The head of a mineral extraction company says New Zealand's rich in some of these sought-after critical minerals. 

New Zealand and the United States are reportedly discussing a 'non-binding' framework relating to critical minerals as the US looks to reduce reliance on China. 

Geo40 CEO John Worth says there's silica, lithium and antimony to name a few. 

"I think we're relatively small by international standards, but there's enough interesting stuff here." 

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As more stores across Auckland's CBD close their doors for good, Crane Brothers has reaffirmed their commitment to the area.

After extending their High Street lease for another 25 years, founder Murray Crane recently revealed the store would expand into the space vacated by Ruby.

Crane says Covid and the subsequent economic downturn have been tough on Auckland, but it's important to control the narrative.

"We had a fairly challenging time, as any business in the central city did, and the recovery has probably been a little bit slower than a lot of people would have liked, for a variety of different reasons."

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National and Labour are joining forces in support of legislation to tackle modern slavery. 

Their bipartisan backing means the Bill can be introduced in Parliament, bypassing the ballot system. 

The proposed law would require large companies to report their measures to avoid slavery conditions in supply chains, and fine those not complying or acting to mislead. 

National's Greg Fleming told Mike Hosking they’ve taken learnings from overseas, particularly Australia, and will be going with template forms and the like to ensure this does add value, rather than just cost.  

He says a lot of responsible businesses are already looking into the working conditions in their supply lines, so this is just aimed at the recalcitrants. 

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Meta and Microsoft are among the big tech companies that just released their quarterly results after the stock market closed, and there's more results to come.

Meta shares were up 9 percent, but Microsoft stock was down about 5 percent.

Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds unpacked the data further.

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Simon Squibb has always been committed to encouraging people to fulfil their dreams, and as a multi-millionaire entrepreneur, he's in a position to make real change. 

He's invested in startups, used his professional insight to write a book - What’s Your Dream? Find Your Passion. Love Your Work. Build a Richer Life - and he's committed to inspiring people to take risks.

Squibb's in New Zealand and he's already been spotted helping a chef in Remuera to fund her ambitions.

"I can't help it, I love hearing people's dreams, and so there's no holiday from helping people that need it. And so I have actually now helped four people in New Zealand with their dreams, which is pretty exciting." 

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Air New Zealand says it hopes to avoid a three-day strike by international cabin crew in February.

E tū Union and the Flight Attendants Association have issued strike notices for wide-body crews on 787 and 777 Boeing flights.

The airline's Chief People Officer, Nikki Dines, says they've covered a lot of ground in 10 months of weekly meetings with the unions.

"There's a lot of things that we've agreed on, the last remaining item is just on pay. That's the one item that we are continuing to work with our cabin crew unions on."

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The Reserve Bank spent most of 2025 lowering the OCR, leaving experts to speculate how these changes impacted the economy.

Since then, economic and business confidence has gone up for the start of 2026, but inflation data for the December quarter has raised some concerns

Milford Asset Management expert Brendan Larsen explained further.

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2026 has been a rough year for New Zealand's construction sector, with multiple businesses going bust in January alone.

Reports show there were 22 applications to put building or property related companies into liquidation over the 7 days from January 20 to January 27.

NZ Certified Builders CEO Malcolm Fleming says this reflects the tough conditions that have impacted the market over the last two years.

"Any liquidation is a bad news story, it's devastating for the builder, the homeowner, the sub-trades and supplier."

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The Official Cash Rate is expected to rise this year, although forecasters say predicting when is tricky.

Inflation was stronger in the December quarter than expected, at 3.1 percent.

Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen is picking a hike in November - with an outside possibility of one in May. 

He says other signs in the market signal a possible increase. 

"Actual bank rates for longer-term mortgages have already started to increase a touch this year."

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A possible sign of the economic recovery with Michael Hill's New Zealand operation reporting its first positive result in more than two years. 

In the six months to December the jeweller made $62 million worth of sales, increasing by 2.4%. 

First Retail Group Managing Director Chris Wilkinson says jewellery's a good sign of discretionary spending and consumer confidence. 

He told Mike Hosking there are also positive economic signs elsewhere. 

Wilkinson says there's a lot of benefits in areas where these large projects are taking place and provinces are doing well, with agriculture also strong. 

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