Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
HAWKES BAY RATTLED
There have been some sharp earthquakes in the Hawkes Bay this afternoon, the biggest one was 5.2. Reports of damage have yet to emerge.
MORE MORTGAGE RATE RISES
Both ASB and Kiwibank have today hiked their fixed home loan rates.
THE RUSH TO FIX
For the first time since August 2010, the proportion of floating rate mortgages (by value) has fallen below 40%. Borrowers are rushing to fix. The change in the overall $190,000 overall mortage book was very large in February, moving it by almost 1%. I would guess the change will have gotten even faster in March.
LOCAL ONLINE RETAIL SAGS
Latest data may suggest Kiwi customers turning away from local online retailers (who are the biggest part of the market), while consumer support for offshore merchant sales grow strongly.
OPTIMISTS DWARF PESSIMISTS
The heady heights of business confidence weren't challenged in todays release. It is stunning to see only 7.7% of manufacturers and only 5.7% of farmers thinking their own business activity might decline in the year ahead. Even less in those two industries thought general business conditions would deteriorate in the next year. And these are the groups that rely on exports. Maybe Grant Spencer is right; most exporters have learned to live with a sky-high exchange rate. Actually, all other sectors were even less pessimistic than that. The construction sector is universally bullish.
BROADLANDS IN RATING UPGRADE
S&P have raised Broadlands' long term issuer credit rating to B- from CCC- following the sale of their insurance business (to owner Tony Radisich) and it is now liability-free. The S&P release says Broadlands is trying to register a new prospectus, which suggests it may be back soon to raise new debenture funds.
CALL TO ADAPT
Tim Groser 'welcomed' the latest IPCC climate change review - which he says confirms the need from Kiwi businesses including farming to actively adapt to climate changes. Presumably this means more irrigation and water storage.
TERM DEPOSIT CHANGES
Toady we had term deposit changes from ASB (9 mth and 1 year), from Kiwibank (4 and 5 years). ASB also raised the interest rate on its bonus saver, Savings Plus.
WHOLESALE RATES
Swap rates rose by another 2 bps pushed up by the mortgage fixing demand, whereas 5 years and longer fell by 1 bps. The flattening of the swap curve continues and the run is starting to get impressive. The 90 day bank bill rates were up 1 bps again today and now at 3.12%.
OUR CURRENCY
It's happened again! The NZ dollar flat lined until 1pm and then rose sharply. Not sure why today either. It is now up to 86.9 USc, 93.6 AUc, and the TWI is now touching 81.0. Yikes, that's high. The gains against the Euro are impressive; we are now at 63.2 euro cents.
1 Comments
How about a 7.8 earthquake in a provincial city, with no loss of life/limb, but widespread damage, so a) we can keep the OCR low and b) future-proof NZ economy under the broken-pane theory (just like Chch is such a huge benefit according to economists) .?
A win/win.
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