Vittorio Hernandez

It was a volatile night for global markets with some key releases resulting in some sharp moves in equities and currencies.

In US economic news, the advance reading of economic growth in the September quarter was 2.8pct, above forecasts for 2.0pct annualised growth. New claims for unemployment insurance (jobless claims) fell in the latest week by 9,000 to 336,000, close to forecasts.

New Zealand broadcasting station RadioLive is feeling the backlash of an advertising pullout over an interview made by station hosts Willie Jackson and John Tamihere with a friend of an alleged rape victim of the notorious Roast Buster gang.

Will the next tablet from Apple sport a large display as big as laptops or about 12 inches? Reports from Foxconn, Apple's Taiwanese manufacturing plant, indicated the next iPad being tested now could have a screen between 11.4 inches and 12.9 inches in length, said Apple Insider.

With the expected entry of megastorm Haiyan (Local name: Yolanda) in the Philippine area of responsibility by Thursday night or Friday morning, the Philippines will once more reaffirm its unfortunate title of natural calamity capital of the world.

The Australian share market closed in negative territory today, although off its earlier lows, weighed down by a number of big name financial stocks which traded without rights to their dividends. It was a different story on Wall Street, where solid buying in blue chip stocks lifted the Dow Jones Index to a record high.

The two female premiers of western Canadian provinces agreed on Wednesday to a framework that would push through with major oil pipeline projects worth $12 billion being proposed by Enbridge and Kinder Morgan.

The Australian share market is modestly weaker at lunchtime in the East, despite US blue chip stocks recording solid performances overnight. The US Dow Jones Index closed at record highs, although weaker than expected earnings from electric car maker Tesla weighed on the NASDAQ.

Analysts forecast that Australia's mining boom is approaching its end would likely be questioned again as the country's iron ore sector just added $65 billion to the current financial year due to higher commodity prices.

Type "Max Mosley sado masochistic" on Google Image search and photos of the former Formula One boss will pop up on your computer screen. The images include Mr Mosley tied up and naked while being whipped on the butt by a woman. It is images like those that Paris's Tribunal de Grande Instance, in a landmark decision, ordered Google on Wednesday to block on its search engine the sadomasochistic photos of Mr Mosley while in orgy.

Global equities managed to push higher despite some key event risk approaching. Some positive data prints from Europe and more taper talk were at the forefront of the equity price moves. Fed member Williams said he wants to see a fairly convincing case that the economy can grow faster than recent trend before reducing asset purchases. Meanwhile Pianalto hopes the recovery will accelerate to allow the Fed to taper. This is probably the most dovish we've heard Fed members since the meeting and ...

In US economic news, the leading index rose by 0.7pct in September, just above forecasts. Planned layoffs by companies lifted by 40,289 to 45,730 in October according to Challenger. And the mortgage market index fell by 7pct in the latest week with purchases down 5.2pct and refinancing down 7.9pct.

Police claimed there was lack of evidence on the rape complaint of a 13-year-old Kiwi girl but could the hesitation to file a case be because one of the Roast Busters members is the son of a police officer?

Smartphones had been Samsung's kingdom the past several quarter, while tablets were ruled by Apple. However, in terms of user satisfaction, Samsung has crossed over and also dominated the world of tablets.

Because of American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr's unbeaten record with 0 loss, the World Boxing Council (WBC) said on Wednesday that they will crown him as Supreme Champion.

Samsung continues to offer consumers innovation which explains why the South Korean tech giant handily beats rival Apple in securing the largest slice in the smartphone pie.

A reasonable performance from local stocks to end flat after the early deficit seen in the first ten minutes of trade. The ASX200 was at its best levels around the open when it was up by 1.5 points. Not long thereafter the lows were put in place when the index was down by 26 points. The market spent the remainder of the session trading higher, and by the final bell it just crossed the line into positive territory.

Australian shares are lower for the fourth time in five trading sessions, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down by 0.3 per cent. Despite low volumes yesterday (generally around 30% quieter than usual on Melbourne Cup day), local stocks rose by 0.75 per cent, which is still keeping the market positive this week.

The sudden change in BlackBerry's plan to sell the financially challenged company should have aroused suspicion that there's more to the about face than the ability of interim BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen to turnaround a floundering company like he did before for Sybase.

Taiwanese tech firm HTC does not want to follow the footsteps of embattled Canadian phonemaker BlackBerry is making expensive, but unsellable phones. That means its flagship HTC One would probably the last premium handset from the company for some time.

We continue to see a cautious tone in global equities, with the bulls sceptical about adding to longs as the tapering debate ramps up. A better-than-expected ISM non-manufacturing PMI (55.4 versus 54.2 expected) set the tone for the tapering argument.

In US economic news, the ISM services index rose from 54.4 to 55.4 in October, ahead of forecasts centred on a reading near 54.0. The employment component rose from 52.7 to 56.2. And weekly chain store sales, as monitored by Redbook, were up 3.8pct on a year ago, ahead of the 3.6pct gain in the previous week.

Facebook users who are not Candy Crush players may often find it irritating that the first thing they see when they check their newsfeeds are invitations to play the addicting game or updates on the level of their friends on Candy Crush.

If a female cadet in Australia was victimised by other male cadets when her lovemaking session was broadcast via Skype, a French teenage used the Web cam of help computer to get her sex-crazed father arrested.

Indonesia is threatening to cut cooperation with Australia in areas such as people smuggling and disruption of terrorist attack as a reaction to reports that Canberra cooperated with Washington to conduct spying operations in its Southeast Asian neighbour.

The Australian sharemarket rose for the first time in four trading days, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) gaining by 0.8 per cent or 41pts to 5425.7. Most of the key data globally is out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; namely Chinese and American economic data.

South Korea may have produced two tech giants in Samsung and LG, but North Korea appears to be playing catch up in this department.

Mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) will no longer be a part of the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal project after it announced on Monday its withdrawal of a $3-billion port proposal.

The Australian share market is reporting solid gains at lunchtime in the East, ahead of this afternoon's interest rate decision where the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to leave the official cash rate on hold at 2.5 per cent.