BUSINESS

By Ilya Spivak, Currency StrategistFundamental Forecast for Gold: BullishGold Tests Key Trend Line Support, Threatens Bearish BreakoutGold - Forex Correlations Strong Despite Commodities CorrectionGold prices largely decoupled from the risk on/off dichotomy that ruled financial markets in the afterm...

Incidents like sexual harassment and workplace bullying could potentially cost companies millions of dollars unless they change their approach to preventing these behaviours

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have been taken to task over dodgy origin labelling, after an investigation by the NSW Food Authority revealed that two stores were selling mislabelled fruit The incident marks the first time Coles and Woolworths have been fined for Country of Origin labelling breaches, and both have been placed on the NSW Food Authority's Name and Shame register.

(This story was originally published on Wednesday, 11th May, 2011. It has now been re-published to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere).

A wary end to the week on Friday night in financial markets, with shares and commodities on pause or stuttering as traders try and work out whether the past fortnight is a blip or the start of a correction, or worse.

Google led the explicit core search market in the United States in April with 65.4 percent of search queries conducted, according to comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR). Yahoo! and Microsoft took the second and third spots with 15.7 percent and 13.9 percent of the U.S. market, respectively. Ask Network had 3.1 percent of the searches while AOL, Inc., was fifth with 1.6 percent.

US consumer prices rose by 0.4pct in April, above expectations centred on a rise of 0.3pct. Excluding food and energy (core measure) consumer prices rose by 0.2pct, in line with expectations. And the US consumer sentiment index rose from 69.8 to 72.4 in May, above forecasts centred on a result near 69.5.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit May 12 to block the proposed acquisition by VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE:PAY) of Hypercom Corp. (NYSE:HYC) The department said that the proposed deal would substantially lessen competition in the sale of point-of-sale (POS) terminals in the United States, resulting in higher prices and reduced innovation, quality, product variety, and service.

Defunct peer-to-peer service file-sharing network LimeWire has reached an out-of-court $105 million settlement with major record companies.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) said Thursday it was notified just two months ago that Alibaba Group had moved ownership of an online-payment unit to a separate entity in August last year without approval or knowledge of Alibaba's board or shareholders.

Google Inc. (GOOG) has been under criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for earning millions from accepting ads from illegal online pharmacies.

Recent developments in the global crude oil markets, particularly rising tensions in the producing regions of the Middle East, have spurred the return of high levels of volatility to the crude and crude products markets.

Russian Interior Ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko, who was responsible for the false arrest, torture and murder in custody of Hermitage Fund's lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, has issued a summons to question the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, William Browder, in Moscow.

Hedge fund flows as measured by the GlobeOp Capital Movements Index were positive 2.29% in May.

Resource giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) says it has met all concerns raised over its planned expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine.

Ivernia Inc. (TSX: IVW), owner of the Magellan Mine in Western Australia, said that it has entered into an agreement for Green SEA Resources Inc. to pay Canadian $20 million (A$19.5 million) in exchange for a 16% stake in the owner of the world's largest pure lead mine.

Qantas Aiways’ maintenance engineers have decided to postpone all industrial action over their claims for job security.

Leighton Finance International, Leighton Holdings Ltd’s (ASX: LEI) wholly owned subsidiary, is redeeming the five-year 7.875 per cent fixed-rate US$110m Guaranteed Notes issued on 16 May 2006.

Australia’s competitive advantage is in danger as the country’s freight advantage is being eroded, and as China lessens its dependence on Australian minerals, says a free market think tank.

Red-faced Facebook executives on Thursday admitted launching a smear campaign against number one rival Google and discredit its privacy practices.

- The PBoC has again raised the Chinese RRR- There is some evidence of slowing in the short term- Liquidity nevertheless remains little changed- Beijing is unlikely to go hard on interest rate risesBy Greg PeelThis week's Chinese “data dump” showed April CPI inflation had slipped to an a...

AUD was initially sold lower in Europe as the market continued with negative sentiment after the bad jobs numbers but support was yet again found under 1.0600 and most traders are now starting to feel that 1.0550/1.0600 could be the base for the time being. For the bullish sentiment to return we need a convincing break back through 1.0700

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 65 points or 0.5% while the S&P gained 0.5% to 1348 and the Nasdaq added 0.

Yesterday the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that the unemployment rate remained at 4.9% in April, while total employment fell by a seasonally adjusted 22,100

HFR (Hedge Fund Research, Inc.) announces the industry's first daily hedge fund performance database, allowing investors to access data on a rapidly growing universe of hedge funds which provide investors with daily performance figures.

The recent woes of the Aussie were compounded by local employment data yesterday and after falling almost 2 cents in the 12 hours prior to the release another cent was given up almost immediately.

MARKET CLOSE (4.30pm AEST)The energy and mining sectors were the best performers yesterday, but it was a very different story today, with both sectors holding the market back. The ASX 200 index (XJO) fell 1.8 pct or 84.1 pts to 4696.1 while the broader All Ordinaries index (XAO) slumped by 1.7 pct or 81.6 pts to 4776.6.The S&P/ASX 200 Materials index fell 2.57 pct or 355.2 pts to 13482.1, off the back of weaker commodity prices overnight in U.S trade. Australia’s largest miner, BHP B...

The energy sector pulled U.S. stocks lower Wednesday, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index posting its biggest one day drop in two months, as crude oil prices tumbled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 130.33 points, or 1.02%, to 12630.03.

The 21-year antitrust battle Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has been fighting with the U.S. government ends today, May 12.