Wall Street rallied amid optimism about the outlook for companies including Netflix as they beat earnings expectations. Shares of Netflix soared, last up 23.7 percent, after the company yesterday said it had added 2 million new US customers last quarter. Of the 131 Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies that have reported their quarterly results so far, 73 percent have …

The Australian and New Zealand dollars fell after a measure of manufacturing in China grew at a slower-than-expected pace this month, stoking concerns that the world’s second-biggest economy is stumbling and global expansion is more muted. The HSBC Flash Purchasing Managers Index fell to 50.5 in April from 51.6 in March, missing estimates in a Bloomberg survey of 51.5. The …

New Zealand’s largest insurance group, IAG, has slightly improved its underlying profit margins on insurance products while passing on a doubling in the cost global reinsurance because of the Canterbury earthquakes. In a presentation for investors in Sydney, IAG’s New Zealand chief Jacki Johnson said reinsurance costs had risen to 15 percent of gross written premiums (GWP) in the first …