Latest Business News

It’s been a good couple of days for the London-focused property groups. Mid-cap developers Great Portland Estates and Derwent London enjoyed strong gains last week on news that the capital’s office market was booming.

This upswing was expected, with analysts repeatedly pointing to a revival after projects were pulled during the financial crisis.

But last week saw confirmation in the shape of updates from both Derwent and blue-chip peer Land Securities. The latter was particularly upbeat, and said it planned to embark on a speculative building spree to capitalise on the expected shortage in office space.

In Derwent’s case, the news was also good.

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The late 1990s-early 2000s explosion in technology stocks is a story well-known to those who have even a passing familiarity with the stock market. Some thrived, while others declined as quickly as they had risen. Throughout the first half of 2011, various internet-based companies have shown success similar to the tech boom of the previous decade’s early years.

According to Reuters, some consumers are willing to invest accordingly but others are less optimistic about companies including Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon and others. Still others appear to be hedging their bets, watching the market with eagle-eyed curiosity to see how these stocks progress. Full Post…

OZ Minerals has maintained its full year copper and gold production targets but says its priority for increasingly profitable copper may dampen gold production.

The company reported a lift in copper and gold production in the three months to June 30 from the March quarter, plus a reduction in costs.

Chief executive Terry Burgess said OZ Minerals was on target to produce 100,000 to 110,000 tonnes of copper in calendar 2011, and would aim for its forecast of 185,000 and 205,000 ounces of gold.

“The direction that we are taking is we still aim to make our (gold) guidance,” he told analysts on Tuesday.

“It’s not going to be our main priority if we find it is going to influence our copper production.

“The priority will be to treat copper ore.”

Revenue generated from the treatment of copper ore is about four times that generated from the treatment of gold ore at current commodity prices, Mr Burgess said.

OZ Minerals’s main operation is the Prominent Hill mine in South Australia, while it also conducts exploration in the Prominent Hill area for additional copper-gold resources, and in Cambodia.

The company is holding about $750 million in cash for potential takeovers and Mr Burgess said the company was busy looking for prospects that could add value for shareholders.

“We continue to look at opportunities,” he said.

Meanwhile the company said it does not believe it will be hit by any direct costs from the federal government’s proposed carbon tax, with its emissions coming only from fuel used by trucks and excavators.

But it expects indirect cost increases of between $7 million and $10 million annually if the proposal comes in next June, because of higher fuel and freight costs.

OZ Minerals made a net profit of $586.9 million in calendar 2010.

The miner also said it would buy back up to $200 million of its shares on market, as previously indicated.

Its shares were up 10 cents, or 0.8 per cent, at $13.06 at 1141 AEST. Full Post…

FOX Business: The Power to Prosper

The blue chips closed near session lows after another day of negotiations in Washington yielded little results on the debt ceiling debacle, and traders mulled a deluge of corporate and economic data. 

Today’s Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 91.5 points, or 0.73%, to 12,501, the S&P 500 dipped 5.5 points, or 0.41%, to 1,332 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.8 points, or 0.1%, to 2,840. The FOX 50 fell 2.9 points to 945. 

After another day of tense negotiations on Capitol Hill and in the White House, lawmakers remained deadlocked on how to raise the U.S. de

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The debate in the U.S. Congress over the federal government’s debt, which has caused intense political polarization and has led experts to warn of a possible default on the debt by August 2, has not caused those with investments in 401(k) and other retirement plans to panic, according to the Casa Grande Dispatch.

At major 401(k) firms such as the Vanguard Group and Charles Schwab & Co, company representatives have claimed not to see any significant level of withdrawal from accounts on the part of their clients. Full Post…