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Wall Street is at record highs, backed by the US Federal Reserve’s ongoing commitment to providing easy money to help accelerate the economic recovery, and investors will be looking to a flurry of fresh data to provide further impetus. Today, investors will eye the release of the latest China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index to gauge if the world’s second largest …

Diligent Board Member Services, the governance app maker which was forced to restate its financial statements, posted a 58 percent rise in first quarter profit as it increased the number of Diligent Boardbooks users. Profit jumped to US$1.94 million in the three months ended March 31, from US$1.23 million a year earlier, the New York-based and locally listed company said in a statement. First quarter …

SeaDragon, which manufactures fish oil for health supplements, expects to more than double annual sales as two squalene contracts worth US$6 million boost revenue in the second half. The Nelson-based company’s two contracts to supply squalene, an oil refined from shark’s liver, will bring combined gross sales to US$6 million for the year starting Oct. 1, and chief executive Ross Keeley told BusinessDesk he …

Infratil, the energy, airport and transport investor, said it has provided interested parties with a confidential information memorandum on its Infratil Energy Australia (IEA) business and expects indicative offers for the assets by mid-July The Wellington-based investor, which is managed by Morrison & Co, flagged with its results last month that it had started a review of the Lumo and Direct …

Mining industry leaders are in shock over the rejection of an application to mine ironsands from the ocean floor off the coast of southern Taranaki, and one is questioning whether the six month fast-track process administered by the Environmental Protection Authority is too swift for complex mining projects, where changes to plans are often a feature of obtaining consent. A …

New Zealand’s economy grew at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the fastest first-quarter pace in eight years, supporting the central bank’s view that it must press on with interest rate increases to keep inflation at bay. The economy grew 1 percent pace in the first three months of the year, from an …

The administrators of failed retailer Postie Plus Group, which has been bought by a yet-to-be-named foreign retailer, will close 12 of the chain’s 82 shops in New Zealand, cutting 64 workers. Prior to the appointment of administrators David Bridgeman and Colin McCloy, Postie Plus management had identified a number of stores that were no longer viable, the PwC receivers said in a statement. The retailer went into …

Fonterra Cooperative Group has tapped the president of its China operations, Kelvin Wickham, to head up the newly created global ingredients while Johan Priem will take over his previous role. Wickham will become managing director of global ingredients which oversees “the sale of all ingredients globally, delivering solutions to our global accounts, tactical optimisation of demand and supply and managing the …

Sky Network Television will launch a subscription video on demand service by the end of the year in a challenge to Telecom Corp., ASX-listed Quickflix, Ezyflix and eventually US-based Netflix, which pioneered such offerings and will reportedly enter the local market officially in 2015. Auckland-based Sky TV’s new service would be free to existing customers and available for a fee …

The bid by TransTasman Resource to mine the seabed in the south Taranaki Bight was “premature” and should have spent longer on understanding the impacts of its proposals on both the environment and existing users, the decision-making committee appointed by the Environmental Protection Authority says in its decision, released today. The decision, the first in response to an application for …