Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today:
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report here.
TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
NZCU Baywide trimmed its >$20K online saving rate to 2.80%. Actually they made this -20 bps change just before Christmas and we missed it then.
AUCKLAND THE LAGGARD
QV says 2017 was a year of mixed sentiment in the residential property market but value increases picked up noticeably post election despite a drop-off in sales volumes. December prices are up +6.6% year-on-year nationally, up only +0.4% in Auckland however on the same basis. On the Hibiscus Coast, and in parts of Manukau they actually fell.
FEWER JOB ADS
ANZ job ads fell in December, the second consecutive small fall. Annual growth eased to +6.1% from +7.7% in November. Job ads are at high levels but have flattened, with growth rates slipping across most regions and sectors. ANZ says they expect wage growth to pick up modestly this year, reflecting both a tight labour market and changes in government policy.
UNEXPECTED UP-TICK
In Australia, retail sales increased by a better-than-expected +1.2% in November, coinciding with a surge in full-time job creation. "Black Friday" promotions and the release of the iPhone X also get a mention.
THUMPING
In thin trading, the NZX50 is down a whopping -1.4% today. The largest listings are down even more. Overall there are 16 gainers and 83 declines. Some icon names are down more than -3% on the day. The ASX is also lower but their decline is only -0.5% so far. Markets like Hong Kong and Shanghai are up.
US TOO
The NY Times is highlighting a story about the glass ceiling in the economics profession. Women in top positions are rare. So good on ANZ NZ to making Sharon Zöllner their chief economist recently - they are ahead of the field. (Across the ANZ Group, only four of seventeen economists are women.)
WHOLESALE RATES RISE BUT DON'T STEEPEN
Swap rates rose today across the board by +2 or +3 bps. Last night's run-up in UST yields (to 2.58% for the 10 year) has now all been unwound. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.87%. In China, their sovereign 10yr yield is up to at 3.95% (+2 bp). Their two year is unchanged so their 2-10 curve now up at +32 bps. The NZ Govt 10yr yield is up another +2 bps today at 2.87%.
NZ DOLLAR SOFTER
The NZ dollar has slipped today and is now at 71.9 USc. On the cross rates we are at 91.3 AUc and 60.1 euro cents. This puts the TWI-5 down a tick at 74.1. It had been higher but in the past hour or so has given some of those earlier gains back. In contrast, the bitcoin price is now at US$14,441, a +US$250 gain on the day. But since this time yesterday, it got down as low as US$13,474 at one point. Also, see this.
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28 Comments
China has lodged a formal protest over comments made by a senior member of Australian Prime Minister Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government criticizing the Asian nation’s infrastructure-construction policy in the Pacific.
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, his minister for international development, said in an interview with the Australian newspaper on Wednesday that China had been lending to Pacific nations on unfavorable terms and constructing “useless buildings” and “roads to nowhere.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the comments were “full of ignorance and bias,” and his country lodged a protest to Turnbull’s government over the issue. Read more
All NZ and Australian institutions are now operating with policies which try to avoid transgressing Chinese Government doctrine. Universities are signing 100s of MOUs, Govt Ministries are careful to toe the China line, Our Political parties now have Chinese Govt operatives, large corporations in NZ and AustrLia must comply.
Meanwhile our countries give up their historic human rights values and standards in their pursuit of financial salvation.
Lots of well paid mining jobs in Aussie:
https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/hays-report-shows-renewed-opti…
Didn't Labour prattle on about well paid jobs in the regions? Presumably they were meaning minimum wage jobs making beds for Tourists and Aucklanders. NZ misses out on another mining boom.... The Land of Lost Opportunity.
"Its all about control, control of the means of production, distribution and exchange; ie labour, physical and financial capital and land. If we control it then it is good, cos we know what's best for you."
"Er, but I don't want to be controlled, I want to be an independent productive individual in my right."
Not just American, we have very little left that is controlled from within NZ, and it is not just American corporations that have us by the short and curlies, but I guess that is how the free marketeers like it. "I'm alright Jack, you can go jump in the lake", would be a perfect motto for them after they have allowed everything to be sold overseas, they pocket the cash then they leave everyone else behind them struggling to even get so much as a home to call their own. If you don't believe it, open your eyes and look around.
The legacy of the previous National Govt and their sinking lid funding policies is still having an effect on many of our public institutions- including hospitals, schools, Polytechnics, Universities etc
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/345328/polytechnics-fragile-and…
RBNZ's open market operations division extends sterilisation procedures via RB Bill and RP actions to offset it's NZD liquidity injections into the FX swap market. This function should be undertaken by local NZD correspondent banks, but remain unwilling to commit balance sheet/capital capacity to arbitrage the recent upward implied NZD depo rate squeeze.
More NZD supranational bond issuance proceeds seeking NZ bank foreign currency debt receipts to undertake a cross currency basis swap.
Rampant greed strikes again or how to bring on a public lead backlash. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/100485600/student-allowance-b…
Textbook case of Unintended Consequences. Give every student a $50 weekly hand-out (pre-announced, even), plus, and concurrently, compel landlords to bring buildings up to standard.
Then goggle in amazement as economically rational thinking strikes yet again.....
Why, now I come to think of it, that 50 bucks is yet another Universal pricing Signal....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost
You are confusing what happens next with the mutually exclusive nature of expenditure.
Where ever they spent it, it can't (by definition) be spent anywhere else.
To some extent yes. Constraints on h'hold and individual incomes are greater than for govts. The biggest driver of the economy is consumer spending. More spending allocated to rent is not positive for the retail sector.
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