Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today.
TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today.
NO NEW COMMUNITY COVID CASES MONDAY
The Ministry of Health reported no new community cases of COVID-19 on Monday, but seven more cases in managed isolation. The total number of active cases in New Zealand currently is 100. The community case announced on Sunday night, "Case C," is a close contact and colleague of the worker at the Grand Millennium who tested positive last week. This person is now at the Auckland Jet Park with their partner. The partner of Case C returned a negative test. (Monday's full Ministry of Health statement is here).
CHANGE AFOOT AT ANZ NZ
The June departure of Craig Mulholland, ANZ NZ's managing director of wealth and private bank, will see some structural change at the country's biggest bank. ANZ says its private bank arm will report to personal banking chief Ben Kelleher, and the wealth business will be renamed funds management. ANZ is advertising for a new managing director of funds management, who will report to CEO Antonia Watson, and a new private bank managing director will report to Kelleher.
SYNLAIT MILK CEO RESIGNS
Synlait Milk Ltd says its CEO since September 2018, Leon Clement, has resigned. Clement will leave the role at the end of April. John Penno, Synlait's co-founder, former CEO, and current director, will serve as interim CEO until a permanent replacement is appointed. Synlait says a recruitment process will get underway shortly.
In late March Synlait said it had "proactively engaged" with its bankers to increase its leverage ratios on loan covenants, whilst forecasting a "broadly breakeven" July financial year after reporting a 76% plunge in half-year profit to just $6.4 million.
S&P SEES LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNCERTAINTIES
S&P Global Ratings says there's more uncertainty than usual over the extent to which NZ councils will deliver the budgets they propose over their 2021-2031 long-term plans, especially future infrastructure requirements. Most NZ local and regional governments are likely to have rising infrastructure budgets, which could erode headroom at their current rating levels, the credit rating agency says. Proposed reforms to water supply, storm water, and waste water could reshape the landscape of some councils. S&P does say, however, that local councils' credit quality remains favourable, with NZ's economy and fiscal outcomes rebounding quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
EQUITY MARKETS CAUTIOUS
Asian share markets began the new week cautiously. Reuters reports investors are waiting to see if US earnings can justify high equity valuations, while bond markets could be tested by what should be strong readings for US inflation and retail sales this week. In Australia the ASX 200 had fallen by as much as 0.5% with shares in iron ore miners, Commonwealth Bank and Macquarie Group down. Here in New Zealand, the NZX 50 Index was down 0.69% at the time of writing.
NZ DOLLAR LITTLE CHANGED
The Kiwi dollar is little changed over the day, latterly at US70.24 cents, at AU92.39c, and at €59.08c.
BITCOIN SLIPS
Bitcoin is down US$29.5 since this morning at US$59,807.05.
This soil moisture chart is animated here.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».
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22 Comments
Could be.
But some things have a habit of being unknowable. (From something else I was researching today, and written just 2 months before everything fell apart so spectacularly)
The trading demonstrated an abrupt shift of attitude among speculators, who as recently as a week ago were betting big that the currency was on the rise....The fall in the dollar has added to the financial markets' fears of resurgent inflation, and bond prices plunged yesterday. Gold, meanwhile, fell only a bit, losing $1...it is too early for people to start looking for new lows only a week after the market thought the dollar was going to go through the stratosphere.''...Not everyone believes the dollar is going to fall further, including monetary authorities around the world....The possibility of central bank intervention, continued worries about the Middle East and new evidence that the American economy is expanding should underpin the dollar.
All sounds spookily familiar.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/20/business/currency-news-dollar-s-fall…
it will never unwind --- look back to 2008 -- still unwinding from that -- and now Covid and there will be similar events probably more frequent going forward -- with similar money printing responses to keep it all going!
The only possible outcome is hardly an unwinding more like a complete and utter explosion - Ground Zero will not be pretty
Yvil
Agreed.
I think that 18mths ago we were in a position where RBNZ would be starting to do so but clearly Covid has come at an inopportune time and actions over the past year are going to put that back for a considerably longer time.
Realisation of Covid a year back would have been considered a real worse case scenario for those at RBNZ.
Starting to hear more stories about developers going bust, time will tell if these are isolated events or something bigger:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/who-wants-69m-from-gary-groves-the-…
Clearly a few Sharesies and others concerned about the precipitous and prolonged falls in Synlait and A2 share prices . Surely the Government or at least the RBNZ could intervene and give a handout to prop up the market. At least bank shares are above pre Covid levels.
depends how long Adrian waits before going to specsavers and finally gets to see the inflation that we all see,in the email from contact putting power up 8%,or the whangarei district council rate increse of 6.5%,or the numbers on the gas pump that are 10% higher than a few months ago.
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