Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today. This is our last What happened today for 2015. We'll have our final 90 at 9 for 2015 tomorrow morning (Wednesday). David Chaston will have regular holiday briefing reports over the holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all interest.co.nz readers.
TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
NZ Home Loans has increased its three, four and five year home loan interest rates by 26, 66, and 16 basis points, respectively, to 4.75%, 5.15% and 5.25%. It has also cut its floating home loan rate by 25 basis points to 5.74%. See all banks' carded, or advertised, home loan rates here.
TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
FE Investments has cut its one-year rate by 50 basis points to 5.50%. NZCU Baywide cut its three month rate by 15 basis points to 3.25%, and its online saver call rate by 50 basis points to 3.20%
See all all carded, or advertised term deposit rates for one month to nine months here. And see all carded, or advertised, term deposit rates from one to five years here.
CHINESE GOVERNMENT HINTS AT MORE STIMULUS
China’s leaders have signaled further initiatives to support economic growth, Bloomberg reports, including widening the fiscal deficit and stimulating the housing market to limit their economy’s slowdown. Monetary policy must be more “flexible” and fiscal policy more “forceful” to create “appropriate monetary conditions for structural reforms.”
FOUR FED HIKES TIPPED FOR 2016
US Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart says the Fed's commitment to “gradual” interest rate tightening suggests interest rates could be raised at every other Federal Open Market Committee meeting next year, Bloomberg reports, which would be four hikes in total in 2016. Lockhart notes the actual pace of rate hikes is dependent on economic data. The Fed last week raised the Federal Funds Rate for the first time since 2006 by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.25% to 0.50%.
MAUI GAS PIPELINE BOUGHT BY FIRST STATE INVESTMENTS
The 83.75% Shell owned Māui Mining Companies have sold the Māui natural gas pipeline, which transports about 78% of all natural gas produced in New Zealand, to infrastructure funds managed by Australia's First State Investments for NZ$335 million. The Māui pipeline has been in operation for more than 35 years having been built to deliver gas from the Māui natural gas field in the 1970s. The pipeline has transported gas from multiple gas fields since an open access regime was established in 2005. The sale is conditional on regulatory approvals being obtained by First State Investments with the parties hoping to finalise the deal by the middle of 2016.
COMMERCE COMMISSION SPRINGS INTO ACTION
It must be almost Christmas because a flurry of Commerce Commission press releases have hit my email inbox. Today's batch includes news the regulator has accepted an enforceable undertaking from mobile trader Sales Concepts Limited, which is apparently likely to have breached the Fair Trading Act including by promising pre-Christmas delivery of goods sold through its Christmas deal. The Auckland-based mobile trader sells electronic goods including phones, tablets and speakers. Its Christmas deal promotion involved the sale of bundles of electronic goods for between $599 and $1,599, with customers paying for them by weekly instalments of between $20 and $50. Door-to-door sales were made in Auckland, Whangarei, Hamilton, Napier, Whanganui and Wellington.
The Commerce Commission says Sales Concepts has promised to stop a range of potentially unlawful selling practices, and contact customers who purchased the Christmas deal to offer them the option of a full refund. Customers who can't be contacted will receive a full refund.
LIVESTOCK COMPANIES FINED ALMOST $3.2M FOR PRICE FIXING
The Commerce Commission also brings news that PGG Wrightson and Rural Livestock have been fined $2.7 million and $475,000 respectively in the High Court for price fixing in connection with the introduction of National Animal Identification Tracing Act. PGG Wrightson has also agreed to pay $50,000 towards the Commission’s investigation costs. The fines come after a investigation following a complaint from a Northland farmer in 2012. The investigation found that members of the New Zealand Stock and Station Agents Association, including PGG Wrightson and Rural Livestock, entered into three anti-competitive agreements to set fees. Here's PGG Wrightson's statement.
The Commission says it filed court proceedings in August 2015 making similar allegations against Elders New Zealand and five individuals, which remain before the courts. The Commission also considers other livestock companies and the industry association are likely to have breached the Commerce Act. The Commission has therefore issued warnings to: Allied Farmers Limited, Peter Walsh & Associates Limited, CRT Livestock Limited, L.I Redshaw Limited, Central Livestock Limited, Hazlett Rural Livestock Limited, Southstock Limited, and the New Zealand Stock and Station Agents’ Association.
AUCKLAND COUNCIL IN COMMUNITY HOUSING DEAL
Auckland Council has named The Selwyn Foundation as its community housing partner for its portfolio of homes for older Aucklanders. Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse says the Council has made a promise to maintain the current number of homes and the current level of service, but hopes the relationship with Selwyn will help grow the number and improve the quality of homes.
WHOLESALE INTEREST RATES
The 90-day bank bill rate is up two basis points from yesterday at 2.75%.
NZ DOLLAR SLIGHTLY STRONGER
The New Zealand dollar has strengthen a little over the day against the greenback. It was recently at US67.8 cents, up from US67.7c this morning. It was slightly weaker against the Australian dollar at AU94.21c, and the TWI-5 was at 73.2, up from 73.1 this morning. Check our real-time charts here.
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13 Comments
What would Donald Trump sound like if he had a sophisticated British accent.
Wonder no more.
Here he is... sounding much better (perhaps...) ;)
The Don gets a lot of criticism from fellow Republican hopeful Jeb so I am waiting for his ultimate put down "well at least my surname is not Bush". It should be a cold day in hell before anyone with that surname (or indeed also anyone from Texas) get elected to anything higher than in charge of the stationary cupboard.
The whole sorry mess of the Middle East can probably be placed at Dubya's feet. I believe he would struggle to locate Iraq on a map and I think he believed that a month after being welcomed into Bagdad there would be a McDonalds on every street corner. He made Gov William J Lepetomane from Blazing Saddles look good.
Jeb! is toast IMHO. Strange thing is Trump is doing this well, despite the media etc laughing at him in the starup. I guess it means a significant amount of GOP voters are also racsist assholes and know what they like and/or they see the others are even bigger, useless idiots. I hope he wins the nomination personally as I think the rest are as bad if not worse and that will see a defeat. Not that I am hot on Hilary, she will just be more of the same, probably not as good as Obama.
What is it with Trump...I listened to him yesterday and just couldnt believe the drivel that came out of his mouth. I use to watch The Apprentice...ahem yep....and I thought he was rather respectful of the apprenticees. Especially the celebities, and most were pretty looney. The guys around him seemed thoughtful. His daughter and son if a little pompous seemed smart. Now hes talking Hilary, toilet , disgusting, shlongs. Or whatever the word was. It sure sounded filthy. Perhaps he has finally lost the plot. The US is buggered completely if this is what they get. Its a joke on us all surely?
I have no idea what it is, yet he has a huge following. I dont think he's lost the plot, LOL, not recently anyway. He's come across as an utter asshole for as long as I can remember.
"buggered" it is already IMHO, but not just the US.
Joke on us? actually I find him frightening as a window into the American psych, its ugly, way ugly. For me the US has become an Imperialist nation hell bent on sucking the world dry no matter the cost on non-Americans and if he wins (and he just might) I think we will be in an awful pickle.
US Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart says the Fed's commitment to “gradual” interest rate tightening suggests interest rates could be raised at every other Federal Open Market Committee meeting next year,
not likely but if that did happen would make an interesting range of mortgage rates here
Were you not complaining about how long it took the RB to drop the OCR and the reason they gave was bank stability and the Auckland hosing Ponzi
that takes away the excuses all they have to worry about is growth and inflation,
if its like aussie, the OCR came down but interest rates rose as both concentrated on different problems
China, oil demand down, yet they are growing apparently?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-20/brent-trades-near-7-y…
(graph)
maybe not
Which when they say they are growing at 6% yet we see energy imports down significantly, iron price collapsed, BDI half what it was, so I just dont believe they are growing. From that of course the world's financial markets are gambling on this growth, with our money and future (someone will pay that is for sure).
The rain fell in Kumbel-shire this afternoon. Lovely Christmas present after 37C yesterday.
Don't want to be a grinch but the idea of social housing reserved for older persons is a violation of the Bill of Rights Act (or some act). Aren't we supposed to not be ageist anymore? There are councils up and down the country that have tied themselves in knots over what used to be Elderly Persons Housing having to be supplied to anyone who had a genuine social need.
Good luck, Auckland Council.
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