BUSINESS

The first major listed retailer has blinked and moved to rationalise its business as the sector continues to be impacted by the consumer slowdown, higher savings rate and the stronger Australian dollar.

Unilever has released a statement encouraging political leaders to take "ambitious steps" to tackle climate change, and rejecting media suggestions that it will oppose the Government's carbon tax.

Costco, the US retail giant, has opened its first stores Sydney and Canberra.

Australians enjoy an unemployment rate of 4.9%, but not all of the remaining 95.1% are necessarily up to scratch.

Reports on the Apple store that isn't has prompted Chinese officials to launch an investigation in the city of Kunming on the electronics store.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has cleared Coles in milk price wars, saying there is no evidence that the supermarket giant has acted in breach of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA).

Inflation and interest rates will grab the headlines in Australia this week with the all important June quarter consumer price index figures due out on Wednesday.

The coming week here and offshore will be dominated by Australian inflation, Japanese production data, the first estimate of US second quarter economic growth, and the early forecast for the UK economy, not to mention the continuing US second quarter profit season, and the start of the Australian June 30 reporting rush.

The Dow industrials' decline came as most major market indexes around the world finished with gains. Even so, the blue-chip index finished with a strong weekly advance after several days dominated by concerns over debt negotiations in Washington and Brussels.

(The following observations have been published by the Consumer Metrics Institute in the US on July 23rd.

The Reserve Bank of Australia must publish the true cost consumers are ‘paying to pay,’ consumer watchdog Choice has recommended while branding credit card surcharges as out of control.

Australia has everything to play for, and every advantage it could hope for, but it also has every chance of blowing its future prospects. So says a 16-page special report in the May 2011 issue of the internationally recognised journal, The Economist.

A quick lunchtime study of the passersby on St George's Terrace will confirm what you already know as a manager: Perth is growing in cultural diversity by the day.

Specialist recruitment firm 2discover has signed on as official event partner for the Australian HR Awards.

Australian grains marketer and maltster GrainCorp is buying European malt producer GermanMalt GmbH & Co KG for $77 million. GermanMalt has four malthouses, with 190,000 tonnes of malting capacity per annum.

In news this week, on Tuesday Go Gecko Pty Ltd went into Voluntary Administration leading to the closure of 2 Go Gecko stores with 6 more facing a review by the Administrator.

US congressional leaders struggled over the weekend to come up with a plan to prevent the government defaulting on its debt payments and to allow government social security payments to continue to made.

US congressional leaders struggled over the weekend to come up with a plan to prevent the government defaulting on its debt payments and to allow government social security payments to continue to made.

- Newcrest production in line, but costs higher- Forecasts and targets trimmed- Investment case remains favourable given expansion potentialBy Chris ShawAustralia's leading producer of gold and copper, Newcrest ((NCM)) updated the market yesterday on both June quarter production and the size of...

MarketsThe Dow industrials' decline came as most major market indexes around the world finished with gains. Even so, the blue-chip index finished with a strong weekly advance after several days dominated by concerns over debt negotiations in Washington and Brussels. The Dow added 1.6% during the week, and is up 2.2% for July, falling just short of a multiyear high. Hurting stocks on Friday was a belief that U.S. debt talks would fail to come to a quick conclusion.

Search giant Google Inc. had this entrance strategy for its new social network -- launch the service without fireworks, release a beta version of the service to select individuals, and have others join via a by-invitation scheme. So far, the technique, the same done for Google's gmail, appears to be working as Google+ has already gained 20 million unique visitors just three weeks into its release, according to estimates by Web-traffic watcher comScore Inc.

Dr. Charlie Miller, Accuvant LABS principal research consultant, will demonstrate at the Black Hat USA 2011 security conference next week that the batteries of Apple's Macbooks, Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs are vulnerable to hacking attacks. Yes, the batteries!

Microsoft Corp.'s Windows continues to be the world's most popular operating system for personal computers. The problem is that laptop and desktop sales have been slowing down while the demand of tablets has skyrocketed.

The Japanese manufacturer did not imagine sales to be this brisk but because of the power crisis now being experienced throughout Japan, sales had been up this month.

The success of American retail giant Costco in the suburbs of Sydney's Auburn has prompted the warehouse store chain to explore opening a second shop in Canberra.

Costco opened its new store in Canberra today and the line of customers outside the store has led other retailers to question what the US members' only retailer has done to get such a reception.

U.S. stocks surged closer to multi-year highs Thursday, as hopes for a major budget deal in Washington and efforts to contain Europe's sovereign-debt crisis whetted investors' risk appetite.

AFTERNOON REPORT (4.30pm AEST)Local stocks rallied once again today, after Eurozone leaders agreed on a second bailout package for Greece, sending markets around the globe higher. Hopes are also rising that a deal to lift the US government's maximum borrowing power, or so-called "debt ceiling" will also be reached by the August 2nd deadline.

The largest union representing Telstra (ASX: TLS) employees has come out swinging regarding the offshoring of Telstra jobs and customers’ personal information to India.