BUSINESS

Huawei quashed on Friday rumours that it would roll out the Ascend Mate Phablet or Ascend P2. Instead, it announced the launch of the Ascent G510, priced at £130.

Once again, confidence seedlings are taking root and sprouting. Overnight, weekly jobless claims reversed last week's awful print to beat estimates, falling by 18,000 claims to 342,000. This better-than-expected news was coupled with reports US retailers are experiencing stronger sales (ahead of the official numbers tonight), and allowed US retail shares to step onto the escalator.

In US economic news, new claims for unemployment insurance plunged by 42,000 to 346,000 in the latest week, well below forecasts centred on a result near 365,000. The March budget deficit was $107 billion, near forecasts of $112.5 billion. And export prices fell 0.4pct in March with import prices down 0.5pct.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 62 points, or 0.4%, while the S&P gained 0.4% to 1593 and the Nasdaq added 0.

South Korean tech giant Samsung announced on Thursday the release of two versions of a new phone line, the Galaxy Mega. The smartphone, which features one with a 6.3-inch touchscreen and other with a 5.8-inch display, will initially be sold in Europe in May.

Australian shares advanced today, following record highs recorded overnight on the US Dow Jones and S&P 500 Indices.

The Australian market has completely made up for yesterday's modest falls at lunch. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up by around 0.5 per cent. Today was the first time since the start of April that the XAO cracked through he psychologically important 5000.0 point mark.

BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) found a significant amount of copper at Succoth, an isolated outback in West Australia. The discovery is sufficient to open the area for more resource development.

The Australian Dollar has found renewed strength again hitting highs well above USD 1.0500 with the AUD trade-weighted index hitting its highest level in 28 years yesterday.

Risk assets extended their gains with US markets closing at fresh closing highs. There were several factors at play yesterday, but the move in risk was certainly triggered by some positive developments in Europe. The major European bourses traded sharply higher on hopes that Italy is closer to forming a government, and a successful Italian bond auction. The Fed minutes didn't have too much of an impact on sentiment, as investors feel the recent signs of strain in the US labour market will be ...

China's financial centre Shanghai has confirmed it will start its carbon emissions trading this coming month of June. Although no specific date was provided, it made sure the system will be up and running before the month ends.

Besides seizing deposits from account holders of the Popular Bank of Cyprus, Nicosia will also sell the bulk of its gold holdings as its contribution to the international bailout. The sale, which comes at a time that gold prices are down, aims to raise €400 million.

The global app market continued to expand at an impressive rate of 11 per cent for the first three months of 2013. Market analyst firm Canalys, in a new study released this week, said the top 4 app stores logged 13.4 billion downloads for the period.

In US economic news, the FOMC minutes from the March 19/20th meeting were released. Some FOMC members still believed that asset purchases should be tapered later in the year and stopped by year end. But of course the FOMC meeting took place in March before evidence of softening momentum in the US economy started to emerge. We continue to believe that the bond buying program will run into early 2014 at the very least.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 128 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P hit blue sky at 1587, up 1.2% as the Nasdaq shot up 1.

The local share market closed slightly lower today, dragged down by financial players and spite gains on Wall Street overnight.

For as long as your internet is connected to servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff, you can pretty well imagine Shodan has seen its content and presumably accessed it. Suffice to say, the Internet technology has gone creepier by the minute.

The Australian sharemarket is slipping for the first time in three sessions, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 0.2 per cent to 4969.2. Both the ASX200 index and the All Ords are very close to cracking through the psychologically important 5000.0pt level. The indices haven't closed above that level in almost a month.

Cancer has become the leading cause of deaths in China's Beijing, and by 2020, from 2.5 million annually, the cancer-related deaths in the world's second-largest economy will balloon to 3 million per year.

According to the newest survey, the Asian Development Bank expects Asia's emerging economies to witness a weak recovery in 2013. However, the Manila-based bank underlined that the expected rebound might be challenged by several risks, including the ongoing crisis in the European Union, the so-called US fiscal shock and the reemergence of the nationalism in Asia itself.

Newest data showed that the Ford Motor Co.'s Focus model had beaten its rivals in 2012 global car sales. The Focus model became the world's best-selling car due to sharply increasing demand in China. The findings of the survey by R.L. Polk & Co. indicated that three models of Ford Motor Co. were in the world's top six.

- China housing to gain traction- Japan to advance (for now) on new policies- India going nowhere fast- More, minor, US improvementBy Andrew NelsonIt's been a busy few months in Europe, in Asia and in many of the lands between, but newsflow, not dataflow has been holding most of the attention.

The Australian dollar has opened higher, as a fresh bout of US dollar weakness and firmer commodities prices pushed the local currency towards USD 105.00.

You think you got lucky plucking out those giant, supersized crabs from the ocean. Think again. Those oh-so-delicious crabs didn't get to that size because they were healthy. They got big thanks to the carbon dioxide (CO2) and other toxic emissions that come out of the world's too many power plants, factories and vehicles that settle in the ocean.

They don't make them like they used to. Margaret Thatcher died yesterday aged 87. As Prime Minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990 she transformed the British economy and reasserted her country as a major global power. She did this by loosening the State's grip on the British economy, which by the time she took power had degenerated into the 'Winter of Discontent'.

On Friday, we learned that the US economy added just 88,000 jobs in March against expectations of a 200,000 gain. Previous months' jobs numbers were upwardly revised, tempering some concerns, but taken at face value it was not a good number.

Remember that 1980s commercial of a famous shampoo brand? Owners of iPhone units could similarly have their Gee, your phone smells terrific moment by selecting from six scented skins available in the market. With price ranging from $7 to $60, these phone covers may even new doors of friendship, or even a possible romance, if strangers around you would smell the mouth-watering waft coming from your Apple smartphone

The UK North Sea gets another lift as Xcite Energy Ltd has informed that its Bentley field is rich in oil, according to the newest estimates. To top it all, the Bentley bed is estimated to be one of the largest heavy oil fields in the United Kingdom. The news awoke investors' hopes, while shares of the company climbed as much as 12 percent on the report.

West Australia's Anthony Giacoppo will be looking to utilise home-state advantage when the 2013 Subaru National Road Series (NRS) gets underway with the Woodside Tour de Perth (WA) on April 11.