BUSINESS

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 upcoming iOS gadget releases – from the iPhone 5S to the second-generation iPad Mini – doesn’t excite Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. He is simply convinced that without Steve Jobs, the horizon is bleak for Apple.

Canada's Capital District Health Authority in the province of Nova Scotia is about to get enmeshed in a potentially disruptive legal landmark case. A woman from Halifax is about to press charges against the health service provider after losing her breast due to a sickening hospital records mix-up.

A woman working as a poultry slaughtering worker in Boluo country in Southern China's Guangdong province has contracted the dreaded H7N9 avian influenza, prompting authorities to confirm the virus can be transmitted to humans.

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

Everything seems in order as we kick off another week of reckoning. Japan's national debt just exceeded 1 quadrillion yen for the first time as everyone celebrates the success of 'Abenomics'.

How times have changed. The front page of the Australian Financial Review says the 'RBA 'risks' house price bubble' now that it has pushed rates to a record low. They've got it wrong of course, on two counts.

The priciest house in Australia has a $60 million price tag.

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.

Just a few weeks ago, BlackBerry Chief Executive Thorsten Heins forecast the death of the popular tablet as he pushed for the newly launched smartphone models Q10 and Z10.

Kim Jong Eun was reportedly launching North Korea’s own version of a smartphone designed after Apple's iPhone and Google's Android OS.

Greece earned a surplus instead of a deficit, which is a good news for the European Union.

Official data to be released on Wednesday will confirm that the eurozone will soon exit the longest recession that dragged its economy for about 18 months or six quarters. The Telegraph said a 0.2 per cent gross domestic product growth rate is expected to be reported.

Despite being launched just a few weeks back, Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Air has been noticed by tech experts and the device was named by Web site StatesChronicle.com as the Best Laptop Overall for 2013.

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 only funnier paragraph we've read recently was the preceding one: 'Australia will post a budget deficit of $30.1 billion for the fiscal year, a gross miscalculation from its May estimate of $18 billion, but the government promises to stay on track.'

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.

Workers of the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have alleged its operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have been lying about the true state of meltdown crisis in the facility.

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.