A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; C/A deficit narrows, more job ads, Auckland wins, farm sales up, ANZ & Westpac settle forex probes

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Gold Band Finance raised their rates for terms of 18 months, 3 years, and five years. And the Co-operative Bank moved its 3.50% 'special' from a six month term to a five month term.

CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT NARROWS
Our current account deficit has narrowed to 2.7% of GDP in 2016 as the rise in income received from abroad and tourism inflows trumped the money spent on car imports and falling oil and log exports. But neither the currency or interest rate markets reacted to the expected news, as positive as it may be.

MORE JOBS ALMOST EVERYWHERE
MBIE job vacancy tracking for February was released today. The All Vacancies Index increased by +1.2%. Vacancies increased in six out of eight industry groups. Vacancies increased in all occupation groups. The largest increases were for machinery drivers and operators. Vacancies increased in all skill levels. Vacancies increased in eight out of ten regions, with Gisborne and Canterbury showing no change from January (although Canterbury was the only region falling year-on-year).

MOST LIVEABLE?
A day or so late perhaps, but worth noting here anyway; Auckland has ranked #3 in Mercer's "Quality of Living" rankings for 2017. Wellington ranked #15. Auckland was beaten by Vienna and Zurich, but beat out Munich and Vancouver. Sydney was ranked #10 and Melbourne #16=.

MORE SALES, SOFTER PRICES
There were 131 farms sold in February, 16 more than in the same month a year ago. The increase came from more dairy units and finishing farms. Dairy land prices are holding at about $40,000/ha although we starting to see declining prices in the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty and Taranaki. Prices/ha are softer in Southland too.

FEWER LIFESTYLE BLOCK SALES
Sales of lifestyle blocks were lower in February 2017 than 2016 by some -11% with 645 properties of this type changing hands. Most of the drop occurred in four provinces; the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and Southland. Northland, the Hawke's Bay and Otago bucked the trend.

ANZ & WESTPAC SETTLE WITH ASIC ON FOREX PROBE
ANZ and Westpac have both entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) following the regulator's probe into spot foreign exchange trading between January 2008 and June 2013. ANZ says it accepts aspects of its supervision and monitoring of the spot FX business weren't good enough, has taken responsibility and apologises. As part of the deal, an independent expert will be appointed to assess and review relevant systems and controls within the two banks, and both will make A$3 million contributions to Financial Literacy Australia. Here's ASIC's full statement, which among other things, thanks NZ's FMA for its assistance.

IN REVERSE
Across the ditch, car sales are declining, according to February data out today.

IN DECLINE
And, Australia finance for housing, personal use, and commercial use are all declining as well, in January data released today.

FLAT AND STABLE
Despite these reversals, Aussie consumer sentiment remains in neutral. The respected Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey appears to be stabilising around that point where optimists and pessimists are about equal in number.

BIG, BAD & IGNORING THE LAW
And staying in Australia, the head of the competition watchdog says some large companies are deliberately trying to deceive customers and that the effects are widespread. The top official said they are having to crack down on misleading behaviour by large businesses - particularly airlines, telecommunications and car retailers. ANZ and Macquarie banks also got special mention from him as businesses that flout the law unless "very sizable penalties" are faced. Respect for the law is a corporate culture issue.

WHOLESALE RATES HOLD
Local swap rates have hardly moved today ahead of the US Fed announcement tomorrow morning. Even the 90 day bank bill rate is on hold at 1.96%. During today, the UST 10yr yield has moved back up to 2.60%.

NZ DOLLAR ON HOLD TOO
The NZD is holding at 69.3 USc. On the cross rates we are at 91.6 AUc, and at 65.3 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is now at 75 of the euro weakness.

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