A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; Confidence lower, house prices up, volumes down, positive credit score arrive, huge new syndication, wholesale rates up again

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

BNZ MOVES RATES UP
BNZ raised their floating mortgage rates up today. They raised some by +15 and others by +25 bps. However, they have made no increases to their term deposit rates. When are Westpac and Kiwibank going to move?

CONFIDENCE HOLDING
Consumer confidence has edged lower, but remains near nine-year highs. While there was a drop in economic optimism, the survey showed little impact so far of rising interest rates.

TAMER
Rises in Council rates, fines and fees calmed down in the March quarter, according to data published today by Stats NZ.

COLD SNAP
The service sector activity levels fell in May, although they're are still strongly positive, according to the PSI released today by Business NZ.

HOUSE PRICES UP, VOLUMES DOWN
Residential house sales are up compared with last month but down on May last year according to REINZ data released today.

CREDIT SCORES ARRIVE
We now have positive credit scoring in New Zealand with todays release by Dun&Bradstreet. This may open up the way for financial institutions to target clients with good credit, rather than the old way of just trying to protect themselves from bad credit. Your "FICO Score" may become part of our conversations.

100,000 TONNES TRADED
The NZX Dairy Futures Market last week celebrated "a significant milestone" reaching 100,000 tonnes traded since the launch of the market in late 2010. It has taken a very long time to get to a level that represents less than a months trading on the GlobalDairyTrade platform. Futures are a very slow burner in NZ, it seems.

TELECOM BUILDING TO BE SYNDICATED
We reported on Friday that two of the four Telecom headquarters building in Auckland are to be sold. Today Augusta said they have the rights on one to offer it to investors under a syndication. Augusta are paying $65 million, and they are looking for 780 investors to put up $50,000 for each share. A bank is funding the balance.

WHOLESALE RATES
Wholesale swap rates were up sharply yet again today with the 1-3 year terms up by another +3  bps. The 90 day bank bill rate also jumped again also by another +4 bps, now at 3.57%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar has held on to last week's rises. Late this afternoon, the USD has crept up to 86.8 USc, the Aussie is now at 92.4 AUc. The TWI is now at 80.9.