Good US corporate earnings; gold lower, Japan's trade deficit grows fast; ANZ worried about Aussie budget cutbacks; NZ$1 = US$0.857, TWI = 79.7

Here's my summary of the key news over the weekend in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news the Kiwi dollar has fallen somewhat against the US currency.

In New York, equities closed higher at the end of trading last week, pushed ahead by positive corporate earnings reports. Gold fell and is now at US$1,289/oz. UST benchmark 10 yr bond yields closed at 2.69%, and the oil price is range-trading.

Also out over the long weekend was news that Japan's trade deficit quadrupled in March compared to the same month a year ago as export growth slowed and energy imports continued to rise.

In Australia, the chief ANZ economist there said meaningful cuts to middle class welfare and essential services in their up-coming Federal budget would crimp consumer spending, hold back improving business conditions and stymie an economic recovery. They are hooked on middle class welfare, just like many other developed countries.

This week, the big local event is the RBNZ OCR review on Thursday. Another 0.25% hike is expected, and that will no doubt be followed by floating mortgage rate hikes.

Whether we will see term deposit rises as well is more debatable as banks are flush with cash at present and don't really need to raise their offers. ANZ 'did the right thing' last time raising all TD rates, but only a few other banks followed, and then selectively. I doubt ANZ will lead that way again, although they may be the first to raise their mortgage rates.

Tomorrow we get another update of migrant arrivals and they are likely to keep up the trend.

We start today with the NZ dollar lower at just under 85.7 USc, 92.2 AUc and the TWI is now at 79.7.

If you want to catch up with all the changes at the end of last week, we have an update here.

The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »