BUSINESS

2012 December will be long remembered by luxury carmakers, including BMW AG, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and others, as they saw record luxury car sales in the U.S. market. BMW AG indeed preformed so good in the last month of the year as it saw an increase of approximately 39 percent for the period in the U.S., topping Mercedes-Benz in luxury car sales for 2012.

Transocean Ltd. agreed to pay as much as $1.4 billion to settle civil and criminal claims over Gulf oil spill in 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice informed on the 3rd of January. The offshore driller also conceded that its team was partly liable for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico.

Latest data showed a surprising drop in activity in the UK services sector. The visible decline in the services sector in December is the first decrease in about two years. The fall raises fears that the UK economy might enter triple-dip recession.

Mark Zuckerberg should better watch out. His potential successors are getting younger. One such chap even shares with him the same initials - ZM - which stands for Zachary Marks.

Patrick Dempsey's Global Baristas LLC informed that its bid for Seattle-based Tully's Coffee was accepted. Also Starbucks Corp. and Baristas Coffee Co. took part in a bankruptcy auction. The "McDreamy" Patrick Dempsey's company is to pay approximately $9.15 million for a small coffee chain.

HTC M7 will be unleashed first quarter of 2013 but it remains unclear if the smartphone will be previewed on this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas following conflicting reports that the gadget is slated for a Mobile World Congress debut in February.

Some of the excitement surrounding the U.S budget legislation seemed to die off today. The Australian sharemarket lost a little ground today for the first time this year after a strong start to 2013. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipped by just 0.4 per cent or 18.5 pts to 4742.9, however improved by over 1.2 per cent this week. Aussie shares are currently trading at 19-month highs, and Wednesday was the best start to a new year in over a decade.

Amidst her personal and legal battles, Gina Rinehart has raked in tremendous windfalls in the past two years that would largely support her stature as the world’s richest woman.

Samsung is allocating significant amounts of energy to Tizen in 2013, confirming reports that the Asian tech giant is planning device releases this year running on the Linux-based mobile operating system.

There's more to a hotel concierge's job in a busy tourist destination spot like Australia's Gold Coast than just booking car rentals or serving as a go-between for guests and the accommodation.

After a weak session on overseas market the Australian share market gave back yesterday's gains. At the open of trade the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) lost over 23 points with weakness in small and medium mining stocks and the energy sector. Markets in both China and Japan reopened for trade today will all market in the region now fully operational after the New Year's break.

The global hunt for that elusive Nexus 4 remains an equally exciting and frustrating prospect for fans wanting to enjoy the stock Android rendition on a powerful but affordable smartphone.

The Aussie’s strong rally since the ‘fiscal cliff’ was averted has come to an abrupt end on the back of the minutes from last month’s Fed meeting which has shown a split in how long the participants want to continue the current money printing programs.

It has been six months since the debut of Nexus 7 at the Google's annual developer conference and it is an attractive device especially for readers. Some users are confused if they still want to squint their eyes just to read through the smartphone and suffer a double $200 price tag or get a mini tablet or a bigger one from Samsung.

While the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) next week in Las Vegas is expected to show more cars and fewer electronic gadgets, techies nevertheless are anticipating the annual event.

The last minute U.S. budget deal may have spared millions of Americans the burden of higher taxes amid a weak economic climate.

With billions of dollars in her name, Gina Rinehart, Australia and the world's richest woman, attracts media attention whether she likes it or not. In 2012, she again hogged the limelight because of her court battles with her three estranged adult children, her views on wealth, corporate skirmishes and her oodles of money.

Japan's population shrank by an estimated 212,000 people in 2012, claimed the nation's Health Ministry on Monday, as concerns continue to mount the nation's rapidly aging population and low birth rates.

Even if the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut the overnight cash rate several times in 2012, bringing it down to a three-year low of 3 per cent, several sectors continue to clamor for more key lending rate reductions in 2013.

Yesterday, Dan promised to write more about lead and the deflationary prophecies of John Exter. I've muscled in on today's Daily Reckoning, and will be here tomorrow too, so make sure you read the weekend edition for Dan's follow up from yesterday.

Intuition was telling me something was going on these past few days (of 2012) in the gold market. Our investment team was watching gold and gold stocks take a tumble for no obvious reason.

The RBA's interest rate cuts don't seem to be working. It's a bit player in the global currency war, and Australia's economy will suffer the consequences. Manufacturing's woes are well known. But the RBA's move to ultra-low interest rates was supposed to perk up Australian house prices, and therefore the housing market.

On the 3rd of January, Starbucks Corp. informed that it would launch its first café in Vietnam in February 2013. The decision comes as the Seattle-based company is trying to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Australian sharemarket continues to rise, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up by 0.8 per cent or 38.5 pts to 4761.4. This adds to yesterday's 1.25 per cent improvement while the ASX 200 has cracked through the 4700 point level for the first time since July 2011. Since hitting a low in June last year, the local market has improved by almost 18 per cent. Markets in both China and Japan were closed today.

Its confidence partly boosted by the good showing so far of the Lumia 920, Nokia is aiming to break new grounds by jumping into the global tablet competition, currently the turf that follows the dictates of iOS and Android devices.

The second batch of Nexus 4 deliveries has reached their end destinations and many were elated that the choke on Google’s supply chain seems to be freeing up. But one gripe appears to be emerging – the ‘glitter effect’ on the phone’s back cover was nowhere to be found.

Yesterday the Australian share market started the first day of the 2013 trading year in positive territory up 58 points, its best start to a new year since 2001. Helped by the news that the US House of Representatives finally passed the Senate's 'fiscal cliff' bill this afternoon helping to keep the market positive.

When it's midnight and there's no one around to kiss, you take what you can get. Your editor has always employed this strategy on New Year's Eve.

On the 2nd of January, official data showed that Macau saw gambling revenue increase approximately 14 percent to about $38 billion in 2012. The figures also indicated that Macau casino revenue jumped as much as 20 percent in December, surprisingly topping analysts' estimates. The results support the Macau's title of the world's biggest gambling market.