New Zealand house prices eased from a record last month while the volume of sales had a seasonal dip compared to December, according to the Real Estate Institute. The national median house price fell 4.9 percent in January from December to $370,000 and was 4.2 percent higher than in January 2012. The median price in Auckland rose 8.1 percent from …

The government’s chief statistician, Geoff Bascand, will leave Statistics New Zealand in May to take up a senior role at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Bascand will leave his chief executive’s role after six years in the job with timing that will allow him to see through the March 5 national census, which was delayed two years by the …

All eyes are on President Barack Obama’s annual State of the Union address, the first in his second term in office, Tuesday evening. In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index both dipped 0.20 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.09 percent. The Dow fell from the highest close …