MARKETS

By Greg PeelIt was not lost on the media yesterday that Woolworths' ((WOW)) final sales price for the Dick Smith Electronics business, after having put the For Sale sign out eight months ago, was $20m ? the same price Woolies paid Dick Smith, the man, for Dick Smith, the business, thirty years ...

Olympus Corp., which is a Japanese maker of medical equipment and camera, have admitted being guilty along with its three former executives on Tuesday, according to the reports.

Witnesses to the culling of some of the 21,000 Australian sheep rejected by Bahrain and Pakistan described the process as inhumane and brutal. The Karachi edition of The International News cited a video which showed the animals being clubbed, stabbed and buried alive.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 72 points or 0.5% while the S&P gained 1.0% to 1447 as the Nasdaq jumped 1.

The Australian sharemarket ended a little higher for the first time in four days, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) edging higher by 0.5 pct or 20.3 pts to 4402.8. Despite today's improvement, markets have been treading water ahead of the Spanish Parliament's release of the 2013 budget (first draft). The borrowing costs for the Spanish government are currently sitting at 6 pct, which is around twice as high as funding costs for our government.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower for the third straight session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) giving back another 13 points to 4,382 points.

By Richard (Rick) MillsAheadoftheHerd.comAs a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best informationIncreases in taxes and, to a lesser extent, reductions in spending, the infamous $600 billion "Fiscal Cliff" that's looming in the new year, will reduce the US fede...

In the generally male-dominated world of mining, two resources queens are engaged in a court battle over ownership of the Hope Downs iron ore mine in Pilbara.

More major resources projects in Australia continued to be shelved as commodity prices remain low. The latest to be added to the list of postponed or cancelled projects is the $650-million ammonium nitrate plant of chemical giant Incitec Pivot.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 44 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P lost 0.6% to 1433 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.

The Australian sharemarket lost a little ground for the third straight day, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) easing by 0.3 pct or 13 pts to 4382.5. It could have been worse however; as American markets dropped by around 1 pct overnight. Charles Plosser, a Federal Reserve member from Philadelphia said that the U.S central bank's decision to stimulate the economy a few weeks ago is unlikely to help boost growth. This is the type of commentary that markets tend to not digest very well. Shares...

Yesterday the Australian share market lost ground for the second day in a row, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) off by another 13 points to 4,395 points. It was a day of 2 half for both the European and US markets. After strong economic numbers out in early US trade, showing US consumer confidence lifted to a 7 month high and better than expected housing data, key European markets pushed aside early global growth concerns and tracked higher. The US markets opened stronger but then fell away s...

Lennar Corp., the third-largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, reported higher fiscal third-quarter earnings as demand for new homes jumped.

Toys R Us has informed that it plans to hire about 45,000 workers nationwide for holiday shopping season. It will be 5,000 more than the same period last year. The seasonal hiring is expected to help its expanded customer services such as shipping online purchases to stores.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has called for strong and decisive growth plans from policymakers in Europe and the United States, warning that global economic recovery is slower and weaker than anticipated.

Well, it's the country of the future. It's the 'New America'. It's where it is all happening. Growth. Innovation. And wealth accumulation.

Rather than violate the terms of memoranda of understanding in knocking the shipment back, Western Australian Farmers Federation President Dale Park advised Australian live sheep exporters on Tuesday to instead focus on four Middle Eastern markets which have been long-standing customers.

The number of billionaires in China has fallen for the first time in seven years amid the country's worsening property and stock market slump, according to the Hurun Research Institute.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 101 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P lost 1.0% to 1441 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the second straight day, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipping by 0.3 pct or 13.7 pts to 4395.5. This was expected, due to a lack of market moving events locally and offshore between Monday and Wednesday this week in addition to weakness in global markets overnight. The volume and value of shares that exchanged hands today was extremely light once again.

We have met the zombies... and they are us!

General Motors Co., the leading automobile manufacturer in the United States, stated on the 21st of September that the company has come up with the decision to recall around 474,000 Chevrolet, Saturn and Pontiac sedans all across the world in order to sort out a situation that could very well lead the vehicles to roll even when the drivers believe that they are in park mode.

Iran has planned to block the access to Google and create a domestic internet system for its citizens. According to the officials this is a way by means of which they will be able to improve the system of cyber security in Iran. On the contrary however, it is feared by many Iranians that this a new upcoming way of the Government to control their access to the World Wide Web.

Small scale businesses based in the U.S. could lose almost 1 million jobs in the next year if federal officials are not able to prevent across-the-board U.S. budget cuts, amounting to $1.2 trillion, which are supposed to commence as early as in January.

The Australian share market finished lower yesterday, with the All Ordinaries Index off by 21 points to 4409.2, after big slides in commodity prices out of Asia hitting mining and energy stocks. The weakness in commodity related firms continued to impact the overseas markets. The European markets held back by concern over the Euro turn-around story and how long it will take to occur, and lower than excepted business confidence out of Germany.

After prices of coal and iron ore had dipped dramatically in the past few months, another major Australian export item is at the risk of falling commodity prices: liquefied natural gas (LNG).

By Andrew NelsonDespite a run of soft sentiment that's only worsened since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, it still seems fairly clear that policy makers across the globe remain committed to nuclear power for the most part.

Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) just granted three local firms to export 190,000 sheep and 400 cattle indicating the resumption of the country's live export to the Middle East despite the unresolved problem over 21,000 Aussie sheep in Pakistan.

Virginia Australia is opposed to the agreement between flag carrier Qantas and Middle Eastern airline Emirates. It asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to withhold the grant of an interim authorisation until the two airlines could prove their tie-up would benefit Australian consumer.