BUSINESS

Note from the Editor: Due to an error, a story was yesterday published on the FNArena website, titled "Lamp Going Out For Lynas?".

Higher demand from its Asian market has helped pushed sales of Prada Spa by as much as 37 per cent in the first six months of 2012.

Samsung is definitely riding high on the rousing success of its Galaxy smartphone lines following the June quarter but analysts were convinced that Apple will mount an incredible surge in late 2012 through much of 2013.

One giant PC maker has spoken – Microsoft’s decision to sell its own tablet line, the Surface, will surely damage the whole Windows ecosystem.

With most of the second-quarter central bank meetings and bank results reporting concluded, we are looking at a relatively slow week ahead.

By Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment StrategistThe Wall Street Journal made an interesting observation recently, "Treasury bonds are priced for the end of the world.

Retailer Harvey Norman warned on Monday of a 40 per cent decline in the company's profit due to hefty discounts. The firm estimated pre-tax profit for the year to June at $227 million, down from the previous financial year's $373 million.

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, has not given up her bid to gain a seat in Fairfax Media's board despite being rejected by the company. This time she has used a different tactic to gain a board seat by writing directly to retail investors.

By Andrew NelsonAccording to reports in The Australian over the weekend, BHP Billiton ((BHP)) is rumored to have told consultants it will be delaying its decision on the U$30bn the Olympic Dam expansion for at least two years.

Silver Lake Resources will purchase for $426 million another Western Australia gold miner, Integra Mining, in the process creating one of the country's largest producer of the yellow metal.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 21 points or 0.2% while the S&P gained 0.2% to 1394 and the Nasdaq added a more confident 0.

Local stocks had a strong start to the trading week, albeit on very low volumes as many traders took advantage of the NSW/ACT Bank Holiday. Positive jobs numbers out of the US helped boost sentiment while many also bought into stocks ahead of the upcoming reporting season, which starts tomorrow. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) added 49.9pts or 1.2pct by close to finish at a level of 4292.9.

Microsoft belatedly learned that ‘Metro’ has been prior registered to a different entity and therefore cannot be used with the tech giant’s marketing of the upcoming Windows 8, reports said.

Electronic Arts filed a lawsuit against Zynga, developer of viral Ville-brand social media games, for allegedly copying EA’s game “The Sims Social.”

The Australian share market has kick started the trading week on a positive note, thanks to strong jobs numbers out of the US on Friday. 163,000 jobs were created in the US economy in July, above expectations. The jobs numbers saw European shares hit a four month high on Friday night, while US stocks were also propelled. Locally, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 49.7pts or 1.2pct at lunchtime in the East to 4292.7pts.

An Ecuadorian court ordered on Sunday oil and gas giant Chevron to pay $19 billion fine for polluting the Amazon province of Sucumbios. Court Attorney Juan Pablo Saenz warned Chevron of oil embargoes if Chevron would not comply with the court fine.

By Marc Lichtenfeld, Investment U Senior AnalystThis weekend, I met the father of one of my daughter's friends.

The $3.15 billion writedowns in BHP Billiton's (ASX: BHP) shale gas and nickel operations which caused the firm's chief executive to forego his bonus may not be the last for the mining giant.

By Greg PeelAs recent FNArena articles on the subject of the rare earth metals space have noted, the global race to compete with China on rare earth element (REE) production has now come down to a mere handful of names including two stand-outs, and a big chunk of daylight to third.

Disappointment was the theme of the trading day, after European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi last night missed his opportunity to become Super Mario. Despite bold commentary late last week, the ECB took no firm action to inject more stimulus into the global economy. The ECB instead left its refi rate unchanged at 0.75pct, with the Bank of England also leaving rates on hold at 0.5pct. The disappointment caused US and European investors to sell out of equities last night and the same occurred h...

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said on Friday that its probe on the near-fatal engine breakdown of Qantas Airways’ QF2 over Bangkok, Thailand in October 2011 still faces a blank wall.

Visa had rolled out a transaction card and identification document for British children. Called VisaCitizenCard, the plastic money allows the loading of money in a prepaid card for use in daily transactions.

The Australian sharemarket is losing ground for the second time this week. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 1 pct or 42 pts to 4248.1. No sectors are escaping the selling, with the miners by far the biggest drag on trade.

Samsung is the new smartphone king, wrestling the title from Apple two quarters ago, but the American tech giant has so far remained the undisputed lord in the tablet computer market, according to the initial data provided on Thursday by research firm International Data Corp (IDC).

Effective October 28, Taiwan's China Airlines will increase its number of flights from New Zealand to Taipei via Sydney to four times a week.

Looks like the Australian 2012 Olympic team could be receiving a mind-blowing, hard-knock whipping once it gets back home. After six days of competition, the delegation has yet to add another gold to uplift its tarnished honor.

Facebook delivered some good news this week: its active users’ total roll is nearing the one billion mark, specifically some 955 million members worldwide as of the end of June 2012, in the process proving the wide-reach of the hugely popular social networking site.

On Yesterday’s Electric Avenue Show – I shared an insight into what I see as ‘The Way Forward For The Major Real Estate Portals’ + A FREE Tool for Real Estate Agents who are looking to Building Their Online Profile (newly released via one of the major portals).

According to the latest manufacturing data on China, the Chinese economy actually recovered slightly from last month, thanks to a renewed burst of bank lending and a directive from the top to fast track projects and 'build stuff'. But the devil is in the detail for China.