Monday March 1, 2010, 8:44 am The Australian December half profit reporting season is now essentially complete. While results have been a bit mixed over the last week or so, the overall impression has been strong, suggesting that earnings have now bottomed out aand are on the

Buffett has more than $4.5 billion invested in Munich Re and Swiss Reinsurance Co., choosing to put Berkshire's cash in two companies that account for more than a third of the global market instead of using the money to compete against them. Had Buffett, as Berkshire's chairman and chief

NAB also disclosed that it had yet to benefit from a significant bottom-line increase from falling bad debts, despite signs that its impairment charges had now peaked. Its first-quarter results for the 2010 financial year showed a $202 million drop in sour loans since September. At the same

Monday February 15, 2010, 9:20 pm The Australian profit reporting season has so far proven to be very strong. In fact profit news in countries like the US, Japan and some European countries have also been as strong. Australia has been stronger than expected at the start

JAMES Packer's Macau joint venture has quietly given up on its dream of owning a third casino in Macau. Nasdaq-listed Melco Crown Entertainment had planned to build the $US675 million ($A1.1 billion) ''Trinity'' casino and have it ready to open this year. The casino was to be built on

A rush of commercial property deals, including yesterday's $297 million sale by Macquarie Group of its property management arm to Charter Hall, combined with more than $12 billion of equity raised by the sector, has started to rekindle banks' interest in the commercial property sector. At the

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.6 percent to 1,081.54 at 2:58 p.m. in New York, trimming the week’s advance to less than 0.7 percent. The euro weakened 0.6 percent after earlier tumbling as much as 1.2 percent to touch a nine-month low against the dollar. Oil and copper

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated 0.4 percent to 1,074.36 at 1 p.m. in New York, trimming the week’s advance to less than 0.8 percent. The MSCI World Index of stocks in 23 developed nations slipped 0.1 percent. The euro slid as much as 1.2 percent to touch a nine-month low aga

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated 1.4 percent, erasing the week’s advance, and the MSCI World Index slipped 0.9 percent at 9:46 a.m. in New York. The euro slid as much as 1.2 percent against the dollar after European leaders pledged yesterday to take “determined and coord