The New Zealand dollar rose to a five-year high against the yen following the Bank of Japan’s announcement last week of much greater quantitative and qualitative easing to end deflation and weaken its currency. The kiwi rose to 82.61 yen and earlier reached 82.68 yen, the highest since May 2008, from 82.21 yen in New York on Friday. It slipped …

A fresh round of earnings will set the tone for Wall Street after US stocks posted their largest weekly slide of 2013 on mounting evidence the recovery has slowed. A much weaker-than-expected monthly jobs report on Friday capped a week of disappointing data on the American economy which has raised concern about corporate earnings with Alcoa, JP Morgan Chase and …

TV3’s Paddy Gower scooped the pix for the Gillard kiss (double-cheeks if you have to know) after John Key swept down the staircase at the Boao Sofitel hotel straight into the Australian Prime Minister’s open-armed greeting. The photo-op had been careful stage-managed by Julia Gillard’s PR who officiously told the NZ journalist delegation accompanying the PM to the prestigious Boao …