THE NEWS WRAP: Commonwealth Bank to battle Square in mobile payments

The Commonwealth Bank is set to unveil a pocket-sized mobile banking terminal, ahead of a rumoured Australian launch by mobile payments startup Square.

The mobile payments terminal, named Emmy, will allow businesses to conduct tap-and-go payments or chip-and-pin payments remotely, and connects over Bluetooth with an iPhone app.

The new Commonwealth Bank terminal joins other similar, recently introduced products by PayPal, Westpac and MYOB.

24/7 social media monitoring for Domino’s

Pizza giant Domino’s has announced a move to around-the-clock monitoring of its social media accounts across all platforms.

“People want to be heard and they want to be heard in real time. If you ask a question, or are emotional about something, then you are not interested in waiting half a day or even days to get a response,” Domino’s executive Don Meij said.

“From our point of view, we want to encourage more feedback… companies go out and spend hundreds of thousands to a million dollars on research and yet their real customers are wanting to give them feedback and wanting to tell them about their business.”

Apple prepares massive bond issue

Apple is reportedly preparing a major bond issue in order to fund its share buyback scheme, which it recently boosted from $US60 billion ($A64.7b) to $US90 billion.

While the tech giant has over $140 billion in cash and equivalents, around two-thirds are from overseas operations, and would be taxed at 35% if repatriated to the US.

The move to issue bonds rather than repatriate cash is part of an ongoing program of tax minimisation by the tech giant that has seen it come under increasing scrutiny in recent years.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up to 16448.7. The Aussie dollar is up to US92.62 cents.