BUSINESS

The euphoria surrounding the US Federal Reserve's latest efforts to stimulate the global economy continued to impress local investors today. US and European markets rallied on Friday, with the Dow Jones Index and S&P 500 both hitting highs not seen since December 2007. Japanese markets were closed today for a public holiday, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell into the red. By close, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) edged higher by 11.6pts or 0.3pct to 4421.8, its highest level since...

While Australians prefer home-grown food over imported ones, the case is not true for furniture, health and beauty items, clothes, hardware and household appliances which Aussies prefer to buy imported ones due to lower cost and better value.

The infamous Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, are now engaged into the social networking business following their legal battles with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, leaving the two $US65 million richer.

he Australian market opened a little weaker than expected today The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose by 10 points but by lunchtime it had lost a bit of ground and was only up 8 points to 4,418 points.

PepsiCo Inc. informed on Tuesday that its president, John Compton, resigned from the post to run a large privately held company in the state of Tennessee, Pilot Flying J Oil Corp. John Compton's resignation comes as a surprise after less than a year on the job. Zein Abdalla has been appointed John Compton's successor.

Microsoft’s upcoming Surface tablets will directly challenge iPad’s dominance, according to company chief executive Steve Ballmer, stressing too that the device and Windows 8 will lead to “epic year for Microsoft.”

One of the longest-running myths in financial markets is going to damage a lot of portfolios: the myth that central bank money printing - in the context of a modern banking system - hikes the value of stocks.

There's a movie about a zombie apocalypse where fireworks are used to distract the zombies. While their yellow eyes are peeled to the sky, scroungers go looking for food outside the safety of the walls. The violent zombies are so absorbed by the fireworks they let people walk right past them. Think of it as stimulus.

Australia's leading residential builders and developers have jumped on board a new web-based house and land matching service houseandland.com.au

In a bid to boost the state economy, New South Wales Resources Minister Chris Hartcher said on Saturday that NSW is open to uranium exploration. Besides announcing the state policy, Mr Hartcher moved one step ahead by seeking expressions of interest in licences.

Do university graduates have an advantage during an economic downturn?

How QE Favours the Rich

If you need any further evidence that the bulk commodity bubble has burst all over the place, look no further than the actions of the Queensland government. These bozos announced their budget on Tuesday, ratcheting up the royalties on coal production.

We're back in the City of Lights, Fellow Reckoner, La Ville-Lumière. The hot and dusty Medina of Marrakech is behind us. So too the coastline of Portugal and the cities of Seville and Madrid. But what is ahead...for Europe...for the world?

The Australian sharemarket improved strongly today following the U.S central bank's decision to stimulate the American economy. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose by 1.2 pct or 50.4 pts to 4410.2. Thanks to today's improvements, the XAO is around 1.4 pct stronger today than this time last week and has had its best single day of trade since 27 July.

Spanish house prices continue to slide, as the economy slumps deeper into recession mainly due to weak demand and stringent austerity measures.

Ford Motor Company, in a bid to lessen its dependency on the precious rare earths metals, has moved to come up with a new line of automobiles that run on new lithium-ion batteries instead of the nickel-metal-hydride batteries.

Weight Watchers, the international diet programme, has endorsed a new line of diet wines from Australian producer McWilliams Wines.

Nintendo is gearing to morph itself as the premier fun-provider of households the world over as the Japanese firm unveiled on Thursday the new Wii U, touted as “the entertainment hub in the centre of the house.”

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) announced on Thursday that it awarded to NRW Holdings the contract to build the miner's Cape Lambert iron ore plant. The scope of construction work includes conveyor link earthworks, relocation of water pipelines and rail formation earthworks.

China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, currently two of the leading global telecommunication firms, have informed the U.S. Congress on Thursday that they were not willing tools at the disposal of Beijing to spy on other nations.

Overnight there was only one focus for the US markets, the outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting to decide on a new monetary policy. The market is hoping for additional stimulus and that is exactly what it got. The FOMC announced an open ended Quantitative Easing (QE) program focused on purchases up to US$40Billion worth of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBSs) a month. The program will commence tomorrow and can be increased with additional asset purchases if required to try an...

Apple did just the right thing in stretching the screen size of the new iPhone 5 to 4.0 inches and deploying much-faster cellular connectivity with the gadget, which rolls out beginning Sept 21, a new report said.

Microsoft has unmasked a new malware that reportedly operates from a Chinese domain and spreads through freshly-unboxed PCs that were exclusively assembled by a computer manufacturer, also in China.

Three unions at BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) rejected on Thursday the latest workplace agreement offered by the giant miner. The unions want changes to the offer before they submit the deal for a vote to their 3,000 members assigned at BHP's coking coal mines in northeastern Australia.

Iranian oil tankers have been unloading millions of barrels of oil near a small port island just off the East Malaysian coast.

U.S. fast food giant McDonald's Corp will begin posting calorie information for its entire menu at U.S. stores starting from next week.

By Rudi Filapek-VandyckThe Dow Jones industrial average jumped 207 points, or 1.6%, to 13,539.86, while the Nasdaq rose 1.

The Australian sharemarket lost a little ground for the second time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) easing by 0.5 pct or 23.3 pts to 4359.8. Despite the pullback, investors seemed uninterested with equities as there was only $3.3 billion worth of shares that exchanged hands. This is around 30 pct less than last Thursday's trade volume. Yesterday, the XAO improved by 0.8 pct.