AAP

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has predicted the final federal budget deficit for 2011/12 will be around $50 billion.

African-focused iron ore explorers Sundance Resources and Equatorial Resources are exploring the potential to share rail infrastructure.

The Reserve Bank of Australia believes the nation's booming mining industry is balancing out weakness in other parts of the economy, suggesting there was no need to cut interest rates.

Australia is boosting its diplomatic footprint in China.

The Australian share market has opened lower on concerns over a slowdown in China and despite a positive lead from Wall Street.

Retail spending appears to be on the rebound, with a seventh consecutive month of growth, an industry study shows.

US stocks have pushed higher on news that Apple plans a huge dividend and share buyback program and delivery giant UPS is buying European rival TNT.

The Australian dollar has climbed to a 10-day high in the absence of major economic data releases.

Shale gas fracking is set to begin in the lower Mid West in June, after months of regulatory delays.

Agribusiness Elders expects a substantial injection of cash if it emerges the winner in a long-running tax dispute with the Australian Taxation Office.

The Australian share market finished stronger, boosted by the resources sector with iron ore players Fortescue Metals Group and Atlas Iron the standouts. 

Shareholders will be hit with double taxation on dividends from miners if the federal government's mining tax legislation is passed, Australia's biggest and oldest listed investment company says.

The opposition has taken Treasurer Wayne Swan to task for insisting that Australia's 2.7 million small businesses will benefit from a planned cut in the company tax rate.

Boosting productivity growth is the only way for Australians to improve their living standards, the country's central bank chief says.

The number of scams reported to Australia's consumer watchdog almost doubled last year, with financial losses from the rorts totalling more than $85 million.

Several Woodside Petroleum oil fields off the Western Australian coast remain suspended from production following Tropical Cyclone Lua.

Minemakers has rejected reports that Indian state-owned miner NMDC is poised to buy all of its rock phosphate reserves, saying it is only in talks to sell half and for a lot more than flagged.

Qantas says it is committed to heavy maintenance in Australia but will push ahead with plans to consolidate its three maintenance hubs into one or two bases.

The federal government will spend $5.4 billion upgrading regional airstrips where passenger numbers are growing faster than at major city airports.

All Australians will be entitled to government-funded training if the states and territories sign up to a new federal government plan.

The Australian share market has opened slightly higher.

The Australian dollar is more than half a US cent higher, following last week's US equities rally.

A clear improvement in the Federal Reserve's economic outlook, and a solid outcome of the Fed's stress tests for major banks, gave the markets another strong two per cent-plus boost this week.

Hong Kong-listed Wah Nam International has declared its cash and scrip takeover offer for iron ore explorer Brockman Resources free from all remaining conditions.

Copies of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald could soon be harder to find in some newsagents as Fairfax begins to deliberately cut its newspaper circulation.

The Australian dollar was firmer after lifting back above 105 US cents in response to a positive session on US equity markets in offshore trading.

The Australian share market closed flat, having recouped losses earlier in the day.

The chief executive of the nation's largest cattle producer Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) says the company is ready to increase its live cattle exports to Indonesia.

Rio Tinto's salt operations at Port Hedland are being secured as Tropical Cyclone Lua comes closer to land.

The stream of economic reports since the central bank board met last week has hardly been inspiring.

Finders Resources has inked a deal with Standard Bank for the sale of up to 60 per cent of all copper cathode produced at its Wetar project in Indonesia.