BUSINESS

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaAt its final meeting for calendar 2013, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has sliced off a further 25bp to bring the official cash rate down to 3.

Not for the first time, Monday bore witness to one of those perverse circumstances where stocks rise in response to weaker economic news. The last week in the US was defined by a lack of progress in relation to the fiscal cliff, although Republicans and Democrats expressed confidence that the matter would be resolved in a timely fashion. Weekend developments in Washington saw an opening gambit being made by the Democrats, which was summarily dismissed by the Republicans. 'The game' has beg...

Spurred by budget cuts, the state government of South Australia is mulling to terminate 105 jobs across its non-hospital health services as a result of budget streamlining measures.

The new super-thin 21.5-inch iMac is quite a view and getting inside the new Apple desktop is most definitely an engineering marvel, as proved by the latest discovery of teardown specialist iFixit.

On the 30th of November, the ministry of statistics informed that India saw GDP growth slow to 5.3 percent in the quarter ended in September. The economy of India slowed more than analysts initially expected. It is likely that the Asia's third economy is to see its worst year in a decade as analysts underline the importance of implementing difficult reforms that could revive the economy of India.

Is it laughable, or lamentable? The market, that is. In the past few years, it has become a joke...a tool of manipulation, an unreliable source of information. Despite the outperformance of the US equity markets this year, ordinary investors (presumably people with savings they would like to invest in productive and attractive businesses) are not interested.

Australian patients and their caretakers better start getting used to having some of their hospital requirements served by an automatic guided vehicle (AGV), with the Royal North Shore Hospital in New South Wales the very first to engage the modern technology.

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA) has called on the national government to standardise the prevailing regulations of the airline industry's carry-on luggage to ensure the safety of both flight attendants and airline travellers, as well as prevent undue delays brought about luggage traffic on departing flights.

The state government of Queensland has finally approved to push through with the closures and sale of some 13 empty TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Campuses, while another 12 are being planned to be combined the Central Queensland Institute of TAFE and the Central Queensland University.

The Australian sharemarket is kicking off the new trading week in positive fashion, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.5 per cent or 22.3 pts to 4540.3. This adds to last week's 2 per cent rise; the local market's second straight week of gains.

Behold a new damage assessment from the credit crisis: The net worth of the median American household plunged 47% from 2007-2010.

So we've decided to chronicle our attempt to join an Aussie Rules football team. The Daily Reckoning seems like as good a place as any to do this for your amusement. Thrilling, right?

Yesterday we discussed credit and credibility. Today we want to explore how this relates to currencies.

What’s so sexy about the new Lumia 920? Nokia chief designer Marko Ahtisaari points to the Windows smartphone’s natural ability to fuse what is both physical and digital, creating an advance device that remains in touch with being ‘human and organic’.

William Knox D’Arcy: The Greatest Australian You’ve Never Heard Of

While our political leaders push, shove and bicker like stupid kids in a playground, signs of a weakening economy continue to mount. Yesterday, Rio Tinto told investors it plans to slash $5 billion in costs by 2014. Mining services companies duly suffered more share price falls.

On the 30th of November, Osram informed that it would downsize another 4.700 jobs as well as sell its plants to better compete with Asian rivals. The job cuts at Osram will help the company save approximately €1 billion ($1.3 billion) and improve profitability as the market for traditional light bulbs shrinks significantly. Earlier this week Siemens AG announced to spin off Osram.

A report by Malaysian daily The Star on Sunday said that the country logged 24 cases of electronic hacking involving RM3.3 million in losses. The hacking of smartphones took place between January and September 2012. The reports highlights the vulnerability of smartphones to cyber hacking and other malicious threats through the mobile phones' short messaging service (SMS) which is celebrating 20 years of use on Dec 3, Monday.

- JBH needs to boost flagging revenues- Plans to trial home appliance expansion- Not what analysts had in mind- Scepticism reignsBy Greg PeelHands up who remembers Brashs? In the 1980s Brashs became the iconic, large chain, go-to music store during the vinyl-to-CD transition, as well as selling "bro...

Several smartphone units are now capable of controlling other devices such as TVs, cable boxes and Blu Ray disc players. Usually, smartphones have built-in applications to perform such a task, but in some cases, applications can fill in and only require wireless connection to execute the task.

South Korean technology giant Samsung will release the world's first flexible smartphones in 2013, BBC reports. However, Samsung has yet to officially confirm if the new technology would be on the next Galaxy S or Galaxy Note smartphone or if it will roll out a new line of Galaxy Flexible smartphones.

Australian Resource Minister Martin Ferguson and Queensland Premier Campbell Newman are in India to sign a $10-billion agreement with the Indian company, The Adani Group, to develop a coal mining project in the Galilee basin.

Twenty years ago, 22-year-old British engineer Neil Papworth sent the message "Merry Christmas" to an Orbitel 901 mobile phone from his office computer. It was the world's first text message and since then the number of people who use the short messaging service on their cell phones had grown to 4 billion.

Sixteen Chinese miners were trapped on Saturday after a coal mine in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province in northeast China was flooded. The 16 are among 22 miners deployed by the Furuixiang Coal Company.

America succeeded largely because it was a single, centralised nation... one of the largest, richest landmasses in the world... populated by one people. No trade barriers kept the Indianans from selling to the Texans.

Archibald Colquhoun returned from a trip to Myanmar (Burma) enthusiastic about the opportunities in the country. He wrote a book about it all: Burma and the Burmans: Or, 'The Best Unopened Market in the World'.

On the 29th of November, Japan's industrial companies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Hitachi Ltd informed that they had reached a basic agreement to merge their thermal power units as they try to compete against global giants, including Siemens and General Electric.

On the 29th of November, Kingfisher Plc posted its third-quarter profit. According to a statement, the Europe's largest home-improvement retailer saw a 6 percent drop in the period ended October 27 as sales declined in its main markets in France and the UK, not to mention that the company's results were affected by unfavorable foreign exchange movements as well.

As the trading week wound down, regional markets were generally set to finish in positive territory. Notwithstanding various economic data points being released over the last 5 days, the overwhelming influence on market sentiment came from headlines related to political developments on the US fiscal Cliff. On that score the last 24 hours has yielded more optimism that US politicians will be resolve this critical matter in a timely fashion. They have 32 day left in which to deliver.