A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Wednesday; some more floating rate cuts, Woolworths misfires, Fonterra in favour, hydro lakes back to normal, swaps asleep, NZD holds, & more

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).

MORTGAGE/LOAN RATE CHANGES
Unity Money cut its floating rate by -100 bps today to 7.64%. That is below any bank and nearly the lowest of any lender. Resimac has lowered its floating rates today by -50 bps. WBS (Wairarapa Building Society) cut its fixed rate. All rates are here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today. All updated rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

WOOLWORTHS MISFIRES
On the ASX, supermarket giant reported its July-September trading results and they were lame in New Zealand. In-store sales rose just +0.4% from the same period a year ago. Online sales however rose +16%. Average prices fell -2.1% in the current period, vs +6.3% in Q1-2023. Woolworths makes a big deal about buying locally, but that is mostly only fresh food. In reality it is just an outlet for Aussie suppliers for non-fresh items. Sales were $2.1 bln in the quarter. They now have 1.8 mln active users of their Everyday Rewards scheme. Their trading update talked up grants of $20,000. Overall the group reported 'challenging' and 'muted' trading conditions. Their share price fell -5.6% today (so far), down -7% in the past month.

NZX EQUITY MARKET UPDATE
Check out our quick update of how the NZX is faring today, as at 3pm. Serko, Freightways & Mercury rise, Kathmandu, Stride & Hallensteins retreat.

FONTERRA IN FAVOUR
Fonterra's share price is back to the high we last saw in mid-2021.

SELF CERTIFICATION COMING
We missed it yesterday, but the Government says the next reform of the building sector is to construct a new self-certification scheme for trusted building professionals and accredited businesses carrying out low risk building work.

'NORMAL' BACK & EMBEDDED
Transpower says the hydro situation is normal. National hydro storage increased to 120% of the historic mean last week following significant inflows to catchment lakes. Residuals were healthy with over 1,000 MW available during most peaks except Tuesday morning where the residual was still above 500 MW.

A THREE YEAR LOW
In Australia, their Q3-2024 CPI rate was expected to come in at 2.9%, and their September monthly inflation indicator was expected at 2.4%. They actually came in at 2.8% and 2.1% respectively (a 3 year low), so that eases the pressure on the RBA, although only slightly. A week from yesterday, the RBA will be reviewing its 4.35% policy rate, and today's results are likely to be seen as an unexpected faster cooling, but largely resulting from the impact of the Canberra's government's Energy Bill Relief Fund rebate. It seems unlikely this distortion will prove enough for the RBA to cut rates.

SWAP RATES HOLD
Wholesale swap rates are probably little-changed. Our chart below will record the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 4.53%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is up +2 bps at 4.51%. The China 10 year bond rate is unchanged at 2.15%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up +1 bp from yesterday, also at 4.51% while the earlier RBNZ fix was at 4.45% and down -2 bps from yesterday. The UST 10yr yield is now at 4.24% and down -3 bps from yesterday. Their 2yr is down -4 bps at 4.09%, so that curve is now positive by +15 bps.

EQUITIES STILL MIXED & MINOR
The NZX50 is down -0.7% in late Wednesday trade. The ASX200 is down -0.5% in afternoon trade today. Tokyo has opened up +1.0%. Hong Kong is down -0.5% at its open. Shanghai is marginally up +0.1%. Singapore is also down -0.5%. Wall Street closed its Tuesday trade with the S&P500 up +0.2%.

OIL STAYS LOWER
The oil price is little-changed from this time yesterday, still just on US$67.50/bbl in the US, and just on US$71.50/bbl for the international Brent price.

CARBON PRICE STAYS IN RANGE
The carbon price marginally firmer today at $63/NZU. There has been modest volumes traded. See our new daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD AT NEW HIGH
In early Asian trade, gold is up +US$30 from this time yesterday, now at US$2781/oz (NZ$4656/oz.)

NZD HOLDS SOFTISH
The Kiwi dollar is little-changed from this time yesterday, now at 59.7 USc. Against the Aussie we are up +10 bps at 91 AUc. And against the euro we are little-changed at 55.2 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is at 68.7 and down -10 bps.

BITCOIN UP FASTER
The bitcoin price is up +3.4% from this time yesterday, now at US$72,353. Volatility of the past 24 hours has been moderate at just on +/- 2.6%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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