Wellington City Council has signed off on a 165-bed Hilton Corp hotel and convention centre in a deal with a local developer Mark Dunajtschik it says will give the city low-cost, low-risk access to a facility that will add jobs and boost the capital’s economy. Under the proposal the council will pay an averaged $2.1 million a year to Dunajtschik under a …

The New Zealand dollar fell below a key support level of 77 US cents overnight, driven by a strengthening US currency on optimism about the outlook for the world’s largest economy. The kiwi touched 76.83 US cents, and was trading at 77.15 cents at 8am in Wellington, from 78.29 cents at 5pm yesterday. The trade-weighted index dropped to 76.51 from …

Wall Street rose, pushing the Dow to a record high, as the price of oil rebounded and Republicans won control of the Senate. In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.53 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.47 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.11 percent. The Dow rose as shares of …