Tim Treadgold

The high-cost, low-price environment has put the squeeze on iron ore miners.

Bank bashing is a national sport in Australia, often played for good reason; but the latest round of kicking banks, which started this week with the release of a report by former Commonwealth Bank boss David Murray, could not have come at a worse time.

The move by Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest into beef production may ultimately be more about the land they own than ‘feeding China'.

FEATURE: Takeovers are a powerful way of delivering short-term returns to investors, as the Total Shareholder Return data released by Morningstar and applied to 700 companies on the Business News BNIQ database.

FEATURE: Tech-related stocks make up half of this year's top 10 TSR performers, but resources stocks feature prominently over the longer term.

FEATURE: Resources companies may dominate the big numbers on the local bourse, but it's a relatively unknown technology stock that leads in TSR.

Losing one contract is not the biggest problem confronting locally based education provider Navitas, even though Macquarie University's decision to end a near 18-year relationship wiped $800 million off the value of the stock yesterday.

The banks are at it again, and the ducks are close to lining up for a re-run of the GFC.

No financial result will be more carefully watched when annual reporting season kicks off in a few weeks than that of Qantas, a business some critics have dubbed the ‘Kodak of the aviation industry'.

Shell's move out of Woodside has opened up a range of scenarios as major players jostle for a stake of WA's LNG riches.

At the risk of being called a Luddite at best, and a heretic at worst, I have spent a bit of time over the past few months trying to understand the business case for social media – and failing.

The world's biggest economy is capitalising on cheaper energy and labour costs.

The lack of volatility in the stock market is making life tough for brokers and investment bankers.

If stock market and property prices are to be believed, the international financial world is back to where it was seven years ago, which either means good times have returned or we are exactly where we were just before the 2008 GFC.

It's hard to not admire Frank Lowy, either as founder and major shareholder of the Westfield retail property group or for the $6 billion personal fortune he has amassed after arriving in Australia as an impoverished European migrant in 1952.

The switch from ‘demand-pull' to ‘supply squeeze' in the global resources market may provide opportunities for WA miners.

No business sets out to deliberately make life hard for clients, especially if the client base includes some of Australia's richest people, which is why a recent technology change at the blueblood stockbroking firm JB Were is an example of how not to change a system.

‘A man before his time' isn't a description many would associate with the prime minister, but the federal budget may put him in that category.

Western Australia's nickel miners are celebrating a classic supply-side surprise, which has driven the price of their metal sharply higher; but the same Indonesian government ban on the export of unprocessed nickel ore could soon do the same way for another WA specialty – bauxite.

Deutsche Bank's latest analysis of Boral has rekindled debate over a potential move on the Buckeridge Group.

The $1.4 billion joint bid by Baosteel and Aurizon for control of Perth-based Aquila Resources marks a new wave of Chinese investment interest in WA's iron ore.

Just as Western Australia's nickel miners pop champagne corks to celebrate the remarkable 40 per cent rise in the nickel price over the past five months, signs have started to emerge that the party might soon be over

Increasingly generous staff share issues in the US threaten the rights of existing shareholders.

If prices for iron ore, coal, oil and gold are falling, which they are, how long before the Australian dollar follows?

Oakajee is being rejuvenated not so much as a mining project but more as an infrastructure play.

Masked by the delay in plans to merge Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining to create a $33 billion global gold mining giant is another sign that Western Australia's resources industry is losing its international investment appeal.

UBS has dug up hot numbers on the WA iron ore project that could propel the billionaire to world's richest person.

Finally, after decades of dithering and empty promises there is hope the ambitious Oakajee port and rail plan in the Mid West will move beyond the drawing board, not that there will be a ground-breaking ceremony for a few more years.

Managing community relations is proving a major challenge for oil and gas companies, and there's a lot of goodwill to claw back.

It's easy to understand why South Africa's Woolworths is currently being seen as a winner with its $2.15 billion takeover offer for David Jones, but it's also interesting to wonder whether Woolworths will be seen as a winner next year.

Uncertainty over the price of oil makes Seven Group Holdings' purchase of Nexus Energy a classic case of what business risk is all about.

It's amazing what an improvement a new owner can bring to a business, which is why the proposed break-up of Australia's biggest company, BHP Billiton, is excellent news for Western Australia, particularly the Goldfields and South West.