Wall Street slumped as investors locked in profits in anticipation of a potential downgrade to the US Federal Reserve’s US$85 billion-a-month bond-buying program. In late afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.75 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.78 percent and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.84 percent. Fed Bank of Kansas City …

Cloud-based accounting firm Xero has toppled Port of Tauranga as the highest priced local stock on the NZX as it charts another notch in its belt, having more than tripled in the past 12 months. The Wellington-based company’s shares rose 0.7 percent today to $14.10, passing the port company, whose stock fell 2.7 percent to $13.90 in afternoon trading. That …

The New Zealand dollar may advance against the greenback this week as investors bet a slide in the local currency last month was overdone. The kiwi recently traded at 80.74 US cents from 80.68 cents at 5pm yesterday. The local dollar may trade in a range of 79.36 US cents to 83 US cents this week, with a positive bias, …

Mighty River Power says it has extended an option to increase its stake in US-based geothermal company EnergySource from 20 percent to 33.3 percent. In its first quarterly update since 49 percent of the state-controlled electricity company floated on the NZX and ASX on May 10, MRP says its original option expired last month, but had been extended to the …

The New Zealand government reported a smaller operating deficit than predicted in last month’s Budget forecasts as improving corporate profitability underpinned a bigger company tax take. The operating balance before gains and losses (obegal) was a deficit of $3.99 billion in the 10 months ended April 30, smaller than the $4.65 billion shortfall projected in the Budget Economic and Fiscal …

Snakk Media, which aggregates publishers’ ad space on mobile devices and matches it to advertisers’ demand, boosted annual sales 83 percent and is on the prowl for investment opportunities with its new $6.5 million war chest. Sales rose to $3.65 million in the 12 months ended March 31 from $1.99 million a year earlier, the Auckland-based company said in a …

A report on New Zealand by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development supports key elements of the Labour and Green parties’ policies for making the economy grow faster and distribute wealth more fairly. Its two-yearly review of the economy recommends a capital gains tax, permanent deposit insurance for banks that are “too big to fail” and raising the age …

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced, boosted by shares of Merck and Intel, though disappointing manufacturing data kept a lid on gains. Shares of Merck, last up 4.1 percent, bolstered the Dow as one of the company’s new cancer drugs showed promising results in an early study. Shares of Intel also advanced, last up 3.1 percent, after a FBR Capital …

Transpower, the state-owned electricity grid company, has sold its d-cyphaTrade unit to Australian stock market operator ASX for A$55 million. Transpower set up d-cyphaTrade in 2002. It promotes Australian exchange-traded electricity futures and then sells related training and information products. It had income of $10.4 million in 2012, down from $12.7 million a year earlier. “d-cyphaTrade and its future development …

Port of Tauranga chairman John Parker will retire in October after nine years leading the board and 17 as a director of the country’s biggest export port. David Pilkington, a director of the company since 2005, will replace Parker while former Waste Management chief executive Kim Ellis has been appointed an independent director. During Parker’s tenure as a director, the …