BUSINESS

In a recent poll conducted by both Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia and Commonwealth bank-owned Bankwest Retail, majority of young Australians fall under the category of lifelong renters instead of real estate owners.

Iron ore miner BHP Billiton disclosed today it will cooperate with US officials in an investigation on corruption with government officials.

Newcrest Mining yesterday insisted that Lihir Gold should let them gain entry to any data of the company.

The anticipated growth in the iron ore and coal sectors are pushing the Reserve Bank of Australia to increase interest rates, according to the minutes of the central bank's board meeting in April showed.

Shareholders of Seven Network media group on Tuesday approved the planned merge with privately-owned earthmoving giant WesTrac after deliberating on the move for two-and-a-half hours.

Melbourne-based Macarthur Coal confirms today it will not pursue talks with Noble Group regarding its Gloucester Coal takeover bid.

The Australian Industry Group today reiterated its support for the sale of QR National and must be operated as a private entity to contribute to the increased competitiveness in the economy.

Reductil has been chosen as Australia's top weight loss supplement for 2010 in a nationwide consumer review on ProductReview.com.au.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is unsatisfied with the telecommunication industry’s ”legendary” poor performance on consumer service and threatened entities to change the regulator’s consumer protection codes into mandatory standards.

Newcrest Mining announced today it is ready to make some changes regarding its takeover bid for Lihir Gold, presenting the shareholders a mix of either shares or cash.

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission yesterday proposed a regulation to protect retail investors from using complex and risky financial systems, costly management fee structures and company disputes.

Hong Kong-based Noble Group on Monday night pulled the plug on its fight for Macarthur Coal.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has announced Thursday that the country achieved its first trade surplus in 13 months, with its balance of goods and services surpluses reaching a seasonally adjusted $134 million in April, coming from the March revised deficit of $2.04 billion for a turnaround of $2.174 billion.

This week we start the run up to the national accounts for the March quarter in Australia to be released next week which are likely to show negative growth in the March quarter, thanks to the impact of flooding in Queensland and Victoria in January and February.

Now this is a more significant outcome from the monthly ANZ jobs ads series.

Australian farmers remain highly confident about the outlook as they approach the winter cropping season (mostly for wheat, the most important crop of all).