THE NEWS WRAP: ABS figures reveal a flicker of hope for retailers

There is a rare ray of sunshine for retailers in the form of new figures that show sales in May rose by an unexpected 0.5%.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal that most sectors, apart from food, saw growth in May, with sales of household goods, fashion and accessories leading the way.

Diamond attacks “reprehensible” rate-fixing

Bob Diamond, the former CEO of UK bank Barclays, has admitted that staff at the business committed “reprehensible” behaviour over the Libor fixing scandal.

Diamond, who was appearing before British MPs, said he was “physically ill” and “angry” when he saw evidence of the scandal, which saw Barclays traders manipulate inter-bank interest rates. 

HTC backed in Apple legal case

Apple has suffered another courtroom setback, with a UK judge ruling that HTC had not infringed upon its patent.

The judge said that Apple’s slide-to-unlock on its iPhone device was an “obvious” step and HTC did not breach a patent by deploying this feature.

Overnight

The Australian dollar was down to US102.77 cents.