Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you already work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).
MORTGAGE/LOAN RATE CHANGES
ASB trimmed two fixed rates today. More here.
CREDIT CARD WATCH
Media reports in Australia have identified a number of main banks cutting the 55 interest-free period on a number for some credit card plans. Premium reward cards are getting that trimmed to 44 days. CBA, ASB's parent, has just made the change matching NAB and Westpac. ANZ-Australia is still at 55 days for those premium cards. But in New Zealand ANZ has always had 44 days for premium cards, like Westpac. But neither ASB and BNZ are still at 55 days here. Kiwibank's premium cards are at the shorter 44 days, unchanged. We are monitoring for changes here and will report them if they happen. Standard bank credit cards don't seem to be affected, almost all at 55 days.
TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
China Construction Bank has raised most of its short term deposit rates, with its highest now 6.00% for 1 year. It trimmed its 3 and 4 year offers.
FARM SALES SLIDE
Farm sales on a slippery downward slope in March with caution seen across the country.
EXPLOITED
A Southland dairy business and its owner, an Invercargill Imam, have been ordered to pay $215,000 in penalties by the Employment Relations Authority after having been found to have exploited three Indonesian migrant workers. Of this amount, Rural Practice Ltd was ordered to pay $145,000, and business owner Reza Abdul-Jabbar must pay $70,000. Two of the three workers will each receive $10,000 of the penalties amount.
SUPPLIER PRICE PRESSUE ON SUPERMARKETS EASES
The annual increase in the average cost of goods that suppliers charge supermarkets has slowed further, with the Infometrics-Foodstuffs New Zealand Grocery Supplier Cost Index showing an average +3.2% increase in what suppliers charged Foodstuffs supermarkets for goods in March compared to a year ago. In February it rose +3.7% on the same basis. In March 2023 the rise was +10.3%.
DRAGGING AT LOW LEVEL
In Australia, February new lending data shows that the number of loans issued for the purchase or construction of a new home over the past year is holding at its lowest level in more than 20 years.
SWAP RATES RISE
Wholesale swap rates are likely to be higher today on global trends. Our chart below records the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged yet again at 5.63%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is up +3 bps at 4.23%. The China 10 year bond rate is unchanged again at just under 2.30% and is showing softer signs. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up +6 bps from this time yesterday at 4.76% and the earlier RBNZ fix was at 4.71% and up +8 bps. The UST 10yr yield is up +3 bps from this morning to 4.43% and its highest since November 2023. Their 2yr is up at 4.78%, so the curve is still inverted by -35 bps.
EQUITIES MIXED
In late trade today, the NZX50 is down -0.4%. The ASX200 is up +0.3% in early afternoon trade. Tokyo has started its week up +1.4%. Hong Kong has started up +0.7%. Shanghai opened lower but is now unchanged. Singapore is also little-changed at its open. And the S&P500 futures suggest that Wall Street will open tomorrow virtually unchanged.
OIL PRICES FALL
Oil prices are back down a shar[ish -US$2 to just over US$84.50/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is now just over US$88.50/bbl. A reported Israeli pullback in Gaza appears to have eased some tensions and is the likely reason for the price drop.
GOLD SLIPS SLIGHTLY FROM RECORD
In early Asian trade, gold is down -US$12 from this morning at US$2317/oz and just off its all-time high.
NZD HOLDS
The Kiwi dollar has held at 60.1 USc and unchanged from this morning. And against the Aussie we are a touch softer at 91.4 AUc. Against the euro we unchanged at 55.5 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is still at 69.2 where it was this time Friday and where we opened this morning.
BITCOIN HOLDS
The bitcoin price has risen today to US$69,606 and marginally lower (-0.1%) from where we opened this morning. Volatility of the past 24 hours has been low at just under +/- 1.0%.
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89 Comments
https://www.stuff.co.nz/home-property/350235828/viewers-complaint-over-…
No surprises, it looked a crock from the start
Property Brokers destroyed their reputation with their mischievous property shenanigans, as listed in the courts.
Public scorn and Sunlight will sterilise these REA scrotes?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/property-brokers-and-director-order…
All of these shows are faked like that. From House Hunters to Location, Location, Location, to Million Dollar Listing. They show houses that arent for sale, houses that are for rent and not sale, houses that the people have already bought, and houses that the people have no intention of buying even though they pretend to be interested. Its TV. Next people will be claiming that the producers of MAFS didnt really pair up compatible people in order to create drama.
UPDATE: As soon as the Chinese could trade, they were buying Gold and Silver hand over fist!!
So they have lost total faith in their property and stock markets now.....and getting into the Bullion market, AS IS THE CHINESE STATE, in a big way.
So some bar-hum-bug anti gold/silver luddites here think this is crazy, as its above their level of market awareness or investor psychology.
-Many more people now know, that property is absolutely terrible in a high inflation environment. They know property is overpriced and ready for much larger falls.....
Gold, the 5000+year old currency, cannot be cancelled by the new age property hacks.
It sure beats the total CRASH in the Auckland (Down real 40%) and Wellington (Down real 48%) property markets over the last 3 years.
Still rather Sydney property....https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/renovators-pay-5-million-for-five-…
$6m Kiwi with exchange rate and stamp duty.
Just FYI. My father (82 years old) almost lost $200k of his Simplicity bond portfolio. They managed to hack into his gmail, changed his Simplicity email to a fraudulent (Simplicity doesnt have 2 factor authentication as standard) one. They then were in the process of changing his preferred bank account in his Simplicity account to a fraudulent one using his hacked details. Fortunately Simplicity sent a standard email stating that his email had been changed, "was this you"? I asked the Simplicity spokesperson what would have happened had my dad not seen this email alert by this afternoon, would they have been able to withdraw his funds? 3 second pause.... YES. Seems incredibly lax security. Surely in this day 2 factor authentication should be the default setting on their platform?
Just FYI. My father (82 years old) almost lost $200k of his Simplicity bond portfolio. They managed to hack into his gmail, changed his Simplicity email to a fraudulent (Simplicity doesnt have 2 factor authentication as standard) one.
Dreadful. Sam Stubbs has publicly called the ol' rat poison a fraud.
So I was working out how they could do this. And it is rather easy once you have access to the email account (that in itself easy if not protected by MFA). The Simplicity reset password form has a fundamental flaw in that it does NOT ask for the old password. Rather it sends a code by email then you enter in a new password and viola you are in.
I have my $ with them and I just used the reset password process. I will be contacting them to urgently review what seems to be an obvious issue that could impact all members without MFA on the email being used or 2FA on the Simplicity login.
In early Asian trade, gold is down -US$12 from this morning at US$2317/oz and just off its all-time high.
It went down briefly....then all hell broke loose. A key Gold ETF was suspended from trade until 10:00 AM as the secondary market trading price of the ETF was significantly higher than the reference net asset value of the fund shares.
Shanghai silver futures hit a 7% limit up in the morning and gold futures rose 3%. My Shandong Gold - China's biggest gold miner - up 7% at one stage.
On the ASX, PMGOLD, ETPMAG, and GDX all going wild.
Yellen in China. Suspect mayday calls will be made to Jamie Dimon. All hands on deck.
They are full..but National are doubling the size in preparation for arresting gang members for wearing patches in public (just need to find some bobbies to do this work)...
Lots of bullets flying in Hastings rugby game over the weekend...I thought ACT were going to be "tough on Crime"?
If the Police did their job we'd need to double prison capacity
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/police-abandoned-60-per-cent-of-reported-…
Take pity…they have a condition
Perhaps he pleaded mitigation due to his groundbreaking Country Calendar program a few years ago
https://www.odt.co.nz/southland/southland-express/dream-immigration-sto…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/114994847/country-calend…
Classic Aotearoa: quick to lecture the world on human rights and reluctant to respond when vulnerable migrants are being exploited on its own turf.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford admitting on the radio this morning that no one at MBIE has any clue on what % of recent migrants have the basic English proficiency to fill out forms and read simple texts that explain their fundamental rights in NZ as migrant workers.
Many are suspected to have paid tens of thousands of dollars to dodgy agents and businesses for the promise of permanency, of which they will never see a dime again.
Looking for a place to park my crypto profits (now in NZD). No real estate thanks - have enough of that.
What do people think?
I'm learning towards more USA stocks / VOO / some overseas stock / oil, gas, gold / tech - some directly but mostly just in boring funds.
Terms deposits are nice but the tax really stings on the interest
I would keep buying Gold, I see it go to USD 3,000, (not in a straight line of course). If you can't find any other place to park your money, I'm happy to give you my bank account details, lol.
by Yvil | 29th Jun 23, 4:54pm
I've started buying gold since it dropped under USD 1,950, I'm not winning so far, but I don't expect to sell it for at least 12-18 months
Paywalled however the headline raises a very good question
"The state is helping 364,000 tenants and mortgage holders who can’t afford where they live, paying $2.34 billion annually so they can afford housing, and one minister is asking if this is sustainable..."
https://.nzherald.co.nz/business/minister-louise-upston-questions-gover…
"All of the rental accommodation supplement goes to private landlords: tenants who can’t afford the entire cost of where they live get the state help, then those tenants pass that state subsidy across to their landlord via their weekly rent. No Kāinga Ora tenants living in the state’s approximately 72,0000 residences get the supplement."
No Kāinga Ora tenants get the supplement.
The last National government reduced the number of state houses and then turned around and subsidised rent for people living in private rentals as well letting the private landlords deduct their interest bills.
"No Kāinga Ora tenants get the supplement." Really?
KO provides state subsidised accommodation.
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/housing/live-in-home/live-in-public-h…
Income related rents for social housing is different to the accommodation supplement.
If you need help to pay your on-going costs of rent, board or the costs of owning a home, you may be able to get an Accommodation Supplement. You don't have to be on a benefit to get this payment.
If you live in public housing, you won't qualify for this payment.
short term pain but long-term gain if it was abolished, after a short period rent would drop as they are governed by the ability of tenants to pay, the accommodation supplement is a subsidy which inflates rents. very surprised national is the party bringing this up as they are the party of landlords and REA and reducing or getting rid of it would hurt both.
Even more surprising given it was National who introduced the Accommodation Supplement in the 1990's after they decided the state should get out of state housing, and the private sector could do a better job.
There had been plenty of advice that the accommodation supplement was a bad idea. In 1988, the National Housing Commission had warned that such a system would “add little to the total housing supply while allowing private landlords and property speculators to make even higher charges for a non-expanding supply of housing”, which would in turn “raise the purchase price of land and rented property”.
As for the question of efficiency, the accommodation supplement is best thought of as a high-pressure pipeline of government cash that ends up mostly in the pockets of private landlords. It is New Zealand’s second biggest item of welfare spending after National Superannuation. And each year the pipeline must pump harder and faster to match what has become a self-reinforcing cycle of falling home ownership, rising rents and increasing housing stress
https://northandsouth.co.nz/2021/08/16/nz-housing-crisis-the-great-divide/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-auckland-surgical-building-totara-hau…
A brand new surgical building the size of a provincial hospital is sitting empty on the grounds of North Shore Hospital, its opening delayed and no new date set.
There are lights on and hospital beds in place in the four-storey, 150-bed Tōtara Haumaru building, but it could be months before there are patients.
It does not have the staff it needs, and the amount of money allocated to run it for the next financial year has not been decided.
The $300 million facility, with eight operating theatres, was always intended to be opened in stages but the first stage - the ground and first floor - was initially supposed to open last December, then this month.
Now, Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ head of hospital and specialist services Fionnagh Dougan would only say “mid-year” for stage one.
“We don’t have the total number of staff required, along with the work, to open the facility. So it’s a blend about staffing and work.”
There was not even a rough date for when the entire facility would be operational.
Things are really bad.....
Anyone surprised though? Some of us have been calling it for almost 18 months around when the borders were first flung open to anyone with a pulse.
250k more workers in the country and barely enough of them brought the skills to man our existing infrastructure and services, let alone build and run more to service the added demand.
All this and a stalled economy (negative per capita) means we have no funds to pay for fixing this stuffup either!
If you where living offshore and saw this job in Aussie it would be
- Instant path to citizenship
- 1.5 times NZ wages
- better working conditions due to full staffing
- Cheaper housing
- 11% super paid in full on top of wages
- less crime and no gang patches
- warmer climate
no brainer really.
The last advert I saw for NZ trying to recruit overseas doctors was (a) written mostly in Maori and (b) made the entire NZ medical system out to be all about "indigenous health" and could have been mistaken for a Doctors Without Borders ad. At the same time an ad for South Australia Health was running, which touted their modern high tech surgical hospitals, and their lovely beaches, with the tagline "Straight from Heart Surgery to The Beach in a Heartbeat." Which would you choose?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350237751/newsable-what-potential-foods…
What effect on the supermarket industry overall?
Supplier price pressure eases? I thought the supermarkets were the price setter in many instances?
Gold update: China Asset Management’s gold ETF premium surged over 30% today.
Madness.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-08/chinese-fund-house-h…
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