BUSINESS

The strong Australian currency is taking its toll on the country's aluminium smelter sector with another plant facing the threat of closure due to high production cost and weak global prices. Mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) warned it may shutter its Bell Bay smelter which may cause the loss of 600 jobs.

Long-haul pilots of Qantas have promised no strikes if the union would succeed in its appeal on Fair Work Australia's (FWA) ruling a few months ago to prohibit industrial action. The union will file its case against the FWA termination of the pilots' industrial action before the Federal Court in Sydney.

Unibic, the maker of Australia’s iconic ANZAC biscuits, has been placed in voluntary administration.

Apple and Samsung scored victories against each other before a German court on Friday but the two tussling tech titans also saw legal setbacks hampering their efforts to assert dominance in the ever-growing global mobile device market.

Commodity prices eased last week, despite more concerns about Iran and Israel.

Economics dominates the week here and offshore, with important data releases in several countries, central bank meetings, the rising price of oil worrying markets and towards the end, the monthly flow of economic data from China.

A breather for global markets at the end of a week when the Greek bailout edged towards finalisation, European leaders said nice things to each other about the economy and oil prices continued to worry investors.

By Jason Jenkins, Investment U ResearchPeople in the market will do anything to gain an upper hand in investing.

A report commissioned by Transport Minister Anthony Albanese in 2009 pushed for the construction of a second airport in Sydney due to the anticipated increase of air traffic.

Microsoft Corp. released a consumer preview of its next generation operating system Windows 8 on Wednesday and early reviews about the software have been largely positive.

Nokia, the Finland-based mobile manufacturer, recently went full force during the Mobile World Congress 2012 as it unveiled some of their newest smartphones. Included in the list is Nokia Lumia 900, the company's first Windows phone.

Activision Blizzard Inc. maker of World of Warcraft announced Wednesday that it would cut 600 employees from departments not related to its game development teams.

Samsung Electronics, one of the biggest names in the smartphone industry recently launched their newest smartphone called the Samsing Galaxy S WiFi 4.2. The Korean-based firm unveiled this new device during the Mobile World Congress 2012.

There are many news reports that are circulating around the web regarding the pending release of Apple's iPad 3. Ever since the "official invitation" has been sent out to the press, several news reports indicate that the target release date will be a go while other news reports are saying that a delay in the release date should be expected.

This week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 impressed tablet aficionados -- quad core processors, superb displays even when exposed to sunlight, tablets that are as compact as smartphones, stylus that enhances the devices' functionality.

The Malaysian bank CIMB signed on Thursday night a memorandum of agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for the purchase of the RBS's Australian equity market operations. The operations cover 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region including Australia, Japan and Korea.

Forget the rate cut talk ahead of next Tuesday's March Reserve Bank Board meeting, this week's flow of data shows the economy is right where the RBA wants it to be, warm, but not too hot.

AMP Capital investors Chief Economist, Dr Shane Oliver assesses the return of high oil and petrol prices.

As expected, Woolworths' interim profit was hit by the $300 million charge to cover the cost of restructuring and selling the Dick Smith chain of consumer electrical stores, but the trading result wasn't too hot either.

Recently we were talking to someone who wishes to remain anonymous who say they invested more than $250,000 in their commercial aquaponics business and it wasn’t working to plan.

Stocks rebounded from the biggest decline in two weeks, rising after a strong reading on weekly U.S. jobless claims. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 32 points, or 0.3%, to 13032, in Thursday afternoon trading.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 23 points or 0.2% while the S&P gained 0.6% to 1374 and the Nasdaq added 0.

The federal government of Australia announced on Tuesday night the sudden end to the $320-million solar hot water programme. The decision was part of the Gillard government's major revamp of its subsidy programmes.

Engineering firm WolreyParsons complained Thursday on the slow payment by large Australian mining and energy firms despite the resources boom in the country. WorleyParsons Chief Executive John Grill said the situation is squeezing its margin and delaying projects.

Apple's market capitalization traded past $500 billion yesterday, and its cult products like the iPad or iPhone sell for almost a thousand a pop. In shocking comparison, do you know how much an average Apple factory worker earns?

Stealing company money is the top white collar crime in Australian companies, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) survey released on Thursday said. Almost 50 per cent of Aussie firms reported at least one incident of white collar crime in the past 12 months.

Volkswagen in the UK has for the first time, released photographs of the Golf GTI Cabriolet that will be unveiled next week at the Geneva Motor Show.

A week before its expected launch of the very much anticipated iPad 3, Apple fuelled enough investors' excitement and saw its shares soaring thereby pushing its total market capitalisation beyond the $500 billion mark.

The Australian manufacturing industry appears to be stabilising in the past two months despite the lingering effects of a rising local currency in the sector, according to the latest Australian Industry Group/PriceWaterhouseCoopers Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).