Insights

The miners and some big-name stocks emerge as the clearest beneficiaries of the federal budget.

The US solar giant has vertically integrated down the supply chain into utility-scale projects - but its next, Apple-esque, survival step is even bolder.

The federal government's employment estimates predict that job growth will be weak and are at odds with the logic that welfare cuts will force Australians off the couch and into the workforce.

Climate Spectator editor Tristan Edis asks the US solar giant's chief executive about surviving the solar shake-out, competing with the Chinese, battery storage and the Silicon Valley affect.

Affordable services like Dropbox, Flickr, Shutterfly, SmugMug and Google Drive have made archiving and sharing happy snaps on the cloud a cinch.

Shell says its assets won't get stranded by a carbon bubble. Even with climate change on the international agenda ahead of Paris next year, the oil majors do seem safe.

If we ever want to create something like Star Trek's holodeck, we must build an internet that preferences high-quality, low-compression content - not 'Xeroxes of the Mona Lisa'.

Westfield's AGM, Westpac's leading index and speeches from Peter Dutton and Clive Palmer are of interest locally, while first-quarter US GDP is the big-ticket offshore item.

Another factor to be cautious about is fees.

Telstra chief executive David Thodey maps out the company's increasingly global trajectory and details the role its communications systems could play in transforming Australia's health system.

More than 20 companies are now offering solar PPAs in Australia, potentially expanding the market and streamlining the entire sales pitch for solar.

Telstra's historic returns have been attractive to shareholders, but if the group is to profit over the long term it has to invest in growth.

A rise in US home sales helped give Wall Street a modest push, while Chinese manufacturing figures also boosted market sentiment.

A new wave of Chinese financial reforms are set to accelerate the renminbi's transformation into a truly global currency.

Rather than block so many budgetary measures, Labor should seize the opportunity to properly address rising healthcare costs and an ageing population - problems that aren't going anywhere.

French firm R&R looks to be closing in on Peters Ice Cream after it cancelled a planned IPO, while Spotless storms back into the public marketplace.