BUSINESS

Three weeks after and more than 1,000 lives lost, Bangladesh's more than three million garments workers scored a victory when major international clothing retailers such as Zara and H&M, among others, agreed to fund safety upgrades in the country's factories where they source their products.

Google's continuous introduction of several revenue sourcing ideas bodes well for the company's valued shareholders. Already analysts are predicting a thousand dollars per share by next year and are advising to buy in now while stocks are still relatively low.

By Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment StrategistIn Friday's column, I laid out what I believe is the greatest threat facing financial markets today: the propensity of national governments to tax, spend and regulate too much.

By Andrew NelsonThe spot uranium market crawled along last week, with a handful of trades and a fairly small amount of product changing hands.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 26 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P closed flat at 1633 and the Nasdaq was also as good as flat.

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, just added more money to her wealth. On Friday, she and another female billionaire were awarded $200 million after they won a lawsuit against Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO).

The Australian share market closed only slightly higher on Monday, despite strong gains offshore on Friday night which saw European markets reach five year highs and US markets close at record highs.

Apple has recorded a modest 6.7 growth for the first quarter of 2013 making it the lowest ever level since the iPhone's introduction in 2007. Of the total 216 million global shipments made during the period, 76.6 percent was accounted to Android devices of which Samsung is reportedly the market's top manufacturer.

The death toll due to the new SARS-like coronavirus has reached 15 lives in Saudi Arabia. France, on the other hand, has reported its second infection which was believed to have contracted through human-to-human transmission.

It took factories to collapse and more than 1,000 lives dead before Bangladesh even considered hiking the minimum wage pay of its more than three million garment workers. Too late a hero, skeptics said.

The Australian sharemarket is flat after a slightly weaker start this morning. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down by just 0.3pts to 5,190.8. A fall in the business conditions survey reading has been keeping stocks subdued. Last week however, the local market rose by around 1.68 per cent, making it three straight weeks of improvements.

In few more days the Google I/O event will take place and leaks about Android 4.3 Jelly Bean keeps spilling as it kicks out Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie from the picture while the next generation Nexus 7 2 reveals Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and Snapdragon processor with possible debut in the upcoming event.

With just two days to go before Google's I/O developers' conference opens on Wednesday, May 15, all indicators point to a longer wait for Key Lim Pie OS would-be fans.

Aftershocks continued to rattle the communities and residents of Iran's Bashagard City following the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off Saturday, killing one child and injuring at least 20 others.

SPX500 Forecast To Trade To Record PeaksBy David Rodriguez, Quantitative StrategistSPX500 ?Retail CFD speculators are now their most short the SPX500 contract on record, and we see little choice but to take a contrarian bias to crowd sentiment and calls for fresh SPX500 highs.

Sony announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for Xperia S, Xperia P and Xperia Go rolling out to owners of the three handsets. The update includes several bug fixes and system improvements plus new features from the Android Jelly Bean version. Unfortunately, Xperia S, P, and Go will not go on to Android 4.2 which means their life cycle has finally ended.

Zoom lens in cameras used to be the domain of digicams, not mobile phones. A Russian Web site said over the weekend that South Korean tech firm Samsung is set to release a smartphone with a 10x optical zoom lens.

Guide: The FNArena database tabulates the views of eight major Australian and international stock brokers: BA-Merrill Lynch, CIMB, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Macquarie and UBS.

Apple's stock price has seen a dramatic drop since its all-time high in September 2012.. Some analysts attribute this to a saturated market as Apple has been unable to successfully tap the giant Asian smartphone market where Apple could be losing billions of potential mobile phone users.

Friday's session largely boiled down to a tug of war between the resources and banks. As has been the case all week the miners won and financials underperformed. At face value Friday's performance appears underwhelming. The ASX200 finished with a gain of almost 8 points, having squandered an early lead of 44 points at its best levels which were seen in late morning trade. Investors appeared happy for some book squaring ahead of the weekend after the market gained 1.7% in the last 5 days.

The Android-based gaming console Ouya delays launching date from June 4 to June 25. High demands for the gaming console served as main reason of its delay. Once it's released, expect Android games and stream video services to be loaded right on your big-screen TV.

The main talking point in the early part of Asian trade has been the sharp rally in the US dollar as the Wall Street day was winding down. Many unilluminating rationalisations for the move have been offered, most of them turning around the US Fed's mindset towards quantitative easing. The better reading overnight in relation to the number of US unemployed claiming benefits was seen as adding credence to this view.

Nokia announced the new software update is now rolling out to owners of Lumia 900. The company finally released the Windows 7.8 OS for handset owners which now boast several system improvements and features.

Countries located in the Northern Hemisphere may well heave a sigh of relief as weather forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Thursday the weather phenomenon twins El Niño and La Niña are less likely to develop through the late summer and towards the winter.

After its initial successful foray into gadgets with the tablet Kindle, ecommerce site Amazon is joining the smartphone battle by coming out with two handheld devices.

What a strange world it is where global capital flees persecution by global central banks into the safety of the high priced Dow and the S&P500. Overnight, we saw another record high in the US indexes. As Dan Denning has been saying, we're in for a global melt-up in the big blue chips as capital seeks a refuge at the 'core' of the financial system.

A mood of prophecy, perhaps brought on by a large helping of osso bucco from our local Italian restaurant, came over us last night. We looked into the future. And there we saw a grim world.

It's taken a while, but the RBA has joined the international currency war by cutting official interest rates to an all-time low. We're not sure whether it will have the desired effect or not. Chances are we'll need further interest rate cuts to really see the dollar fall to a point where it starts to relieve pressure on various dollar sensitive industries.

Tesla Motors Inc., the electric car manufacturer, has finally broken even, seeing surprisingly encouraging profits for the first quarter of 2013. This definitely has beaten expectations of poor sales which were widely expected.