Here's my summary of the key overnight news in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news the legal screws are turning on big banks and their past behaviour.
In the US on Saturday, following a late call between the US Attorney General and the boss of the bank, JPMorgan Chase has reached a tentative US$13 billion settlement over the bank’s questionable mortgage practices leading up to the financial crisis.
It will be a record penalty that would cap weeks of heated negotiating and underscore the extent of the bank’s legal woes, which Jamie Dimon says will 'unpredictable' in the coming months.
The settlement will cover outstanding investigations of the bank's residential mortgage-backed securities business, but won't cover continuing criminal probe of the bank's conduct. Formal announcements are yet to be made however, and it could yet fall apart on the detail of what the Government wants the bank to admit.
In China, the official media is making much of its strategy to reform its dairy industry, a signal to the rest of the world that it sees it a strategic component of its development. Foreign suppliers like Fonterra will be getting the full weight of the State lined up against them; and in other industries, that has not always worked out well for foreigners.
Markets start the week coming off the relief and release from the US debt-limit crisis. Equity markets are much higher and the US reporting season is now underway with a surprise from Google.
But the key is that markets expect more delays to tapering by the Fed. Gold is staying low, the US dollar is down as risk is back, and the US Treasury benchmark 10 bond is down to 2.58%. That has taken the top off recent NZ swap rate rises.
Today we get important migration signals for September
The NZ dollar starts the week at 85.0 USc, 87.8 AUc, and the TWI is at 78.2.
The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »
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