A offered in 2008.

The Palmerstone North Girls' High returned on Friday leftover contaminated whey protein that students used in a science class experiment in April 2013. At least 25 female students drank the milkshake which had whey as additive; fortunately, not one of them got sick of botulism.

The uptrend remains under pressure closing on the pivot for this week. Stock reports show BHP, RIO and TLS in breakout up trends and the banks, WOW, WPL and WES in downtrends.

It's been a big week for market events. There's been something for everyone. Central Banks have loomed large as market drivers, economic news has been plentiful and the company reporting season locally has kept the analysts community sleep deprived. Despite this bounty, that old chestnut; the Fed and its expansive Q.E discussion, has come out trumps as the main influence on market sentiment this week. Suggestions that the US central bank could set sail on the tapering voyage as early as ne...

The Australian sharemarket is in the red for the fourth time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index down 0.3 per cent or 15.8 pts to 5,031.3. Over the past five days, the market has given back all of last week's 1.5 per cent improvement. At its best, local shares were up 0.2 per cent in early trade.

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra continues to feel the impact of the botulism scare on its global consumers when milk prices dropped during the auction organised by its Co-operative Group on Tuesday. The Fonterra GDT Price Index dipped 2.4 per cent as average selling price stood at $4,847 per tonne even if no product that uses the contaminated whey were included in the bids.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI joined Twitter. Not because I am curious what this celebrity has to say about her kids, or to read that another one is waiting for a connecting flight, impatiently.

In a bid to tone down the botulism scare caused by the discovery of bacteria in whey produced at its Waikato plant, Fonterra assured New Zealanders that the risk of acquiring botulism is only one in a million.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 27 points or 0.2% while the S&P gained 0.4% to 1697 and the Nasdaq added 0.

The Australian share market had a solid recovery on Thursday, boosted by healthy China trade data, a solid result from Telstra (TLS) and as Australia's unemployment rate remained steady at 5.7 per cent.