Landcorp, New Zealand’s largest corporate farmer, plans to increase returns from sheep, signing a three-year contract with NZ Merino to manage its entire wool clip and seeking board approval next month to build a new shed to trial milking some of the flock. The state-owned enterprise indicated last July it was taking a serious look at milking sheep as a way of getting a …

The New Zealand dollar slipped as stocks on Wall Street rallied ahead of economic data that’s expected to show a faster pace of growth in the world’s biggest economy. The kiwi declined to 77.24 US cents at 8am in Wellington from 77.49 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index decreased to 78.41 from 78.53 yesterday. Stocks on Wall Street rose, with the Dow …

Wall Street rose as gains in shares of Intel and IBM outweighed declines in shares of Chevron and Exxon Mobil, as investors positioned themselves for the end of the year. “It’s going to be pretty tough to divine anything meaningful from the market this week with Christmas coming up on Thursday and with trading desks half-staffed,” Michael James, a Los …