BUSINESS

After shaking up Apple's stocks, billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has shifted his attention to eBay. He released on Tuesday an open shareholder letter to the popular ecommerce site, hitting its corporate governance and pushing that it separate from PayPal.

The skyline of Melbourne's central business district will soon change with the addition of five residential towers with over 2,000 apartments worth $557 million.

The Australian federal government would provide embattled flag carrier Qantas with a debt guarantee. It would be part of the Abbott government's plan to permit larger foreign ownership of Qantas to have access to international capital and compete with Virgin Australia.

Despite hitting fresh five and a half year highs earlier today, the Australian sharemarket has fallen for the first time since 13th February this afternoon. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) lost 0.2 per cent; however is still up by 4.5 per cent so far in February. This makes it the best month for local stocks since July 2013.

The Australian share market is tracking higher for the eighth consecutive session, following a positive session on Wall Street and generally upbeat company forecasts.

Rich Chinese affected by Canada’s dumping of its investor programme turn to Australia to invest

For the first time in 25 years, Pope Francis has led the overhauling of the Vatican's financial system. On Monday, he announced the creation of an economics secretariat to control all economic, administrative, personnel and procurement functions of the Holy See. Australian Cardinal George Pell will man the post and report directly to the pope.

Australians planning to travel anytime soon to the Philippines were reminded to take necessary precautions before proceeding to the Southeast Asian country. Western Australia has reported a growing number of measles cases from those who just recently came from the Philippines.

Overnight the S&P made a record intraday high and closed in the black (year-to-date) for the first time in 2014. It's a very rare thing to see the US markets underperforming the rest of the world, and this does provide market upside.

In US economic data, the Markit ´´flash´´ services index fell from 56.7 to 52.7 in February. The Dallas Federal Reserve manufacturing business index eased from +3.8 to +0.3 in February. And the national activity index eased from minus 0.03 to minus 0.39 in January.

Is the result of the 2014 Superbrands study an indicator of the continuous decline of the Apple brand? If the Cupertino-based tech giant's place on the roster is the basis, it would appear so, at least among the stiff upper-lipped Brits, because Apple tumbled down to14th place from 2nd. To make it worse, toilet paper maker Andrex is ranked higher than the manufacturer of the iconic iPhone and iPad at 12th place.

Apple Inc. SSL/TLS Bug could be what U.S. intelligence agents were boasting about

It was always going to be a tall order for stocks to stay in positive territory today. US markets ended lower on Friday, albeit by a modest margin. Additionally there were several large stocks going ex-dividend, including Telstra (TLS), Woodside Petroleum (WPL), Suncorp (SUN) and Wesfarmers (WES). Given these influences the market acquitted itself reasonably well to finish largely unchanged on the session.

The percentage of jobless youth reaches a disaster point according to the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

The Australian share market is moving higher for the seventh session in a row, despite falls on global markets on Friday.

Global growth remains below trend as seen in the projections for the US, Japan and Australia; this has been the first G-20 meeting since the GFC that has seen growth as the key theme rather than austerity and blame for the GFC over the past six years. All nations want to see global growth around 5% rather than the current 3% level.

In US economic data, existing home sales fell 5.1% to a 4.62 million annualised pace in January. Economists had tipped a 4.3% decline.

The buzz is strong in Qantas halls that the financially troubled Australian air carrier could axe up to 3,000 jobs which will be revealed next week as the company seeks to reduce costs by $2 billion.

To boost trade between the two nations and help reduce currency fluctuations, Australia and South Korea signed on Sunday a 3-year currency swap agreement worth $4.5 billion.

Australia is one of the favourite destinations of rich Asians who have an investment property overseas. A report by global bank HSBC said that over one-third of affluent Asians have purchased properties abroad.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains a favourite stock among billionaires, according to Fortune which created a chart of top ten holdings by billionaire investors based on iBillionaire data. An iOS application, iBillionaire and Web site, iBilliionaire.me, has transformed into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that offered investors a 30-stock portfolio chosen to mimic the investment strategies of 21 billionaires including George Soros, Warren Buffet and Carl Icahn.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock dips as analyst at Barclays gave downgraded rating on Apple stock

The Australian share market rose for a sixth straight session today, thanks to a strong lead from Wall Street and generally upbeat earnings results.

The Australian sharemarket is higher at lunch for the sixth consecutive trading day and for the 11th time in 12 sessions. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.6 per cent, with the miners the start performers. The last time the XAO improved from Monday through to Friday was 14 months ago. Largely positive economic news in the U.S. (relating to jobs and manufacturing) helped lift global markets overnight.

Risk sentiment picked up in US trade after having slumped in Asia yesterday following a disappointing China manufacturing PMI print. Sentiment was also subdued in European trade with a raft of PMIs mostly disappointing and weighing on the single currency.

In US economic data, consumer prices rose by 0.1% in January to be up 1.6% over the year. Analysts had expected prices to rise by 0.1%. US Markit Flash PMI rose from 53.7 to 56.7 in January - its fastest pace in nearly four years. The gains were largely due to a lift in the new orders component which was at its highest level since May 2010. US jobless claims fell by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 336,000 last week.

Origin Energy is waiting for the result of the federal government's review of Australia's 20 per cent renewable energy target launched on Monday. The anticipation is because of the potential impact of the policy on Origin's $900-million Stockyard Hill wind project.

Auckland, New Zealand's financial centre, is the third most liveable city in the world, according to the list released on Thursday by Mercier. Topping the 2014 Quality of Living list are Vienna and Zurich, 1st and 2nd placer, respectively.

The Australian share market ignored a weak finish on Wall Street and disappointing Chinese economic data to make it five wins in a row today.