A good home for your money
Last year’s interest rate rises have bumped some first-home buyers out of the market and taken heat out of prices at the bottom end. Both those factors make real estate a buyer’s market for investors.
So much money he doesn’t know what to do
BHP Billiton’s chief executive is facing an enviable problem – how to keep his war chest from the hands of shareholders, unions, communities and the government.
Storm rages over funds
Once the can rattling has stopped, disaster relief funds have to get on with the fraught business of handing out the money.
Full bench finds Forrest misled investors
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest faces being banned from running the company he founded after a full bench of the Federal Court overturned a decision clearing the billionaire of having misled investors.
Myth of exit fees
Politicians may be dumbing down the talk on mortgage exit fees, but voters will run into the same old expenses, writes Alison Kahler.
Get ready for extra beer money
The High Court ruling over student expenses could have generous implications, writes Joanna Mather.
Financial Review TV
Domestic market lifts Qantas
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and CFO Gareth Evans discuss the airline’s first-half profit result.
Before the Bell
New from the Financial Review - Before the Bell. A comprehensive pre-market briefing, every trading day. Starts Tuesday at www.afr.com/markets
Ahem, please excuse me
Never mind cyclone Yasi. What about the political storm that burst out of the Australian Workers Union’s national conference on the Gold Coast? What the hell was all that about?
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World Indices
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| Dow Jones Industrial | 12,391.25 | + 73.11 | + 0.59% |
| S&P 500 | 1,343.01 | + 2.58 | + 0.19% |
| NASDAQ | 2,833.95 | + 2.37 | + 0.08% |
| Wilshire 5000 | 14,193.72 | + 19.40 | + 0.14% |
| FTSE 100 | 6,082.99 | - 4.39 | - 0.07% |
| CAC 40 | 4,157.14 | + 4.83 | + 0.12% |
| SMI | 6,717.25 | + 10.78 | + 0.16% |
| DAX | 7,426.81 | + 21.30 | + 0.29% |
| HANG SENG INDEX | 23,595.24 | + 293.40 | + 1.26% |
| STRAIT TIME INDEX | 3,086.92 | + 4.09 | + 0.13% |
| Nikkei 225 | 10,842.80 | + 6.16 | + 0.06% |
| SSE COMPOSITE/d | 2,899.79 | - 27.17 | - 0.93% |
Cyndi’s cool with the blues
Almost 30 years on, quirky ’80s pop darling Cyndi Lauper rediscovers her spiritual home, writes Hannah Tattersall.
Complex question with no answer
Certified Copy is one of those exasperating movies that nevertheless keep you watching
Knockoffs ‘help luxury labels’
Gucci, Prada and other luxury goods makers may benefit from counterfeiters copying their products, according to new research.
Keeping the drone alive
Perhaps one upside of the global financial crisis was that cost-conscious companies stopped hiring motivational speakers.
The power to move you
If you want to be among the first – if not the very first – person in Australia to be booked for speeding in an electric car, Tesla has a deal for you.
Floods and fires prove testing times
There’s already much discussion as to what quality of wines will be produced this 2011 vintage year, following the recent extraordinary weather.
Resources Daily latest
Oil prices rise as Mid East unrest escalates
Benchmark crude prices rose on Friday as anti-government clashes in the Middle East kept worries of oil supply disruptions alive ahead of the three-day holiday weekend in the United States.
Copper rises on $US; Vale cuts lift nickel
Copper rose on Friday as the doper centlar softened versus the euro, attracting non-US investors, while news miner Vale would cut some of its nickel output underlining supply concerns.
Dealbook latest
Nasdaq, ICE consider making joint NYSE bid
With several big financial markets combining - not the least of which are NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse - some of the other exchanges are pondering a way to get a piece of the action.
Tassal suffers long wait for a bite
Four months after it put itself up for auction, Australia’s biggest salmon producer, Tassal, is yet to receive a formal offer for a controlling stake in the company.
Life & Leisure
Poor man’s TV puts up a good show
This Digital life | Buy a cheap TV set and you’re mostly sacrificing style.
National
Tips to avoid tripping up
Relativities | Astute readers will have noticed that there is a section called Traveller on a nearby page of this paper, written by business people, who travel so often that they can master almost anything.
Latest columns
Digesting that less is more
Please don’t choke on your cornies. . . but the Seventh Day Adventist doctor John Harvey Kellogg developed breakfast cereals because he thought they’d suppress the evil male urge for sex and masturbation.
Art is hung drawn and quartered
Gallery owners and art dealers were celebrating last year when the federal government rejected a proposal in the Cooper superannuation review to ban self-managed schemes from holding art, stamps, and rare notes and coins. But, it seems, their victory was short-lived.
Business
So much money he doesn’t know what to do
BHP Billiton’s chief executive is facing an enviable problem – how to keep his war chest from the hands of shareholders, unions, communities and the government.
Tension in the shopping trolley ranks
Woolworths chief executive Michael Luscombe was uncharacteristically subdued as he released the retailer’s first-quarter sales figures late last year.
Markets
A good home for your money
Last year’s interest rate rises have bumped some first-home buyers out of the market and taken heat out of prices at the bottom end. Both those factors make real estate a buyer’s market for investors.
Get ready for extra beer money
The High Court ruling over student expenses could have generous implications, writes Joanna Mather.
World
Australia stands up for WikiLeaks’ Assange
Australia’s ambassador to Sweden is seeking assurances that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be treated fairly should he be extradited from the UK to Scandinavian nation.
The big short meets the maestro
John Paulson, the hedge fund manager who made $US4 billion betting against mortgage investments, on Thursday night interviewed Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman.