A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; Welly time out, new insurer arrives, infrastructure pressure and solutions, Aussie firms hang on, swap rates up, NZD up

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Both ASB and BNZ reduced interest rates for savings accounts and/or term deposits today.

TIME OFF
Today is a public holiday in Wellington so there is limited data today (The RBNZ and StatsNZ are both closed.) But the NZX is open and up +0.6%. That is not as much as the recovery on the ASX which is up +1.3% in mid-day trading, pushed ahead by a strong recovery in energy stocks. It is also worth reminding everyone that tomorrow is a holiday in Australia (Australia Day). Shanghai is up +0.7% in early trade.

FIRST 2016 CAMPAIGN FAILS
Over the weekend, another equity crowd funding campaign failed. D'Arcy Polychrome was looking to raise $1,000,000 on the Snowball Effect platform. In the end only 47 investors stumped up $250,000, not enough to get it off the ground.

MORE INSURANCE COMPETITION
A new general insurance company has entered the local market, Ando Insurance. They promise innovation and lower 'costs'. They are another with links back to a South African insurer (like Youi) although with a different business model than Youi.

'RADICAL TRANSFORMATION" ?
Auckland mayor Len Brown has been out spruiking the Central Rail Link benefits to the world.

MORE INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED
"Fifth freedom" rights for airlines are opening up many trans-Tasman routes. Singapore Airlines was recently reported to be starting Wellington-Canberra, with Phillipine Airlines already doing Auckland-Cairns. There are many others, and the latest is AsiaX about to start Auckland-Gold Coast. One consequence of all this new capacity is a jump in visitor numbers here, and an obvious problem with the capacity at the recently-expanded Auckland Airport. Auckland Transport is ramping up its case for a heavy rail service between the airport and Downtown.

RESILIENT ACROSS THE DITCH
Australian business confidence in December and the first half of January showed a small drop but was still in positive territory, according to the NAB business survey, despite the recent global market turmoil. The index fell to +3 in December from November's +5 reading, while the business conditions index fell to +7 from +10, according to the survey.

WHOLESALE RATES UP AGAIN
Swap rates have risen +1 to +3 bps across the curve today. Even the 90 day bank bill rate rose by +1 bp and is now at 2.73%.

NZ DOLLAR UP TOO
The New Zealand dollar has also risen today. It is now up to 64.9 USc, at 92.9 AUc, and at 60 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now back up to 70.7. Check our real-time charts here.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.