BUSINESS

The Australian Union Movement has thrown its support behind a campaign to improve wages, conditions and workplace rights at Rio Tinto's aluminium operations in Australia.

Customers and communities who have been affected by the recent natural disasters in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria will get additional measures from the National Australia Bank to rebuild their homes and businesses.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 29 points or 0.2% while the S&P gained 0.3% to 1340 and the Nasdaq added 0.2%.It was only last week I said “what about Libya?” and sure enough another piece of the jigsaw has fallen into place. So now we have (from west to east) Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain and Iran. If Egypt is East Germany, then the fall of its Berlin Wall is re...

Is it time to be worried about the market's current phase?Judging by the very bullish February survey of big fund managers from Bank of America Merrill Lynch now might be the time to be thinking a little outside the square.The survey says "Investors are more bullish towards global equities than at any time in the past decade."Just take that in, more bullish than before the crunch.Hmmmm. Is th...

America's Standard and Poor's Index is up 27% in five months and has doubled in the last two years (from a low in early March, 2009 of 666.79).European markets hit 29 month highs this week on a number of occasions, commodity prices like gold, copper and cotton have hit all time highs and many other markets are zooming higher.As we have seen that has made big global and regional funds man...

Vikas Rambal’s Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers had finalised rail transport arrangements for the $3.5 billion urea manufacturing plant, after signing a 25 year access agreement with WestNet Rail this week.

A new State Government campaign has enlisted the help of some of Queensland's most famous faces to spread the message that much of Queensland is back in business following recent natural disasters.

The downgrade warning on Australia’s four major banks sent out on Wednesday by Moody’s will leave little effect on their standing, according to analysts, who insisted that concerns over the sluggish recovery of credit demands have overshadowed the banks’ financing issues.

The A380 Rolls-Royce engine incident and fleet grounding had cost Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) an estimated $80 million, with $55 million in the first half and $25 million forecast in the second half.

Virgin Blue (ASX: VGA) is raising the fuel surcharge on tickets and baggage charges in an effort to recover rising fuel costs.

Telstra Corporation’s decision on Wednesday to shut down its Moe call centre will render 114 workers out of job, leaving Latrobe Valley executives in doubt whether the soon-to-be separated employees will find replacement works within Telstra, as pledged by the telco yesterday.

Windows-powered Nokia handsets will enter the mobile industry by 2012, according to the Finnish company’s board chair, who added that more partnerships are being worked on by the phone maker besides the already sealed deals with Google and Microsoft.

Pursuant to its aim of delivering wireless services to parts of Australia yet to be reached by fibre-optics network, the National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) inked a million-dollar deal with satellite television provider Austar.

Along with the emerging trend of traditional publications migrating to the burgeoning iPad platform, Apple has implemented its new system of automatically getting a 30 percent cut on new subscriptions availed through its publication services.

So what's BHP Billiton's outlook on the world economy and commodity markets.The upshot is that the company is more confident than it was a year or six months ago, but cost pressures remain a concern.Here's what it said in yesterday's profit announcement."Industry wide cost pressures are being experienced across a broad range of projects and reflect stronger producer currencies, particularly in Australia, as well as underlying inflation on raw material and labour costs."Inflationary pressure on input costs across all businesses had an unfavourable impact on Underlying EBIT of US$283 million. The effect was most evident in Australia and South Africa.

- Ardent's result provides a big positive surprise- Share price jumps but yield still attractive- Analysts see more upsideBy Greg PeelIt was back in November when Ardent Leisure ((AAD)), operator of theme parks, bowling alleys, marinas, health clubs and family entertainment centres here and in the US, posted its first quarter FY11 update. Stock analysts saw some very positive signs emerging at the...

National carrier Qantas Airways saw its first-half profit for fiscal 2011 soaring by more than 400 percent and declared in a statement released on Thursday that it anticipates underlying earnings for the rest of the year to reach a materially higher level.

The AUD is back above parity against theUSD this morning after a brief pullback during yesterday's session.

The Australian Dollar dropped to 0.9970 against the US Dollar paring earlier gains in Asia when ratings agency Moody's said it had placed the nation's four largest banks on review for possible downgrade.

Investors pushed the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index to about double off its financial crisis low as a fresh geopolitical worry weighed against an encouraging package of corporate earnings and takeover news.

US producer prices rose by 0.8pct in January - in line with consensus. Over the year producer prices were up 3.6 per cent.

- Cardno's interim earnings turned out better than expected- US operations drove the result- Stockbrokers have responded by lifting earnings forecasts and price targets By Chris ShawConsulting engineering group Cardno ((CDD)) had guided to interim earnings in a range of $29-$31 million but the company exceeded its own guidance, delivering a profit of $31.7 million for the six months to the end of ...

- One Saudi oil expert doesn't believe predictions of oil priced at US$200/bbl are realistic- He suggests investors should focus on alternative fuels, which will only become more important- Natural Gas is one such alternative by David Fessler, Investment U’s Energy and Infrastructure SpecialistTuesday, February 8, 2011Hogwash.That’s one man’s verdict on the chance of seeing oil p...

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 61 points or 0.5% while the S&P rose 0.6% to 1336, pushing through the 100% rally mark, and the Nasdaq added 0.8%.Last night's geopolitical news was that of Iran's intentions to sail two warships through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean to visit close ally Syria. The reason provided was training exercises for new cadets who will be charged with the task of pr...

Vodafone has been cleared by the Privacy Commissioner of accusations that the company had permitted the data leakage of its four million subscribers but it was ruled that the telco failed to institute appropriate safeguards that would shield its clients’ information from the public eye.

Virgin Blue Group (ASX: VBA) has suspended flights in or out of Darwin tonight and tomorrow, following advice from the Bureau of Meteorology and the closure of Darwin Airport due to tropical cyclone Carlos.

Microsoft once suggested that internet service providers need to block online access for computers teeming with viruses but that appeared to have changed this week.

Wesfarmers' (ASX:WES) Coles has acquired National Australia Bank’s (ASX: NAB) 50 per cent interest in FlyBuys, Australia’s first and largest shopping rewards program. NAB remains a major participant in the program.

We had some news and movement yesterday in the two big financial services deals afoot in Australia: the proposed takeover of the ASX by the Singapore Stock Exchange and the proposed takeover of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings by the AMP.The two deals are worth close to $23 billion, if they go ahead.The AXA deal looks probable, although final approval from the federal government is needed, but the ASX takeover remains very uncertain.AXA revealed an 11 % drop in full year earnings to $602 million and the ASX and Singapore Exchange (SGX) revealed a change to the corporate governance and board composition of the merged company to try and win approval from investors and the federal government.Of the two deals, the $8.4 billion bid for the ASX by SGX is the most important with its political and business fallout here and offshore.The gist of the new arrangements announced late yesterday will be: the