The Christchurch earthquakes will wipe about 0.5% from third-quarter gross domestic product, according to the Treasury Secretary John Whitehead..... Read more

The 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit Canterbury and the collapse of South Canterbury Finance last week eliminates any remaining chance of a September Official Cash Rate (OCR) hike according to economists... Read more

Dwindling prospects for further interest rate hikes by the Reserve Bank this year may stoke interest in corporate bonds as investors seek certainty of income... Read more

The majority of South Canterbury Finance's problem lending took place before it entered the Government's deposit guarantee... Read more

Christchurch's earthquakes will probably push up Australian insurers’ reinsurance costs, according to Fitch Ratings... Read more

Canterbury’s earthquake immediately hit Eftpos payments in the region with Saturday sales down 43% and Sunday sales down 18% on last year... Read more

Renaissance has responded to rumours circulating the market that it about to lose its distributor agreement for Apple products in New Zealand... Read more

House prices extended their decline for a fifth month as a backlog of unsold property sits on the market... Read more

The Canterbury earthquake will put pressure on the city's residential rental sector, as the pool of available homes shrinks and home owners whose properties have been condemned look for short to medium-term accommodation... Read more

The Lyttelton Port Company has issued a force majeure notice to coal exporter Solid Energy as a precaution after Canterbury’s Saturday earthquake... Read more

Essential fuel imports via the Lyttelton Port of Christchurch remain on schedule despite the series of earthquakes including yesterday's 5.1 magnitude aftershock, port boss Peter Davie said... Read more

New Zealand business leaders gathered with their Australian counterparts in Sydney last night to discuss the commercial benefits of upcoming events in Auckland such as the formation of the Super City and the Rugby World Cup.... Read more

There is potential for KiwiSaver to grow the retirement savings pool but it is unclear whether that has been the case so far according to industry experts... Read more

Making KiwiSaver compulsory could boost national savings, the Treasury says, but it raises difficult wellbeing and fairness issues.... Read more

One of New Zealand's biggest construction firms, with a large team on the ground in Christchurch, has formed an earthquake crisis unit.... Read more

Canterbury general insurer AMI Insurance has stopped taking new home and contents policies in the Canterbury region.... Read more

The biggest group of commercial, retail and industrial landlords are scheduled to gather in Christchurch for their national conference next week... Read more

Passengers of low-fare airline Jetstar can now get boarding passes delivered to their mobile phones.... Read more

OceanaGold chief executive Paul Bibby has resigned for personal reasons and the gold miner has begun the search for a replacement... Read more

Dorchester has appointed Greg Main to the role of general manager, insurance and lending... Read more

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of New Zealand (IAB NZ) has announced that Liz Fraser, head of MSN New Zealand has been elected as its new chairperson and general manager of Yahoo!Xtra Laura Maxwell-Hansen as vice-chairperson... Read more

NZX has appointed Robyn Dey as acting corporate counsel as she provides parental leave cover for NZX Corporate Counsel Rachael Newsome... Read more

Fran O'Sullivan. Here's a thought experiment. Would John Key's Government have been so ready to sign a $1.77 billion cheque to South Canterbury Finance depositors and its preferential main creditor, George Kerr's Torchlight fund, if the Christchurch earthquake had occurred before the bailout?... Read more

Alan Best. Almost a year ago Brian Gaynor pointed out that three rural companies, PGG Wrightson, Pyne Gould Corporation, and New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay with their interlocking boards, had squandered shareholder wealth to the tune of $880 million... Read more

Daily Sharechat. Resins company Nuplex Industries produced a record profit despite volumes being below the 2008 peak, says Nachiket Moghe, an analyst at Aegis Equities Research, which is now owned by Morningstar... Read more

NZ Market Report. New Zealand shares ended a five day winning streak as a combination of global uncertainty and the fallout from the Christchurch earthquake kept investors on the sidelines... Read more

Australian Market Report. The ASX hit a three-day low yesterday as concern about European banks' sovereign debt exposure triggered falls in offshore equities... Read more

Chinese demand for iron ore seems set to slump after Beijing's extraordinary move to turn off the power supply to its industrial heartlands... Read more

Earnings from Australia's mineral and energy exports have hit their second highest level ever, according to the Government's resource economics agency... Read more

Resource companies might have feared paying the super profits tax, but it didn't stop them drilling.... Read more

Notorious share trader David Tweed has launched legal action against Wesfarmers to pry open the conglomerate's register... Read more

Foster's has turned down an offer of up to $2.7 billion from a US private equity firm for its Treasury Wine Estates division.... Read more

The odds of a takeover battle for Foster's Group before it presses the button on a demerger of its wine and beer businesses next year have shortened.... Read more

Optus misled the public with ads touting the company's broadband speeds and data plans, the Competition and Consumer Commission says... Read more

Web users in cities will subsidise rural broadband services and face a longer wait for fast internet under the deal struck by Labor and two independents... Read more

There has been an increase in the number of home loans taken out by owner-occupiers in July... Read more

Buyers, lured by a steady interest rate outlook and cooling house-price growth, are returning to the market.... Read more

Rio Tinto and steel mills in Japan have settled on a price cut of 13 per cent for iron shipments made between October and December... Read more

As the political climate in Canberra finally settles, the major Australian banks are facing a conundrum.... Read more

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has confirmed she will decide next week whether or not to float QR National.... Read more

Canada's Potash Corp has moved to dispel whispers it is struggling to drum up a counter-bid or other alternatives to justify its strong rejection of BHP's takeover.... Read more

The longstanding sideshow over the successor to Leighton Holdings chief executive Wal King has yet to run its course... Read more

Canadian uranium company Cameco has pushed the button on securing environmental clearances for the development of its Kintyre uranium deposit in Western Australia.... Read more

Tony Sage's resources investment group, Cape Lambert Resources, has started legal action against Metallurgical Corporation of China.... Read more

Canada's Goldcorp could have a clear run with its $C3.6 billion takeover bid for locally listed Andean Resources after Eldorado abandoned its bid... Read more

Proposed global bank reforms could create a "double whammy" for depositors, according to Future Fund chairman David Murray... Read more

Banks are not expected to lose market share if they increase lending charges to cover costs arising from tougher global regulation... Read more

The future of NAB's audacious $14 billion bid to buy rival Axa Asia Pacific will become clearer today.... Read more

The Australian dollar hugged a tight range against the US dollar in Asia yesterday but had a strong session against key crosses... Read more

Credit Union Australia will lobby the government to increase competition in the banking sector by changing the way mutuals are regulated... Read more

A bitter dispute between a pair of Saudi billionaire families over allegations that $US10 billion was embezzled has spilled over into a Sydney court.... Read more

Mining giant Rio Tinto has sent a delegation to visit the operations of potash fertiliser producer OAO Uralkali.... Read more

Greater Sydney Partnership founding chairman Peter Holmes a Court has called for a co-ordinated marketing plan to promote Sydney.... Read more

Jennifer Hewett. Gillard's deal with the three big miners was always a rickety pre-election fix... Read more

Matthew Stevens. Protecting the competitiveness of the Australian mining industry is essential to the national economic well-being... Read more

Ian Verrender. Leighton's ownership structure is unstable... Read more

Malcolm Maiden. It's not hard to see why the Foster's wine takeover offer was rejected... Read more

Elizabeth Knight. Foster's is particularly proud of the gold star it received yesterday for good governance. There is no black letter law on whether any listed company must notify the market of an unsolicited offer for a major business... Read more

Stephen Bartholomeusz. Labor's proposed mining tax faces a number of tricky hurdles in the new parliament. If the government stumbles, it might never be trusted by business again... Read more

David Symons. As the 12-year process of privatising the NSW electricity industry reaches its final stages, it's shaping up as being worth the wait for AGL. Structural change in electricity retail has the potential to deliver a hefty earnings uplift... Read more

Saul Eslake. There are four reasons to believe Australia's economy is in even better shape than we thought... Read more

U.S. Market Report. An updated report of the latest action on Wall Street... Read more

World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more

A BP report says "a series of failures" by BP and its contractors were to blame for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill... Read more

The US economy continued to grow at a sluggish pace through the summer months, although there are now "widespread signs of deceleration," the Federal Reserve said in its latest snapshot of regional economic conditions... Read more

President Obama's plan for US roads and rail gets high marks for efficiency, but has little chance of passing.... Read more

The Irish government says it will break up the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank as part of the failed lender's resolution... Read more

An Indian court tells Vodafone it has to pay $US2.6bn in tax for its takeover of Hutchison Telecom's Indian phone assets... Read more

Vodafone has pocketed $6.5bn in cash following the sale of its 3.2% stake in China's biggest wireless operator, China Mobile.... Read more

A 'jobs wanted' list covering the entire European Union is being proposed by one of its most senior officials... Read more

The debt-laden Greek economy shrank by a surprise 1.8% in the second quarter as households slashed spending... Read more

Canada now has interest rates of 1%, after raising its key lending benchmark for the third time this year.... Read more

The Japanese yen has hit a new 15-year high against the dollar, despite hints that the government will take action to curb its strength... Read more

China may tomorrow say that its trade surplus topped $US20 billion for a third month in August in a report that risks stoking American lawmakers’ calls for protection from Chinese imports... Read more

British Airways Plc ’s joint venture with AMR Corp.’s American Airlines on flights across the Atlantic, almost 13 years in the making, will start next month, the U.K. airline’s vice president for the Americas said... Read more

Oracle Corp. said it will pay its new co-president, Mark Hurd, an annual salary of $950,000 and that he could receive a bonus of up to $10 million.... Read more

One of the Internet's most iconic images -- Google's search screen -- is being overhauled.... Read more

Paul La Monica. Have you looked at how big bank stocks have done in the past few months? If so, you can be forgiven if you break into a cold sweat and start worrying about a repeat of the fall of 2008... Read more

Robert Peston. I think it is in BP's recommendations for change that many will see the real story, because there BP makes clear that it needs to exercise far better oversight of those who work for it when trying to extract oil from deepwater fields... Read more