Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news the New Zealand dollar hit a fresh 29 month high vs the US dollar of 79.7 USc in the wake of the US Federal Reserve's decision yesterday to print an extra US$600 billion in a second round of quantitative easing.
The New Zealand dollar also rose sharply on a Trade Weighted Index basis (see interactive chart below) after the New Zealand dollar also rose against the Australian dollar to around 78.3 Aussie cents.
Investors are being squeezed out into riskier assets in corporate bonds, stocks, emerging markets and commodites by very low official interest rates and moves to pump cash into the global banking and financial systems.
This, however, is raising fear about inflation and triggering talk of Currency Wars where countries move to control capital flow, foreign ownership of assets and eventually, trade.
Canada surprised many overnight when it blocked BHP's bid for its fertiliser giant Potash on the grounds it did not provide a net benefit to the nation of Canada.
Meanwhile, the Dow rose almost 200 points to a two year high as low interest rates and a lower dollar help boost corporate profits.
Elsewhere the European Central Bank held its official rate at 1% and said it had no plans to follow the Fed's move. The Bank of England also held its official rate at 0.5% and left its own Quantitative Easing programme at 200 billion pounds.
The Oil price rose to a six month high of US$86.5/bbl and JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch forecast it would hit US$100/bbl next year as commodity prices rose in the wake of global money printing.
In Ireland, the government there announced 6 billion euros of budget cuts in another attempt to reduce its budget deficit and convince bond investors it can get its debts under control.
But most still see Ireland having to beg for a European bailout next year as its core budget deficit is stubbornly over 11% of GDP and its bond yields continue to rise.
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