Lawrence Villamar

Global rating agency Standard & Poor's warned on Wednesday that India still faced a "one-in-three" chance of a credit rating downgrade within the next two years, despite last month's blitz of new economic reforms to boost the sharply-flagging economy.

China will only stand to "lose out" by boycotting this week's global economic meetings in Tokyo, said International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde today.

Following some heavy falls late last week the Australian dollar consolidated yesterday bouncing off bottom side support of 1.0150 against its US Counterpart.

Several major Chinese banks have pulled from annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to be held in Tokyo next week, claimed a report by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, with the territorial dispute between China and Japan now threatening to spill onto the global arena.

A recent French study demonstrating links between Monsanto's NK603 genetically modified (GM) corn and cancer in rats has been found to be of "insufficient scientific quality" by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

In what was a relatively positive start for the Australian dollar on Friday the higher yielding currency traded as high as 1.0274 against its US Counterpart intraday.

The Australian Dollar opens marginally higher today at 1.0230. The case for Tuesday’s 25 basis point cut to the official cash rate was underpinned after yesterday’s sluggish retail sales data which showed only a modest increase of 0.2 per cent for the month of August.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Chief Economist Oliver Blanchard has warned that the fiscal problems in the U.S. stemming from the 2008 Financial Crisis remains unresolved till today; and said that it will take "at least a decade" for the global economy to recover from the crisis.

The Aussie dollar continued its recent slide against the Greenback yesterday after Australia posted its widest trade deficit since March 2008.

Credit card giant American Express (Amex) has agreed to pay $85 million to around 250,000 consumers for violating consumer protection laws in marketing, billing and debt collection practices, reported the New York Times on Monday, with the financial institution also expected to pay up to $27.5 million in fines to regulators.

The RBA yesterday surprised around 40% of the market, deciding to cut rates by 0.25%. The accompanying statement while dovish wasn’t extreme and did offer some positives offering no concrete direction for further moves later in the year.

In figures released yesterday China’s manufacturing activity has continued to show signs of weakness after the official PMI figure fell short of the all important 50 threshold, with any reading above this deemed an expansion.

A loan worth nearly $2 billion from the China Development bank is being delayed as concerns over the effect of tax policies in the United States surface.

L'Oreal Chairman and Chief Executive yesterday criticised the French government's plans to introduce a 75 percent marginal income tax rate, arguing that it would make it difficult if not impossible for France to attract top talent should the plan go ahead.

Pulling the Australian dollar back from a 2-week trough yesterday, the higher yielding asset appreciated against its US Counterpart as investors speculated that China’s government will announce stimulus measures designed to bolster the local economy.

There was a profound move away from riskier backed assets overnight which noticeably harmed the credentials of the Aussie Dollar.

Only few Australians are logging in social media using their mobile phone, despite mainstream popularity of online platforms like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

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.

The Australian dollar did next to nothing intraday yesterday bouncing 20 basis points either side of its opening level of 1.0420 against its US Counterpart.

Social media is fast becoming a huge presence in the lives of more Aussies, with Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) leading the pack of networks in Australia.

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.

Hit television series "Walking Dead" is on the clear, at least for now.

The Australian dollar retreated yesterday and after hefty gains over the past week the higher-yielding asset appears a little heavy around the 1.05 mark against its US Counterpart.

Following a week in which the Australian dollar retreated from a five month high of 1.0625 against its US Counterpart, Friday’s session was an overall positive one for the higher yielding asset.

A US Senate committee has alleged that technology giants Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard avoided billions in US taxes over the past three years by transferring profits to offshore jurisdictions.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has pledged to increase the transparency of the bank, suggesting yesterday that he was open to the idea of publishing minutes from its monetary policy meetings sooner rather than later.

Research in Motion, even as it isundergoing a “self-reinvention,” was recently branded by the Huffington Post’s Jason Gilbert as one of the makers of the worst smart phones in America.

The Australian dollar fell following recent stimulus euphoria as doubts about its implementation as well as poor Chinese manufacturing data cast doubt over the higher value of the Aussie.

The number of Asian millionaires surpassed that of North America's for the first time ever last year.