European Central Bank president Mario Draghi sent equities and the euro lower with comments that he’s concerned about the recent strength of the region’s common currency, signalling a potential rate cut. Draghi made the comments after policy makers of the ECB decided, as was widely expected, to keep the central bank’s benchmark interest rate steady at a record low 0.75 …

The Financial Markets Authority is preparing to file civil actions against the six directors of the failed finance company, Strategic Finance, saying it’s concluded they are “likely to have breached the Securities Act”. The apparent breaches were in a prospectus, advertisement and investment statement issued between March and August 2008. Strategic went into receivership in March 2010 owing approximately 11,000 …

New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell from a 13-year high in the last three months of 2012 as people stopped looking for work and the participation rate shrank to its lowest level in almost nine years. The unemployment rate fell 0.4 of a percentage point to 6.9 percent in the December quarter, as the number of people leaving the workforce fell …

Chorus’ executive in charge of building its tax-payer funded broadband programmes will leave the telecommunications network operator at the end April. General manager of network build Chris Dhyrberg decided to resign from Chorus over Christmas, and will stay on for another three months, the company said in a statement. Dhyrberg has been responsible for the roll-out of the ultra-fast broadband …

One of New Zealand’s best-known commercial construction firms, Mainzeal, placed its operating business in receivership as a combination of leaky homes suits and a botched supply chain from China combined to take the company down. sms spy android In a dramatic afternoon on New Zealand’s national day, Waitangi Day, Mainzeal Property and Construction (MPC) was placed in the hands of …

Equities advanced on both sides of the pond as a deal led by Michael Dell to take Dell private and a potential bid by Liberty Global for Virgin Media underpinned confidence in stock valuations. Shares of Dell rose, last up 0.9 percent to US$13.395, after founder and CEO Michael Dell announced a US$24.4 billion leveraged buyout. The transaction will be …

Prices of dairy products rose in Fonterra’s latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, the first since news emerged last month that small traces of a nitrate inhibitor had been found in some of the company’s milk powder. The GDT-TWI Price Index rose 2.4 percent compared to the last sale two weeks ago, the fourth straight gain. The average winning price rose to US$3,598 …

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept its cash rate unchanged at 3 percent as expected and said it sees room to cut interest rates if needed as inflation remains low. “With inflation likely to be consistent with the target, and with growth likely to be a little below trend over the coming year, an accommodative stance of monetary policy is …

South Island mining OceanaGold Corp is refusing to pay for diesel it bought from Z Energy, which charged for the fuel based on a higher cost of the emissions trading scheme than the New Zealand-owned company actually pays. Z’s lawyers agreed in court the company had charged more than it paid for carbon costs under the ETS, but that there …

The New Zealand gained against its Australian counterpart after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept interest rates on hold, while leaving a future cut on the table if slowing growth and inflation get out of hand. The kiwi rose to 80.88 Australian cents at 5pm in Wellington from 80.66 cents immediately before the announcement, and down from 81.10 cents yesterday. …