BUSINESS

The world's housing downturn is gathering momentum, according to the latest world-wide survey of house price indices prepared by the Global Property Guide.

Singapore-based palm oil producer Wilmar International has emerged as the latest company to get excited about one of the least attractive companies on the ASX, Goodman Fielder.

On the surface, building products maker Boral had a better December half year than it has in the last couple of years.

For Australia's largest insurer, QBE, 2011 is a year to forget with a 45% fall in full-year profit and a sharply lower dividend.

The debate over out-of-cycle interest rate increases by major Australian banks would likely be revived again when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) releases a report of Friday which would show the widening gap between standard home loan rates and the RBA overnight cash rate.

Ireland's economy is now slowly recovering, but its residential property market is still in deep trouble. In 2011, the national residential property price index plunged by 16.7% (-18.7% inflation-adjusted), based on data released by the Central Statistics Office.

With Europe in meltdown, is Poland an exception?

The Australian share market has started the day's trade on a positive note, after the US Dow Jones Index closed above the 13,000 point level overnight for the first time since May 2008. In early trade, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 27.7pts or 0.6pct to 4378.9.

Commonwealth Bank has restored the services of its ATMS and EFTPOS facilities after an outage at about 11 p.m. on Tuesday that affected its system across Australia. The cash machines and payment facilities were back online at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday although some cards continue to experience problems.

Sony Mobile Communications is now planning a new approach in hopes that they would once again be dominant in this new battlefield for smartphones. Their new approach involves marketing a suite of devices instead of focusing on one "big" product. The company already started working on this strategy in the on-going Mobile World Congress 2012.

US durable goods orders fell by 4.0pct in January, below expectations for a fall of 1pct. Excluding transport, orders fell by 3.2pct.

By Greg Peel"I would say that Greece would probably leave the euro, but Portugal might stay," said Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman this week, "It all depends on how things play out in the next two or three years".

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 23 points or 0.3% while the S&P gained 0.3% to 1372 and the Nasdaq added 0.

By Chris Tedder, Research Analyst FOREX.comOvernight, the shock announcement from Dublin that it would be holding a referendum on the Eurozone fiscal compact sent the euro plummeting.

The Mobile World Congress 2012 held in Barcelona, Spain, had a good start as more than 60,000 companies in the telecommunications industry gathered to showcase new technology to the market. One of the most talked about gadgets during the event was the new smartphones launched by different companies.

An all-new Mk7 Volkswagen Golf prototype has been spotted testing in winter conditions. This is the first time a three-door wearing the all-new body has been spotted.

Telstra, one of the biggest names in telecommunications in Australia recently teamed up with Samsung Electronics, a Korean-based firm in order to launch the first 4G tablet in Australia.

Lucy Lawless was among seven people arrested on Monday after having boarded on Friday an oil-drilling ship owned by Shell.

Besides using the Qantas labor row to its advantage, Virgin Australia aims to get a larger share of the corporate passenger market by offering premium lounges.

Samsung had a sobering admission this week: Apple is getting its way in the ever-expanding tablet market, with one company executive conceding at the ongoing Barcelona Mobile World Congress that the Galaxy Tab product lines were not selling as expected.

Although online sales accounted for only 5 per cent of total retail spending in 2011, it grew at an incredible pace of 29 per cent while traditional retail store sales went up by a mere 2.5 per cent.

Oil and gas producers Beach Energy and Roc Australia have continued the recent solid earnings reports of the country's hydrocarbons sector.

Homesales.com.au one of Australia's fastest growing real estate sites, has topped the 100,000 listings mark.

Coca Cola Amatil (CCA), the publicly listed group that owns the Coke franchise in Australia and the Asia Pacific, has reported increased net profit after tax ( up 19.0 percent), increased total sales (up 6.9 percent) and increased earnings per share (up 18.3 percent) for its financial year ended 31 December 2011 compared with the previous 12 months.

For the second time in a week a senior financial regulator has warned our banks against relaxing their lending standards on home loans.

The U.S. Navy has ordered two more join high speed vessels (JHSV) or catamaran worth $321.7 million from Australian shipbuilder Austal. With the two new orders, the total catamaran orders awarded to Austal has reached $1.45 billion.

Barely a week after Telstra Corporation submitted its revised structural separation undertaking (SSU), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) gave its approval for the $11 billion deal between NBN Co and the country's dominant telco to go ahead.

After a positive start, the local share market is trading flat at lunchtime in the East, weighed down by losses in the financial and energy sectors, and some disappointing earnings results. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is weaker by 3pts or 0.1pct to 4351.5.

As expected Caltex Australia has reported a big loss for 2011 after taking into account the $1.5 billion write-down in the value of its two oil refineries in Brisbane and Sydney.