The auditor of failed lender OPI Pacific Finance has cut a $6.25 million deal with the firm’s receiver after losing a bid to strike out parts of the case earlier this year. ASX-listed Crowe Horwath, which acquired Lower Hutt-based Sherwin Chan & Walshe as a member firm, settled the claim by OPI receiver Colin McLoy of PwC, it said in a statement …

Wall Street advanced, as did the US dollar, after Federal Reserve policy makers kept their pledge to maintain interest rates near zero for a “considerable time” after the end of its monthly bond-buying program. “‘Considerable time’ sounds like it is a calendar concept, but it is highly conditional and it is linked to the committee’s assessment of the economy,” Fed …

New Zealand shares fell, paced by Spark New Zealand, as offshore investors sold yield stocks on the prospect the US Federal Reserve may start hiking rates sooner than anticipated, and increasing the returns on offer in the world’s biggest economy. Energy stocks fell as New Zealand’s general election draws closer. The NZX 50 Index fell 47.445 points, or 0.9 percent, to …