BUSINESS

Virgin Australia launched on Monday its Capital Connect daily shuttle services between Canberra and Sydney, which offer up to 10 return services each day between the cities with guests receiving complimentary in-flight snacks and drinks.

Leighton Holdings Ltd (ASX: LEI) posted an after tax loss of $409m for the 2010/11 financial year, but targets to bounce back with its string of new projects on hand.

(This story was originally published on Friday, 12th August, 2011. It has now been repeated to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere).

Australia's manufacturing firm Manassen Foods has been reported negotiating a deal with China's second largest food company Bright Food Group Co.

Newcrest Mining, Australia's biggest gold producer, has posted a 63 percent jump in its annual profit, driven by higher gold prices and the acquisition of Lihir Gold last year.

While Washington was busy holding the global markets hostage and placing billions in badly needed R&D funding on the chopping block, a new report from REN21

For the first time in a fortnight, investors will start the trading week without the threat of a major market slump.

It's another big week for the markets and economy here and offshore. Will the markets settle, or will we face more of last week's craziness?

Gold and oil both finished a difficult week down at the close on Friday for differing reasons.

In spite of industrywide speculation that Apple will announce the next-generation iPhone on September, new reports have moved the launch back to October.

US retail sales rose by 0.5pct in July - the biggest gain in four months - and in line with the consensus forecast. Excluding autos, sales rose by 0.5pct - above the consensus forecast of a 0.2pct rise. But consumer sentiment fell sharply to a 31-year low in August, dropping from 63.7 to 54.9.

U.S. stocks closed higher Friday as an upbeat retail sales report trumped a weak reading on consumer confidence, capping one of the most volatile weeks in Wall Street history.

There are more iPads rival tablets sitting in warehouses and stores than current demand for those products. What can rivals learn to advance? Perhaps a review of Economics 101 would give more than just clues to the iPad's success.

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that government was considering blocking the use of social media services like FaceBook, Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger to prevent riots.

Virgin Australia pilots have secured pay rises of up to 28 percent. The Australian and International Pilots Association, which represent Qantas long-haul pilots, has today congratulated VIPA - the union representing Virgin Australia and V Australia pilots - and Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti for successfully negotiating the airline’s first enterprise agreement.

Australia's securities watchdog released on Friday a new guidance that demands more disclosure on some investment instruments that lures a lot of investors because of the promise of high returns.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave his most explicit statement yet on who will succeed him as News Corporation chief and it is not James.

New Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws are set to be rolled out on 1 January 2012, and contain fundamental shifts from what has been mandated in the past.

- Domino's Pizza FY11 result better than expected- European operations improving, impacted by forex moves- FY12 guidance suggests more solid growth- Brokers lift forecasts, targets and ratingsBy Chris ShawAfter guiding to a 15% increase in earnings for FY11, full year net profit for Domino&apos...

GS1 Recallnet, a new national product recall service to remove potentially harmful grocery, food, liquor and other products from the supply chain, was launched Australia-wide August 10, 2011.

Suddenly the same analysts and 'experts' who have been negative on Telstra, are fans after the company reported a smaller than expected fall in earnings for the year to June 30; a result that included rising revenues and profits from mobile phones and telecoms.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 423 points or 4.0% while the S&P gained 4.6% to 1172 and the Nasdaq jumped 4.

By Greg Peel"Citi economists are mindful that declining confidence could see activity weaken further and consider a cut in rates possible, though it isn't in their forecast, and they expect any easing would be fairly limited, given the economy's still strong medium-term outlook".

Another month of Chinese economic data (which was dribbled out in a surprisingly vague manner over a number of days) tells us that growth engine of the global economy remains beating and performing well.

U.S. stocks notched a massive advance Thursday, as investors seized on favorable corporate and economic reports to recover most of the ground they lost in the previous session.

Web-based file storage and content sharing service Box.net on Thursday unveiled three new apps for the tablet world: one for Android Honeycomb, one for BlackBerry PlayBook, and one for HTML5-compatible browsers.

It was another interesting session on the Australian share market, as investors reacted to fresh sovereign debt worries out of Europe and a surprise rise in the local unemployment rate. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) fell 1.5pct on open, outperforming near 5pct losses witnessed on Wall Street overnight.

Supermarket chain Woolworths is taking grocery shopping to another level by launching an iPhone App that aims to make it easier to navigate through Woolies with an aisle ordered shopping list.

Australians campaigning for animal rights will rally across the country on Sunday, August 14, in support of legislation that will determine the future of the live export trade. This comes after the first shipment of cattle since the lifting of the live export ban to Indonesia left the Port of Darwin on Wednesday and the government announcing a new package of subsidised loans and grants to cattle producers affected by the suspension of trade.