A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; another low rate credit card, Auckland house sales slump, commodity prices up, record car sales, NZ leads prosperity, swaps hold higher, NZD up

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today, so far.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
NZCU Baywide are offering higher rates for their 6, 9 and 12 month term deposits.

NEW CREDIT CARD OFFER
ASB has launched a new "low rate" credit card, one with no fees but still with up to 55 days interest free. The low rate is 13.5% although the cash advance rate is 22.95%. It is offering a 0% balance transfer rate for six months. Kiwibank also has a low rate card at 13.45% as does BNZ and Westpac. ANZ's is pitched at 13.90%. ASB's new Visa Lite is unique with its zero fee offer. The other bank's fees for their low rate cards range between $50 at Kiwibank to $65 at Westpac. Low rate cards are popular as most consumers are now realising that reward-type cards are actually very poor deals.

SUDDEN JOLT
Barfoots had its lowest October sales results for five years. The largest Auckland real estate agency suffered a drop of -27% in volume compared with a year ago. They say the new LVR measures hit hard at properties available for under $500,000.

UP AGAIN
The ANZ Commodity Price Index rose a further 0.7% in October. This was its sixth straight rise in a row. The index is +4% higher than at the same time last year. There were mixed movements between the different commodities in October. Wool (-6.8%) and beef (‑5.1%) suffered the largest falls. Butter (+6.5%), lamb (+5.5%) and aluminium (+4.5%) registered the largest gains.

THE BEST KIND OF CAR SMASH
October saw record new car sales, with 10,795 new passenger cars delivered. That pushed the twelve month total through 100,000 for the first time ever. Commercial vehicle sales were strong too. In a few days we will get used import car sales data and that should be strong as well. (By the way, that 10,795 beat an August 1975 event, so that record has stood for a very long time. Back then, an election bribe to relax import licensing levels for CKD cars was the event. Back then, people lined up for rationed new cars. The month before and the month after August 1975 were both very low.)

'THE MOST PROSPEROUS'
New Zealand has topped another international survey, this time for 'Prosperity'. The Legatum Institute analysis shows we beat all-comers in two of the sub-categories, are in the top five in three more. There are nine sub-categories.

HIGH-RISK SETTINGS
The New Zealand banking system is funded to the tune of $391.3 bln. In September, more than 37% of that was overnight money, almost 44% was for terms of less than 1 year, and only 19% was for longer than one year. This represents little or no progress in maturity over where it was a year ago. Given international uncertainties, bankers run with high-risk funding strategies.

FUNDING BOOST FOR THE FMA
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Paul Goldsmith says the Government has approved a funding increase for the Financial Markets Authority. The increase gives the FMA an extra $9.8 mln per year from July 2017, taking its annual funding to $36 mln. The Government, isn't however, tipping in any more money, maintaining the taxpayer contribution at $11 mln, as it was for the Securities Commission. Rather, levies paid by financial service providers are increasing. The big four banks, for example, will pay $535,000 each from next July, up from $304,348.

THE RICH GET RICHER
There are eight universities in New Zealand. But Auckland University has won one third of the 117 2016 Marsden Fund $65.2 mln basic research awards.

COAL TO THE RESCUE
Surging coal prices are forecast to deliver a further sharp improvement to Australia’s economy in coming months. Today they helped their trade deficit for September to fall -35% to -AU$1.2 bln. And apparently, there is more to come.

A MONUMENTAL SHIFT
Mainland China’s middle class will account for more than a third of its population by 2030, taking consumer spending to the level now seen in the European Union. About 35% of the population will have in excess of US$10,000 of annual disposable income by then, up from about 10% today, according to the report released on Wednesday by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

WHOLESALE RATES HOLD
Wholesale swap rates have held at their higher levels today. This is unique because such rates for our trading partners are still slipping on the Trump factor.. The 90-day bank bill is down -1 bp at 2.12%. We have also seen more +1 and +2 bps yield gains (price drops) in NZGBs.

NZ DOLLAR UP AGAIN
The recent spate of good economic news is pushing up the Kiwi dollar. It is now at 73 USc. On the cross rates, it is trading at 95 AUc, and is at 65.7 euro cents. The TWI-5 is up at 76.6. Check our real-time charts here.

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