BUSINESS

European shares edged higher on Wednesday, led by solid results from Dutch technology firm ASML. But concerns about earnings across the broader market kept a lid on the advance. ASML the world´s leading provider of tools for making computer chips, rose by 7%, after it beat forecasts for fourth quarter results and reinterred an upbeat outlook for first-half sales. Portuguese shares (down 3.3%) underperformed the broader market, pressured by a slump in the country´s banks after local media reporte...

The questions posed by that YouTube uploader would probably be answered soon as embattled Canadian phonemaker BlackBerry is selling the bulk of its commercial real estate holdings in the country. It would combine vacant sales and sale-leaseback arrangements to divest itself of the properties measuring about 3 million square feet of space.

Credit card skimming would soon become a thing of the past since beginning Aug 1, credit and debit card holders in Australia would no longer need to sign for the purchases of over $100. Instead, they would key in PIN codes in an attempt to significantly cut payment fraud.

SplashData, a company that specializes in password management applications (SplashID Safe line) for more than 10 years just announced the Worst Passwords of 2013 list featuring the 25 most common passwords found in the Internet. The "123456" number sequence topped the list as the worst password of 2013. It has been a runner-up for two times already and now, it has finally landed the number one spot. It beat the worst password of 2012, which is the word "password."

The Australian share market closed in the red today but managed to rally off earlier lows thanks to gains from financial stocks.

China's dangerous air pollution isn't only confined to harm its residents. It has been found to be dangerously invoking more severe and frequent cyclones in the northwest Pacific.

The Australian share market is being sold off on Wednesday, following a mixed lead from Wall Street and despite European shares rallying to a fresh five and a half year high.

Apple Inc is in another legal battle. The iPhone maker has been slapped with a lawsuit in Massachusetts by three customers who alleged that the company had been selling users' personal information to third parties.

Some 1,700 employees from the aerospace division of Canadian aeronautics company Bombardier are bound to lose their jobs in the coming weeks.

Electricity suppliers have managed to restore all of Auckland's power supply on Wednesday after ex-tropical Cyclone June's powerful wild winds hit the area on Tuesday.

Iron ore producers in Australia are under pressure following the drop to a six-month low of prices of the key steelmaking ingredient to $124.80 per tonne. The price decline was mainly due to Chinese iron ore buyers retreating.

Fundamental questions around strength of the US earnings remain; after having seen a 30% gain on the S&P in 2013, the current earning season is masking what really is a disappointing start.

European shares rallied to a fresh 5½-year high on Tuesday. Better than expected earnings from consumer goods maker Unilever (up 1.8%) supported investor sentiment. Sales rose 8.4% in emerging economies and accounts for more than half of earnings. In addition solid German sentiment data remained near 8 year highs. The monthly ZEW survey of economic sentiment slipped from 62.0 to 61.7 in December. Economists now expect Germany´s growth expansion of around 1.7% in 2014 after 0.4% in 2013. The FTSE...

The Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) decried on Tuesday the decision of national carrier Qantas to have two of it Boeing 747s flown to Hong Kong for heavy maintenance in the later part of 2014.

Apple Inc's market share in the U.S. has been the key driver of the company's success despite the growing competition led by Samsung Electronics. Although Samsung is gaining market share in the U.S., its gains are not the same with Apple Inc. While Apple Inc and its CEO Tim Cook are looking forward to "big plans" in 2014, analysts have speculated that the company's stock could reach $1000 after hitting the $705 mark in September 2012.

Over the period of recent weeks the local market has cultivated the appearance of resilience. Appearance, because these kind statements have to be seen through the lens of summer volumes, which can make for some rather flighty price action. In the support of the claim, last week saw the market recover from a 2% deficit to end the week flat. Today the market was down almost 20 points before a mid-session recovery saw the market end the day ahead by 30 points.

Andrew Grant steps down as CEO of CO2 Group Ltd, the largest carbon developer in Australia, as government draws on a new policy to adjust to climate change, thereby forcing the company to consider investing into new business areas.

China has developed its own mobile operating system called China Operating System (COS) that will rival Microsoft's Windows, Google's Android and ChromeOS, as well as Apple's iOS and MacOS platforms.

Papua New Guinea will no longer be issuing Australians visas on arrival, Peter O'Neill, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, made the announcement on Monday.

The Australian sharemarket has crept into positive territory after a slightly weaker start. The All Ordinaries Index is up by less than 0.1 per cent; however is being held back by an underperforming mining sector. U.S. sharemarkets were closed last night due to the Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday; keeping trading volume lighter than usual. There is no major economic news scheduled for release in Australia or the region today; however yesterday's slightly better than expected Chinese GDP rea...

Best not to get sick at anytime in Canada. A new survey that looked into the waiting times of Canadian patients in setting urgent appointments just to be checked and treated by their family doctors within a day has been found to be the worst among the 11 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED).

With the US shut for Martin Luther King Day, overnight leads are thin, meaning another day of digesting the China GDP data.

European shares edged lower in thin trade on Monday. A surprising quarterly loss by Deutsche Bank prompted investors to cash in recent gains on banking stocks. Deutsche Bank fell by 5.4% after a drop in fixed income trading revenues restructuring costs, and also warning about a challenging 2014. Credit Suisse fell 2.5% and Commerzbank lost 4.5%. The STOXX 600 Banking index lost 1% but was still up 5.5% so far this year. The FTSEurofirst 300 index fell by 0.1% with the UK FTSE up by 0.1% and the ...

A New York display along East Houston is generating buzz in the fashion industry because of three mannequins. It is not so much the white undergarments donned by the models that are the cause of the talk, but the fact that the mannequins have unshaved pubic hair sticking out of the undies.

While Australian consumer may not throw a fit when their clothes does not fit like what that Indian actress did, buyers deserve better treatment, said Ed Gribbin, president of Alvanon, a clothing size and fit consultancy.

Beijing will have a more cleaner-burning source of energy with the purchase by the China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) of the 25 per cent stage in one of Africa's largest uranium mines. CNNC bought the shares of the Langer Heinrich operations in Namibia for $190 million from Australian uranium producer Paladin Energy on Monday.

The Australian share market finished in the red today, but importantly closed well off earlier lows following better than expected Chinese economic growth figures. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) hit a low of 5237.7 points during trade before closing down just 8.8 points to 5307.6.

Three weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pounced on critics, particularly American critics opposed to his country's anti-gay laws. He specifically told them to look at themselves in the mirror first before throwing tantrums and verbal shenanigans against Russia.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), embattled operator of crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, has detected a new radiation contaminated water leak at the plant's No. 3 reactor building.