Wall Street climbed amid signs that budget talks between US Democrats and Republicans are finally progressing, raising optimism an agreement to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff will be reached by the year-end deadline. President Barack Obama is said to have offered House Speaker John Boehner a lower target for new tax revenue. The two met at the White House yesterday. …

Prices of dairy products rose in the final GlobalDairyTrade auction of the year, though whole milk powder, the biggest product by volume, fell for the fourth sale in a row, The GDT-TWI Price Index rose 1.1 percent compared to the last sale two weeks ago. The average winning price rose to US$3,311 a metric tonne from US$3,290 a tonne in …

China’s biggest dairy company is set to invest $214 million in a new infant milk powder plant in New Zealand driving more competition into Fonterra’s back yard. Yili said it was attracted by NZ’s “relatively cheap” raw milk prices, as well as, the free trade agreement between China and New Zealand, under which dairy import tariffs reduce to zero by …