BUSINESS

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 138 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P gained 0.6% to 1640 and the Nasdaq added 0.

By Greg PeelPerhaps the most surprising element of this month's RBA monetary policy statement is its brevity.

Sony finally announced the roll out of the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for their Xperia S, Xperia SL and Xperia Acro S. Owners can obtain the update via Over-the-Air process or via cable using a computer.

The weak performance from the manufacturing sector, falling job advertisements and slight inflation may just what the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) needs to cut interest rates even lower.

Sellers continued to make their presence felt in local trade on Monday ahead of a big week of economic news. The US will hold investor focus globally this week with several tier one data releases anticipated. The week will culminate with the main gauge of US employment, the Non-Farm Payroll report. Locally the menu is lighter by comparison although the RBA decision on Tuesday and the National Accounts data (GDP) on Wednesday will each have a significant bearing on investor sentiment.

Well if you didn't know that the mining boom had peaked, yesterday made it official. Capital spending fell 4.7% in the March quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The huge pipeline of resources investment has tapered off. If this is the case, one of the key supports of a strong Aussie dollar - big foreign capital flows for resource projects (especially LNG) - has been kicked out.

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of tech giant Apple Inc alongside Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, has described recent criticism of the company's taxes practices as "extremely warranted" and have called for big corporations to be treated the same as the "little guy", during a business conference in Northern Ireland on Thursday.

The Australian sharemarket has kicked off the session in the red, following a tough end to the week in global markets. The ASX 200 Index (XJO) is down 0.1 per cent; however things could have been worse following a 1.3 per cent slump across the US on Friday.

Here it comes after long talks, Thomas Cook Group Plc has announced that it reached a deal with GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) and its one step closer to have a new shining fleet. Its fleet renewal programme is part of the tour operator's turnaround strategy aimed at improving its dented performance.

Effective this month, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will be adding three flights into Australia, including Darwin, Perth, and Brisbane, bringing to five its total number of Philippine-Australia routes.

At last, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has set up new guidelines for drivers keen on self-driving cars. The move is a breakthrough as it is one of the first regulatory laws introduced by the agency with respect to autonomous vehicles.

A ray of hope emerged as the British Chambers of Commerce upgraded its UK growth forecast for the ongoing year, 2014 and 2015. But also the good news is that consumer confidence substantially climbed in May, according to a separate survey.

India embittered some analysts as the officials informed that the country saw its growth slump to the slowest pace in a decade. The government's measures did not work and the Asia's third economy visibly slowed down, adding to the alarming news on the India's economic conditions.

Not unexpectedly, Tesla Motors Inc. is gathering pace as it has just announced that it will expand its charging stations. The advancement is aimed at giving the owners of electric cars the possibility of having a coast-to-coast ride. But the electric car producer had also a small surprise for its fans.

Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside teased Moto X to be the first phone earning approval from leaders of Google according to the D11 conference interview. Motorola X is expected to be released later this year with new set of unique features to make it win against iPhone 5s, Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

- Falling AUD healthy for Aus Healthcare stocks- Brokers see steady rates as low as 0.96 near-term- CSL and ResMed to benefit most- Hedging limits upside for someBy Andrew NelsonOne Australian industry sector that is already enjoying the recent weakness in the AUD, at least in terms of positive fore...

The recent stock performance of Apple Inc. has left investors disappointed. The last six months saw the tech giant's share fell 22%. The company also suffered a double-digit loss this year. This happened even if S&P 500 rose to 15% during the same period. The loss reflects Apple's underperformance compared to last year's figures.

Economist Nouriel Roubini, in a fearless forecast on Project Syndicate, projected that the price of gold would likely plummet to about $1,000 before the end of 2015.

A study by Cisco found that 90 per cent of young people in Australia, or those under 30 years old, fear having no mobile phone. That fear is called nomophobia.

Microsoft is cutting prices of its Surface tablets in what is seen as the tech giant unloading its inventory to prepare for refreshing the Surface line.

Besides releasing in October 2013 the Moto X smartphone, Motorola Mobility's first handset since it was acquired by Google, the company is working on new methods that would make remembering passwords unnecessary.

May; A month which was charactarised by the US Federal Reserve signalling, tacitly or otherwise, that it was developing a strategy to exit its quantitative easing policy. The impact on the local market has been significant. The ASX200 has shed 4.7%, marking its worst decline in 12 months. Additionally there has been a precipitous decline in the Aussie dollar which has also dealt confidence a blow. The local unit has lost more than 7% in May.

Breon Nagy of Minessota becomes the first man in the world to have recorded a wedding proposal using the wearable computer Google Glass. Nagy proposed to his designer girlfriend Amanda Ingle in Leeds Castle in Kent, Britain.

HTC is rumoured gearing up to battle the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with HTC T6 featuring 5.9 inches of screen display and Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.

Up until just before lunch, the Australian market was improving for the third time this week. Global markets were up modestly overnight, with shares in the US up 0.1 per cent while the German market jumped by 0.8 per cent.

Clothing retail giant H&M has promised to invest more on healthy or plus size models for its advertising campaigns. The company admitted that they previously focused on too-thin models becoming irresponsible in the process. For a change, the company’s newest advertising campaigns will be about healthier bodies.

October 2013 is another special date should be mark to all gadget fans out there as iOS 7, iPhone 5s, Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie and LG Nexus 5 are expected to be launched on the same season.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI joined Twitter. Not because I am curious what this celebrity has to say about her kids, or to read that another one is waiting for a connecting flight, impatiently.

Investors are leaving the iron ore industry as price of the key steel-making ingredient went down anew to $112.90 per tonne. The 22 per cent cut in iron ore price from the average price of $145 per tonne in the March quarter would result in $18 billion losses for iron ore producers in Pilbara.