BUSINESS

Anxiety over the possible spillover to humans of the bird flu strain H7N9 grew larger after a study noted that pigs that caught the flu were likewise growing in numbers.

Despite a growing number of deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there was no need yet to impose a travel ban to Saudi Arabia in light of the new SARS-like novel coronavirus now gripping the country.

The Australian market is rising thanks to a better than expected Chinese trade surplus and US shares closing at record highs. The All Ordinaries index (XAO) is up 0.7 per cent or 35.8 pts to 5,158.5. A US$18.16bn trade surplus in China at 11.49am (AEST) pushed local shares slightly higher initially while the Australian dollar recorded a more obvious rise to US101.9 cents.

By Bo Becker and Victoria IvashinaFixed-income investors that have targets based on imperfect risk measures are tempted to take on additional risk to raise their portfolio yields.

Out of the blue, Paul Walsh, successful chief executive officer at Diageo Plc, informed that he would retire after successful and fruitful 13 years managing the drinks giant. As it was made public, he would be succeeded by Diageo COO Ivan Menezes.

Sony unveiled on Wednesday a $549 laptop, indicating a shift in pricing strategy for the electronic giant. The Japanese firm introduced the Vaio Fit, a 14-inch laptop that is thin, light and has aluminium body.

After all, the rate of UK shop price inflation slumped significantly in April, reaching its lowest level in more than three years. The slump in UK shop price inflation was mainly driven by countless promotions and dropping commodity prices. Indeed, UK retailers have been doing whatever it takes, including price cuts, to lure customers to their stores.

Microsoft has sold over 100 million copies of Windows 8 since it started to ship the new operating system six months ago on Oct 26, 2012. The information, reverses previous observation that the new OS was not moving in store shelves as fast as the manufacturer and industry expected it despite the operating system being designed primarily for touch command.

They are not called Virgin employees for nothing. Female attendants of Virgin Train are protesting the new uniform of the transport form because the blouses are too short and so flimsy.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 87 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P gained 0.5% to 1625 and the Nasdaq added 0.

In a big turnaround from their previous decision, four of the biggest Australian banks said on Tuesday that they will pass in full the 25 basis points overnight cash rate made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on the same day.

Because of its low prices that attracted American consumers who were still reeling from the prolonged recession, Wal-Mart Stores regained the number 1 ranking in the Fortune 500 list for 2012.

- RBA saw need to support economy- Economists predict more cuts will be required- Westpac and Macquarie see a 2% cash rate aheadBy Greg PeelIs the Reserve Bank of Australia "behind the curve"?In its April monetary policy statement, the RBA suggested "Global growth is forecast to be a little below av...

The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) somewhat surprise decision to cut rates for the first time this calendar year helped reduce market weakness. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipped by just 0.2 per cent or 11 pts to 5,122.7. At around 2.45pm (AEST), the ASX200 index was up by 0.2 per cent while the Australian dollar hit a low of US101.7 cents just before 3pm (AEST).

Xbox 360 rocked the console sales in the Western worlds and the upcoming Xbox 720 is soon to be unveiled in an event at Redmond, Washington headquarters. Xbox 720 will also gain exclusivity of Call of Duty: Ghosts once the console is launched.

Maxis announced the release of the upcoming Sims 4 in 2014 which will be applied on both Mac and Windows computers. Sims 4 has promising new and intuitive tools which players can use to connect with their Sims.

You need to get out of the house to do important errands, but you're highly worrisome that some burglar will barge into your home right at the moment you are not there to defend it. Fret not with Presence, an app specifically created to monitor the domestic ongoing activity right in your home.

T-Mobile finally released the long awaited update for the HTC One S featuring Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Google Now and Project Butter. The network carrier silently released the new update and expected to reach all owners eventually.

Google-owned video streaming giant YouTube will now be charging avid users of its video sharing services $1.99 a month to view the videos at over 50 popular specialized premium channels.

After a flat start, sellers have moved in to the Australian share market at lunch, sending the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down by almost half a per cent.

Because the bird flu strain H7N9 that has claimed 27 lives in China has yet to be confirmed that it can be transferred from human to human, health experts said it won't become pandemic. Well, at least not yet or not at least 10 years from now.

Two fast growing economies, China and India, saw their services PMI slump significantly in April. Certainly, it is not good news as indeed these two countries with other Asian nations have been driving the growth of the global economy - nothing to sneeze at. The findings by HSBC Holdings show, however, that India and China will face more challenges on their growth road.

To combat fake online pharmacies selling Viagra, Pfizer launches its own website to sell directly to its customers

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportJust when many Australian investors ? and in all likelihood many of our SMSF subscribers ? are thinking BHP Billiton ((BHP)) must be looking like a buy, one expert for my TV show and this newsletter, Roger Montgomery suggested that the share price could fall int...

There were 70 super rich Australians who earned in 2010-11 at least $1 million each but did not pay income taxes in 2012. Among the 70, their total earnings reached $194 million but because of tax reduction strategies used by their accountants, they reduced their total taxable income to $20,000 each.

By Andrew NelsonApril was a funny old month for uranium. After a couple of mostly flat months in February and March, uranium prices dropped through most of April.

WiiKey is a mod ship developer claims to have reversed the engineering of Wii U's disk encryption and making the game console possible to play "backed up" copies of games using a USB drive. Another group claims to have ripped the Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth game disc and now being distributed online.

Speculations are circulating that Microsoft will soon release in the market a smaller and cheaper Surface tablet.

Acer introduced to the public over the weekend the Aspire R7, a convertible all-in-one laptop with a display that can move around in different ways through a new Ezel hinge.