Australian Market Report. Shares edged lower to a weaker finish as investors remained cautious ahead of the release of key US employment data. More...
Staff at Westpac face a second wave of job losses as the bank tries to cut costs. More...
Westpac chief Gail Kelly defends the bank's decision to axe up to 560 jobs and will not rule out further cuts as the bank's profits are squeezed by a slowdown in lending. More...
Unions call on governments to convince banking giant to abandon its plans to send hundreds of jobs off-shore More...
The summer lull will be a fading memory next week when Australia's business and finance calendar kicks into overdrive. More...
The Australian dollar strengthened against the US dollar after a report showed employers in the world’s biggest economy added more jobs than forecast. More...
The Reserve Bank is expected cut its interest rate again as inflation eases, local employment growth slows and fears over a European recession grows. More...
Gina Rinehart joins the ranks of Australia's media barons after becoming the biggest shareholder in Fairfax Media. More...
Billionaire Gina Rinehart's move to gain control of Fairfax Media may be part of a broader strategy to combine Fairfax Media's radio network with Macquarie Radio Network, which is controlled by close friend and advertising veteran John Singleton, according to a report by The Australian. More...
The NSW Supreme Court has refused to grant billionaire Gina Rinehart a new suppression order on her legal stoush with her children over the family's trust fund, leading to the release of a series of emails showing the extent of the family battle. More...
It is 20 years since mining magnate Lang Hancock's widow, Rose, summoned journalists to the gate of her flamboyant mansion, and dispensed copies of her recently departed husband's will. More...
Australia will be a crucial part of the resources empire that is set to emerge from a $82 billion marriage of the Swiss firms Xstrata and Glencore, and analysts say the new entity could look to further expand its local presence through mergers and acquisitions. More...
The possibility of a merger between Xstrata and Glencore could result in a combined company with a strong enough balance sheet and desire for acquisitions to threaten the dominance of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, and even produce a second run at Anglo American, according to reports by The Australian and The Australian Financial Review. More...
Royal Dutch Shell confirmed that it plans to offload its $6.7 billion stake in Woodside Petroleum, but only if Shell can garner “the right price” for its stake, according to a report by The Australian. More...
Mining magnate Clive Palmer's company China First was expecting to announce a draft agreement with QR National Ltd on a rail line between the Galilee Basin and Abbot Point this week, before the plan was quashed by QR reaching a similar agreement with the Queensland government, according to The Australian newspaper. More...
Holden has announced a jump in car sales just days after axing its afternoon general assembly shift at its Adelaide factory. More...
Shares in Magma Metals have skyrocketed after nickel miner Panoramic Resources launched a $40 million takeover bid for the base metals explorer. More...
Some economic observers question the value of corporate donations to political parties. More...
The equivalent population of a New Zealand city has moved to Australia over the past year. More...
Competition between the big supermarket chains is fiercer than ever, but shoppers remain cautious. More...
Coles again rejects calls for the Federal Government to appoint a supermarket ombudsman to enforce a fair trading code of conduct. More...
A syndicate of banks that secured an $800 million charge over assets of ABC Learning just months before the childcare empire collapsed has failed in its bid to keep confidential thousands of documents sought by the litigation funder, IMF. More...
Nicole Perrin, the former wife of one-time Billabong chief executive Matthew Perrin, successfully fought off Commonwealth Bank's bid to claim her Gold Coast mansion after her husband admitted to forging her signature on bank mortgage documents More...
Observers say the high number of sick days taken by Australian workers is linked to workplaces where there is less flexibility. More...
Matthew Ng, the Australian entrepreneur sentenced to 13 years in a Chinese jail, has won a second chance at freedom after a Guangdong court granted him the right to an appeal. More...
The world's largest refinery for rare earth metals has risen out of the red mud of a coastal swamp at the Malaysian city of Kuantan and has just gained a temporary licence to begin operating - a step that could help break China's near monopoly on rare earths but also worsen an emerging glut of some of these strategic minerals. More...
Ron Sayers, the founder and managing director of mining services provider Ausdrill, faces a charge of conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth. More...
Dick Smith fears for our obsession with the bottom line. More...
Too much debt may be bad for business, but the business of collecting it can be a nice little earner. More...
Austar United Communications Ltd is seeking to delay extraordinary shareholder meetings on its proposed merger with Foxtel, to allow time for the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission to complete its review of the deal. More...
A federal court injunction stopping tyre king Bob Jane from using his name in new business ventures has been overturned. More...
The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched a new program aimed at bringing some of Australia's largest franchisors up to speed on workplace laws. More...
Sales of new vehicles in Australia rebounded in January, with sales of sport utility vehicles surging by almost 30 per cent in a sign consumers felt confident enough to spring for big ticket items. More...
The head of Western Power, Doug Aberle, has brought his retirement forward after almost 40 years of service with the utility. More...
An analyst who has been reviewing Forestry Tasmania's operations believes the company's future lies in tapping into the Chinese woodchip market. More...
Tasmanian airline TasAir Pty Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation. More...
Ian McIlwraith. Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer have every right to make their voices heard. More...
Elizabeth Knight. Gina Rinehart is unlikely to make a full bid for Fairfax, but she may want to wield power in the boardroom. More...
Michael Pascoe. It’s peak RBA speculation season, but a couple of major furphies are going round about what will or will not concern the central bank on Tuesday. More...
Marcus Padley. Before we have to read another opinion about the market, let us get a few things clear. More...
Stephen Bartholomeusz. The prospect of a Glencore-Xstrata tussle is tantalising and if it ends in a merger, it could lead to a new mining house in the same league as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. More...
Ross Gittins. When I was studying economics at university in the mid-1960s, I wasn't quite sure what a ''model'' was. These days, politicians and business people are always using the word, and most of us think we know what they mean. More...
Gareth Hutchens. How much do you think the price of gold will rise in the next few years? More...
Bill Evans. Despite some improvement in market conditions, bank funding issues and a slowing global economy leave ample room for the RBA to cut rates again next week. More...
Ian Verrender. For a nation that has become one of the richest on the planet, Australians have become among the most sullen. More...
Stuart Washington. A well-known star of the Australian small screen, notorious for his poor personal habits, received his last rites during the week. To be fair, Louie the Fly has been biting the dust regularly since he first appeared in 1957. More...
Michael West. The good news is the US economy is displaying signs of recovery, albeit a tepid one. It will need to recuperate to meet its interest bills alone. The bad news is that Europe seems to be getting worse, although bond yields have been coming down from red-alert levels thanks to the bellicose stimulus by the central bank. More...
US Market Report. A surge in hiring in the world's largest economy last month drove U.S. stocks higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq hitting an 11-year high as optimism grew that the labor market is on a steady path to recovery. More...
World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements More...
The US economy created 243,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, official figures show. More...
The eurozone's service sector grows for the first time in four months, although Spain and Italy continue to struggle. More...
After a blockbuster January for both equities and bonds - rallies that caught many in the market by surprise - investors will be paying keen attention to the world's central banks in the coming week for signs of continued easy money. More...
John Taylor, founder of currency-hedge fund FX Concepts LLC, said he’s betting against the dollar after Federal Reserve policy makers extended their pledge to keep interest rates close to zero and indicated they’re prepared to make additional asset purchases. More...
Stock-picking once again matters on Wall Street. After a year in which stocks moved in near-lockstep regardless of individual merit, the herd mentality is crumbling away. More...
New orders for U.S. factory-made products posted a second straight monthly rise in December and business capital spending also picked up, a government report on Friday showed. More...
The price of gas around Europe has risen sharply due to increased demand as a result of the cold weather and reports of reduced supply from Russia. More...
Goldman Sachs Group Inc was ordered by a federal judge to face a securities class-action lawsuit accusing it of defrauding investors about a 2006 offering of securities backed by risky mortgage loans from a now-defunct lender. More...
It's the year's hottest initial public offering, but some wealth managers find themselves having a hard time recommending Facebook to their clients. More...
Facebook has finally filed for an IPO, but it likely won't start trading for months. For those who can't wait to gamble on the stock market, bookies are accepting bets. More...
Apple is granted a suspension of a sales ban imposed on some of its iPads and iPhones in Germany. More...
Motorola forces some 3G iPhones and iPads to be pulled from Apple's German online store after enforcing a patent injunction. More...
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic has forecast a record annual net loss of 780bn yen ($10.2bn) for the year to March. More...
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's bail application appeal has been rejected in New Zealand. More...
Senior Iranian lawmakers are considering a boycott of Samsung, the South Korean electronics and appliance manufacturer, because of a controversial Israeli ad that pokes fun at the nuclear crisis, state-run Press TV of Iran said Friday. More...
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Friday sued three major U.S. banks, accusing them of fraud for using an electronic mortgage database that resulted in deceptive and illegal practices, including false documents in foreclosure proceedings. More...
International Business Machines Corp. almost doubled the salary of Virginia “Ginni” Rometty after promoting her as the chief executive officer of the world’s largest computer-services provider at the start of the year. More...
Aiming to restore voters' faith in Congress, the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that makes clear it's illegal for members of Congress, their staffs and many executive-branch employees to trade stocks and other securities based on inside information learned on the job. More...
More people will be making their homes among the banks and insurance companies of central London as a shrinking financial industry and the prospect of leasing out buildings for free prompts landlords to convert offices into luxury apartments. More...
Hungarian airline Malev ceases trading after 66 years after being ordered by the EU to repay state aid it has received. More...
Bank of America Corp., the second- largest U.S. lender by assets, may sell all its offices as part of the company’s effort to cut costs, sparing only its headquarters in North Carolina and New York City. More...
Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. agreed to buy Orange Austria in a deal valued at 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion), adding to more than $31 billion of investments in overseas mobile-phone operations. More...
Investments in commodities are expanding at the quickest pace in six years on signs of rising economic growth, even as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warn that some prices have rallied too fast. More...
Already one of the cheapest major mining companies, Anglo American Plc is becoming an even more likely takeover target with Xstrata Plc and Glencore International Plc’s potential merger threatening to leave it dwarfed by three of its closest rivals. More...
A study into mine nationalization ordered by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress proposes a 50 percent resource-rent tax rather than taking over operations, a party official who has seen the document said. More...
Hot girls and funny animals are, once again, the theme of upcoming US Super Bowl ads, Who would have guessed? Due to screen Feb. 5, for some, the commercials are the main draw of watching the game. This year, a 30-second spot is going for $3.5 million -- and many companies think it's worth the price. More...
Paul La Monica. The strong January jobs report may finally put a nail in the QE3 coffin. More...