Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Update: TSB Bank has dropped rates further for their one and three year 'specials', and reduced all their standard rates.
TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report here either.
NO JAIL
Two former directors of OPI Pacific Finance Limited, (ex MFS Pacific) Mark Lawrence Lacy and Jason Robert Duncan Maywald, have today been sentenced in the Auckland High Court. Each was sentenced to 200 hours community work each, to be carried out in New Zealand, and ordered to pay A$100,000 in reparation to be paid to the company’s receivers. Another director pleaded guilty today, and one final one is defending the charges at a trial.
LABOUR DEMAND FLATTENS OFF
According to the latest monitoring by ANZ, labour demand is weakening when measured by job ads. Total job advertising fell -1.7% in August. The decline so far is relatively modest, with Auckland holding up the national figures. Total nationwide job ads are down -1.8%. This data confirms the MBIE monitoring which was reported for August earlier this week.
THE SHIP STEADIES
Todays ANZ-RoyMorgan consumer confidence poll shows consumers still very positive, although less so than a new months ago. Consumers’ expectations about the economy’s prospects over the year ahead improved in September says ANZ. However, consumers feel marginally less positive about their current financial position compared to a year ago. House price expectations eased again in Auckland but rose in the rest of the North Island. Auckland house price expectations remain the strongest.
A BROADER RISE, BUT LESS
The latest dairy price monitoring by the USDA confirms the recent auction prices. (The USDA monitoring includes much more volume than the GDT auction, plus it includes a much wider range of dairy companies in our region.) Prices are off the bottom and definitely rising, but not quite as strongly as the auction benchmarks.
BORROWING WITHOUT PAIN
Bankruptcies are worth keeping an eye on but they are showing no signs of credit stress yet by consumers. They are low, still less than half the levels we saw in the GFC (which themselves weren't that high). We don't see any upward trend here at all
A MORE FOCUSED LIGHT
The MED has completed some heroic work with the oil companies, teasing out of them the retail price discounts. That detail is interesting on its own but it also allows us to check the industry's claim that "margins" aren't rising as fast as the data showed before discounts were taken into account. You can assess it for yourself, but the difference between the discounted retail price, tax, and the crude oil component still clearly shows that this component is still at very high levels 54c/litre. The crude oil component is 46c/litre. But the biggest bite goes in taxes at 93c/litre.
LOOKING BETTER
The Fonterra share price is now back on an up-trend. Today it jumped to $5.07 from $4.99 yesterday. That is the highest it has been since May 2015 when it was in a long eight-month trend down.
THE TICK
The giant SkyCity NZ Convention Center today got its Resource Consent from Auckland Council
INSURER FLOAT
New Zealand insurer CBL Corporation has had its bookbuild completed and shares prices at $1.55 - the lower end of the range. This means the company, which sells credit surety and financial risk insurance (mostly overseas), is set to raise $125 million. Of this amount, $90 million will be used to fund growth opportunities for the group, including the recently announced acquisition of the Australian insurer, Assetinsure. CBL is forecasting gross written premium revenue of $335 million this year. The broker firm offer opens on Monday and closes on the October 6. Listing will be on October 13 on the NZX and ASX.
WHOLESALE RATES LOWER AND FLATTER
The tone and guidance from Janet Yellen has moved our wholesale money markets down today. Shorter term rates are down about -4 bps, the longer terms down -8 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate is up marginally to 2.84%.
NZ DOLLAR UNCHANGED
The Fed decision rattled the markets at the time, but they have now settled. In fact from a Kiwi dollar point of view they are back to exactly where they were at this time yesterday. It is still at 63.6 USc, at 88.5 AUc but a tad lower at 55.8 euro cents. The TWI-5 is still at 67.5. Check our real-time charts here.
You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.
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