Business
could fast regional rail be more than a pipe dream?
Yes. Corporate subscriptions are available for teams and organisations, with discounted rates as user numbers increase. Pricing starts from $1,625 + GST per user.
Get in touch
to discuss the right option for your organisation.
Business News subscriptions are used by executives, investors, consultants and professionals who need to stay informed and make better decisions about the WA market. When you subscribe you’ll get
- Unlimited access to WA’s most trusted business journalism
- Data & Insights — detailed profiles of WA companies, people, projects and deals
- MyBN — a personalised feed based on the companies, people and sectors you follow
- Special publications and industry reports
- Daily and weekly email newsletters
Data & Insights is a research tool built specifically for the WA market. It draws on more than 30 years of Business News reporting, updated regularly to reflect what’s happening now. Use it to:
- Look up detailed profiles of WA companies, including financials, directors and ownership
- Find decision-makers and track their career movements
- Research live and completed projects across WA industries
- Monitor deals, appointments and market activity
- Access industry rankings and league tables
Data & Insights is updated daily by our dedicated research team, which uses the latest announcements, ASX filings and editorial coverage to keep our person, company, list and project records up to date.
Business News welcome all opportunities to make our dataset accurate, complete and current, so if you have an update request, please email the team at
general@businessnews.com.au, and we’d be happy to assist.
MyBN
is part of every subscription. It’s your personalised view of Business News. You can follow the companies, people, sectors and projects that matter to you, and get a news feed and alerts tailored to your interests. You can save articles to read later and retain only what you need.
Only subscribers have full access to all content on the Business News website.
If staying informed about the WA economy is part of your job, and/or you’re looking for networking opportunities in WA, Business News is built for you.
Business News subscribers are:
- Executives and directors tracking competitors, clients and market movements
- Investors and advisers researching companies, deals and industry trends
- Consultants and professionals staying across sectors relevant to their clients
- Business owners looking for leads, context and market intelligence
Most Business News publications cover national or global markets. Business News is focused entirely on Western Australia, which means the journalism, the data and the intelligence are all built around WA companies, people and projects — not adapted from a national feed. Data & Insights, included with every subscription, combines more than 30 years of WA-specific editorial research with live business data. There’s no comparable product for the WA market.
The Morning Digest Email provides a comprehensive wrap of the major headlines, relevant to WA business, and includes with a snapshot of the overnight news covering oil, gold and ASX-listed companies.
The Afternoon Wrap Email focuses on the news covered by our team of journalists during the course of the working day, including exclusive stories and analysis, all of which relates to WA business and the local economy.
The BN Weekender Email contains a wrap of the Business News from the week that was, highlighting the top stories in each area of WA business.
Sign up for free.
We’re happy to help.
Get in touch
and our team will come back to you.
Not long ago, hand-drafted drawings, paper schedules, verbal progress reports, and manual budget tracking methods were the accepted modes of operation in the construction industry.
Of course, these manual processes also created lags in data transfer and communication that could render blueprints, reports, and other information sources obsolete upon arrival.
Thankfully, the complexity of today’s construction industry has been accompanied by advanced construction software tools capable of harnessing the wealth of available cost, schedule, safety, and quality data each project reveals. The value of this data depends not only on its breadth and accuracy, but on whether teams receive it while they can still act upon it.
Construction Doesn’t Have a Data Shortage
As anyone who has visited a modern construction site can tell you, there is no shortage of data to be collected and reviewed. Technologies like IoT sensors, mobile software apps, and cloud-based BIM platforms make data on task completion, schedule adherence, safety incidents, and countless other metrics available to us.
Unfortunately, the collection of data doesn’t guarantee it will reach the right audience at the right time. Key decisions related to construction budget management, procurement, and resource allocation rely on data that is both accurate and timely. The best software tools connect the dots between data sources and stakeholders, ensuring financial, quality, safety, or logistical issues are prioritized and addressed proactively.
The Difference Between Reporting a Problem and Preventing One
In data-rich cloud computing and network security realms, visibility is assessed based on recognition time. In other words, no amount of data can keep powerful applications running smoothly and securely unless it is interpreted and acted upon quickly. This highlights the difference between reporting vs preventing problems that is fundamental in construction.
For example, subfloor changes to address safety concerns mid-project can be integrated seamlessly when information flows quickly. However, even a modest delay between project phases can cause a chain reaction, with wasted materials, schedule conflicts between impacted trades, and expedite fees creating an expensive and time-consuming mess.
Data Silos Can Hide the Real Project Story
Construction data silos were once the result of physical distances. Today, they are frequently caused by differing priorities and perspectives: While a project manager sees a task conforming to schedule, a procurement specialist only sees the markups, return fees, and delivery premiums required to keep pace. Additional sources of data silos in construction include:
- Disconnected software platforms
- Localized spreadsheets and trackers
- Confidentiality concerns between stakeholders
Eliminating these silos helps to enhance the flow and value of construction data, with connected information helping teams understand how changes or problems in one area can directly impact others.
Useful Data Should Trigger Decisions
Establishing robust links between construction data and the experts who need it is just the first step. Project managers, quantity surveyors, and cost accountants can become overwhelmed by growing lists of metrics and KPIs, regardless of their importance. The best construction budget management tools transform timely data into real-time highlights that identify exceptions and emerging problems. This allows decision-makers to narrow their focus and concentrate on key risks and opportunities, taking action before financial, schedule, or safety issues multiply.
From Data Collection to Project Visibility
The road to optimized visibility begins with commitments to collect available data in real-time, break down siloes that impede the flow of information, and develop tools and systems that convert raw data into timely alerts and updates. While technology is a common (and necessary) ingredient, additional steps that help to complete this transformation include:
- Reducing reliance on traditional, retrospective reporting processes
- Establishing clear ownership for data collection, review, and sharing activities
- Focused training to improve data literacy project-wide
Conclusion
The construction industry has never been short on data, but establishing the systems and protocols to ensure useful data is available when needed is a next-level challenge. These advanced capabilities drive design, procurement, and financial decisions that define project success, along with the safety, sustainability, and logistical features of an evolved jobsite.
As construction software tools improve to expand data collection, the dissemination of information to decision-makers is equally important. The best project data does more than explain what went wrong. It gives teams enough time to keep it from going wrong in the first place.
A Target store in Los Angeles, California, Aug. 19, 2026.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Tariff refunds have muddied retailers’ earnings reports in recent weeks as Wall Street struggles to parse through the confusion.
Most major retailers applied for refunds after the Supreme Court ruled in February that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorize President Donald Trump to impose the tariffs. That money began flowing in during the second quarter, as retailers saw major boosts to their profits.
For the most part, those returns have helped companies offset cost inflation and prop up margins, especially as they face cost pressures like the rising price of fuel. But the way those retailers have reported those refunds and incorporated them into their earnings has differed greatly, leading to confusion about how to read the strength of their results and their future outlooks.
“These trails aren’t always clean in terms of finding the right way to apply, in a fair sense, the rebate to prices,” Bryan Eshelman, a managing director in the retail practice at consulting firm AlixPartners, told CNBC.
Eshelman said there are two factors at play with how retailers handled the refunds. Determining where the extra money goes depends largely on the retailer’s price position in the market, where more value-driven companies are likely to apply funds to keep prices lower and “proclaim that to the marketplace,” he said.
The tariff refund situation has been further complicated for companies depending on whether they are the importer of record for the products, which determines who gets the refunds, Eshelman said. Much of what’s sold in stores isn’t necessarily imported by the retailer, or U.S. manufacturers may be the ones receiving rebates for raw materials.
“There’s also just the reality of record-keeping internal to retailers and whether or not they easily have a way to attribute the rebate directly back to a product that was already sold,” he said. “It’s not a simple task.”
Price cuts
Shopping carts at a Home Depot store in New York, Feb. 25, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Some retailers chose to explicitly say they were dedicating their extra cash to lowering prices on products for consumers.
Home Depot saw its gross margin increase 0.3% in its fiscal second quarter compared with the prior year, driven by its tariff refund. The company said it received $730 million in tariff refunds during the period, using roughly $685 million of that money to reduce the cost of goods sold.
Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said on a call with analysts that those funds represent “the vast majority” of what the company was expecting to receive.
Walmart took a similar route. CFO John David Rainey told CNBC last week that the company was eligible to receive roughly $2.9 billion in tariff refunds and has yet to get back just under $100 million of that total. Its gross profit for Walmart U.S. grew 1.6% from the boost.
He told CNBC that the company plans to use those funds to lower prices for consumers, and shoppers and investors will see the impact during its current fiscal third quarter.
TJX Cos. also said it used its $331 million in tariff refunds to benefit its second-quarter cost of sales.
Eshelman said low-price operators likely have a “strategic reason” to apply refunds to prices, though enticing consumers with value has become harder in an increasingly crowded retail space.
“At the end of the day, a product is worth what somebody’s willing to pay for it, and there is a lot of choice in this marketplace,” Eshelman said.
Margin boosts
Lowe’s, on the other hand, said its tariff refund gave it an 11-cent boost to its earnings per share for the second quarter. CEO Marvin Ellison told CNBC the company received roughly $80 million in repayments and did not plan to use tariff dollars to lower prices, unlike some of its competitors.
“We feel strongly that we want to deliver strong profitability for our shareholders and make sure that we don’t follow any aggressive pricing action,” he said.
Ellison added on a call with analysts that the company took “the right planned steps to drive profitability” with its windfall. He said as the company moves into the second half of the year, Lowe’s will “think first about how we’re going to share those with the customer.”
Target also did not explicitly say whether the company was using its tariff refunds to cut prices, though the company said it lowered prices on more than 10,000 items in the second quarter. Still, the retailer said tariff refunds gave it a $752 million boost to net earnings, or $1.65 per share, and a $994 million pretax benefit to its second-quarter gross margin and operating income.
“We have, and will continue, to invest in price to ensure our guests are getting tremendous value each and every time they visit us at Target,” CFO Jim Lee said on a call with reporters.
Kohl’s CEO Michael Bender told CNBC on Wednesday that the company put $100 million of the refunds it has received into its gross margin in the second quarter and plans to use the rest to invest in deeper inventory.
“All of [the uses of the repayments] have to have a return, so we’re not just going to be throwing money out and saying, ‘I hope this works,’ but we’re very disciplined about it,” Bender said.
AlixPartners’ Eshelman said the one-time tariff boosts are also going to have implications for future quarters, especially as retailers forecast a higher-than-expected tariff rate and Trump’s tariff policies change by the day.
Wall Street and Main Street
The extra boosts to earnings this quarter meant that comparisons to last year’s results were skewed in retailers’ favor in many cases.
But on the other side of that coin, those windfalls will also set a higher bar for comparisons next year due to the inflated numbers this season.
“It’s an unfair positive comparison to last year’s quarter, and it’s going to be an unfair negative comparison to next year’s quarter,” Eshelman said. “I think investors need to just, where it’s material, make that adjustment in their expectations.”
For shoppers, Eshelman said it’s likely consumers won’t be able to quantify if the price cuts are truly proportionate to the refunds that the retailers received. Inflationary pressures like rising fuel prices, among other factors, can also affect those prices.
“How does a consumer know what percentage of a price increase was tariff-related versus diesel or fuel related?” he said. “How does a consumer know that the price went down commensurate with the level of rebate?”
Still, a silver lining from the tariff situation may be that retailers are catching on to needing to have more diverse and agile supply chains.
And at the end of the day, Eshelman said, the tariff calculus comes down to how retailers want their core customer to perceive them.
“To me, a lot of this is marketing,” he said. “It’s trying to create a price perception with consumers, which is an important part of any retailer’s job, and I find it hard to untangle that.”
A group of former Amazon.com AMZN -1.78%decrease; down pointing triangle warehouse employees is suing the company, alleging they were illegally punished and eventually terminated for seeking accommodations related to their pregnancies.
The class-action, led by four ex-warehouse workers, alleges that Amazon deducted their bank of unpaid time off or flagged them for “time off-task” for medically necessary breaks or absences.
Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Melissa Alcruz now works in marketing for a US real estate business based in New York City, but in the past she did the same job for TV channel MTV.
While at MTV she competed in an internal competition for a promotion that she says was referred to as a “bake-off”. Candidates had to come up with sponsorship and marketing campaigns, and then pitch to a room of seven people.
“This is intimidating, even for a seasoned professional. I ultimately got the job, but even though I won I disliked the process,” says Alcruz.
She points out that she already had a demanding full-time role at the company, and was then “expected to complete several substantial projects” for the competition in her spare time.
MTV’s current parent company, Paramount Skydance Corporation, has been asked for a comment.
Former recruitment consultant Katrina Collier, now an author, speaker and recruiter trainer, is concerned that competition-based recruitment processes that potentially require candidates to give up lots of their time for free can create “economic discrimination”.
“Not everyone can take time, possibly months, to participate in the challenges for the chance to secure one of a limited number of roles,” she says. “Does that mean only people from financially strong backgrounds proceed?
“Is that leaving talented applicants who don’t have the bank of mum or dad, for example, unable to take part?”
The Australian Taxation Office has been ordered to repay $4.2 million to an entity that formerly traded as Mrs Mac’s, as part of a legal dispute.
Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., discusses the impact on energy costs from the Iran war, the economic pressure on the Iran and his key messages for the GOP midterm convention on ‘Varney & Co.’
The Treasury Department slammed Iran Tuesday by sanctioning 36 targets linked to its aviation sector, which officials said the regime uses to “move weapons, personnel, and illicit cargo.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is taking action under Operation Economic Outcast, where the Treasury “promised severe consequences for those providing financial lifelines to the Iranian regime.”
“Today, we followed through on that promise with sanctions on companies that continue to support Mahan Air,” Bessent said, naming one of the country’s largest airlines. “Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system.”
The Treasury Department said Iran’s commercial airlines have “long supported the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps using ostensibly private airlines, such as Mahan Air, for the procurement and transport of weapons and the ferrying of personnel.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is taking action under Operation Economic Outcast. (Mehmet Eser/Anadolu via Getty Images; Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Today’s action also targeted covert front companies, foreign intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment routes that Iran relies on to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft and sensitive technology,” it added.
The 27 Iranian airlines sanctioned under Tuesday’s actions are: Air Shiraz, Asa Jet Airline, Ata Airlines Company, Atlas Aviation Group, Ava Airlines, Chabahar Airlines Company, Erwan Airline Company, Fly Kish Airlines, Fly Persia Airlines, Iran Air Tour, Iran Aseman Airlines, Jsky Airlines, Kish Airlines, Karun Airlines Company, Lad Airways, Mehr Airways, Nasim Air, Pars Oghyanous Kish Company, Qeshm Air, Raimon Airways, Saha Airlines, Sepehran Airlines, Soroush Air, Taban Airlines, Toos Airlines, Varesh Airlines and Zagros Airlines.
BESSENT VOWS TO ‘ASPHYXIATE’ IRAN ECONOMICALLY, WARNS REGIME’S OFFSHORE ASSETS WILL BE FROZEN
U.S. Central Command released new images showing Marines conducting live-fire training onboard the USS Boxer. (CENTCOM)
The other sanctions included targeting United Arab Emirates-based ECT Aviation Support LLC (ECT Aviation Support UAE) and Turkey-based Sky Phoenix Hava Yollari Tasimaciligi Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Sky Phoenix), which the Treasury said “served as intermediaries in the scheme to transfer U.S.‑origin aircraft to Mahan Air.”
“Lastly, [the] Office of Foreign Assets Control is taking action against cargo service providers and general sales agents that have serviced Mahan Air’s international flights,” according to the Treasury.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He is now the new leader of Iran. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
“Turkey-based S Sistem Lojistik Hizmetler Anonim Sirketi (S Sistem) has coordinated shipments, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) components and industrial equipment destined for Iran, on behalf of Mahan Air,” it said in naming one of the sanctioned entities.
This is the forum for daily political discussion on Seeking Alpha. A new version is published every market day.
Please don’t leave political comments on other articles or posts on the site.
The comments below are not regulated with the same rigor as the rest of the site, and this is an ‘enter at your own risk’ area as discussion can get very heated. If you can’t stand the heat… you know what they say…
More on Today’s Markets:
Moderation Guidelines:
We remove comments under the following categories:
- Personal attacks on another user account
- Anti-Vaxxer or covid related misinformation
- Stereotyping, prejudiced or racist language about individuals or the topic under discussion.
- Inciting violence messages, encouraging hate groups and political violence.
Regardless of which side of the political divide you find yourself, please be courteous and don’t direct abuse at other users.
For any issue with regards to comments please email us at : moderation@seekingalpha.com.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
US holiday retail sales growth set to accelerate, Deloitte says
Sensex lost 22 points to 74,742 while Nifty 50 gained 15 points to 24,447 on Thursday. Broader markets remained mixed, with Nifty Midcap 100 in the red and Nifty Smallcap 100 in the green.
M&M and Adani Ports shares dropped around 1% each, while Axis Bank, SBI and ITC shares gained nearly 1% each. Among the sectors, Nifty PSU Bank index gained around 1% while Nifty Auto fell over 0.5%.
The overall market breadth turned positive, with NSE seeing 1,607 advances against 1,056 declines, while 125 stocks remained unchanged.
What lies ahead for Dalal Street?
Even though India’s forex reserves are comfortable and the current account deficit is under control, if crude remains above $100 for an extended period of time, it will impact India’s GDP growth this year, with its fallout on corporate earnings too, said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments. According to him, the sectors that are likely to be impacted are energy-sensitive sectors like aviation, paints, adhesives, tyres and chemicals. In such an environment, defensives like FMCG and sectors with inelastic demand like pharmaceuticals and healthcare will remain resilient, he added.
“Growth sectors like digital platform companies continue to be on strong footing. Even though banking stocks, particularly the large private sector players, are technically weak, they are fundamentally strong. The risk-reward ratio in this segment favours reward, for long-term investors,” the analyst said.Technical view on Nifty
Nifty’s recovery attempts in the last few days have turned out to be brief and have only served to add momentum to downsides, said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Investments. With 23,260-23,000 next line, upside marker slips to 23,520.
Meanwhile, VIX is still below 12, but is rising fast enough to potentially beat the highest volatility seen in August, he added.
More to come…
Check out what’s clicking on FoxBusiness.com.
Cream cheese and ready-to-eat deli-style salads are facing a recall over potential listeria contamination.
New York-based Made Fresh Salads, Inc. issued a recall this week for all of its cream cheese products and Ready-to-Eat Deli Style Salads in response to the listeria risk.
Made Fresh Salads’ recalled cream cheese items include 5-pound and 30-pound tubs of various flavors, such as 5-pound apple cinnamon cream cheese, 5-pound tofu vegetable spread, 30-pound whipped cream cheese and 30-pound scallion cream cheese.
The company also recalled dozens of ready-to-eat salad products, including 5-pound chickpea salad, 5-pound bowtie pesto, 30-pound macaroni salad and 30-pound potato salad.
MORE THAN 1,500 POUNDS OF PORK RECALLED OVER LISTERIA CONTAMINATION RISK
Cream cheese and ready-to-eat deli-style salads are facing a recall over potential listeria contamination. (iStock / iStock)
The company’s 7-pound chocolate pudding, 6-pound vanilla pudding, 12-piece crab cakes and 12-piece potato croquettes were also subject to the recall.
Affected items have expiration dates ranging from Sept. 3 to Sept. 18.
The salads and cream cheese items were distributed in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx in New York City in 5-pound and 30-pound white plastic tubs with a Made Fresh Salads label or Northside label and half-size aluminum pans.
DOG SUPPLEMENTS RECALLED OVER POTENTIAL SALMONELLA CONTAMINATION
Made Fresh Salads, Inc. issued a recall this week for all of its cream cheese products and Ready-to-Eat Deli Style Salads. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
The products may have been repacked by retail locations in deli-style or other retail packaging, according to the company, although retail packaging and coding can vary based on purchase location.
The recall was initiated following environmental sampling by the company and the Food and Drug Administration, revealing that some areas of the facility tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. The company has ceased production and distribution of the products as it continues to investigate, along with the FDA, what caused the contamination.
A listeria infection can cause symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, as well as miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
The recall was initiated following environmental sampling by the company and the Food and Drug Administration. (iStock / iStock)
CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO
It can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems.
No illnesses have been reported thus far in connection with the recalled products.
Consumers who purchased the affected items are urged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.
Merkz, DNJ Records, Bhad Gad Records – Bitcoin (Official Music Video)
The 31 bus services facing shake-ups as stops dropped and timetables changed
When Construction Data Misses the Moment
-
Crypto World1 day agoBitcoin price risks $76K drop as $78K support weakens
-
Tech2 days agoMemory prices are slowing because buyers ran out of money
-
Crypto World1 day agoEthereum price stalls below $2,500 as ADX drops to 11
-
Crypto World2 days agoRobinhood Stock: How To Take Advantage With Reduced Risk
-
NewsBeat1 day agoWhat went right this week: an ‘historic’ fall in violent crime, plus more
-
Crypto World21 hours agoBitcoin price holds near $79K as cycle drawdowns narrow
-
Sports2 days agoPhones confiscated, players sent home: Pakistan’s England tour turmoil revives memories of Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif’s 2010 Lord’s spot-fixing scandal | Cricket News
-
NewsBeat2 days agoEngland up in reading, maths and science rankings as Scotland and Wales dip
-
Crypto World2 days agoBrent Crude Oil Moves Above $100 for the First Time in 3 Months
-
Business1 day agoMeta debuts long-awaited personal AI agent, Muse
-
Crypto World2 days agoVisa expands stablecoin card network to 160 programs
-
Business2 days agoEgyptian TV Presenter Sarah Khalifa, 11 Others Sentenced To Death In Major Drug Trafficking Case In Cairo
-
Tech2 days agoStrong Password Policy and Password Manager Guide
-
Crypto World2 days agoIntel Stock Jumps 9% on Chip Price Hike Report, US Stake Gains $36 Billion
-
Crypto World2 days agoPump Fun and Kraken delete Hunter Biden $LAPTOP promotion
-
Tech1 day agoMeta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?
-
Entertainment1 day agoBig Brother Spoilers: Dee SPINS & HUSTLES Votes – Yash Questions the Pact
-
Crypto World5 hours agoBitcoin price risks $70K if $78K neckline breaks
-
Business1 day agoServiceTitan, Inc. (TTAN) Q2 2027 Earnings Call Transcript
-
Sports1 day agoBallon d’Or 2026 Nominees: Lionel Messi In, Cristiano Ronaldo Out; Erling Haaland Included In Top 30
You must be logged in to post a comment Login