A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; dairy payout in focus, BOP deficit improves, farm sales weak, swap rates fall

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today.

A KEY REVIEW
Dairy prices achieved at this morning's auction were higher for milk powders, lower for butter and cheese. Overall there was no change. However observers reckon Fonterra will need to lower its new season payout estimate from the current $6/kgMS to about $5.35/kgMS. We will know on Wednesday, September 24.

DOWNHILL FROM HERE?
The annual current account deficit narrowed further to 2.5% of GDP as expected. But on a quarterly basis the tide has already turned, and falling commodity prices will see the deficit widen again over the next year says Westpac - and a whole bunch of other economists.

LOW VOLUMES, HIGH PRICES
Farm sales were very weak in August, according to data out from REINZ today. Only 107 farms were sold in the month, nationwide, which is the lowest number since January 2013. There were only five dairy farms sold in the month. However one sold in the Waikato took the median per hectare price to $60,000 in that province for the month which is highest for a dairy farm in more than 5 years.

LIFESTYLE BLOCKS SELLING FINE
Lifestyle block sales were unremarkable in August, coming in at 503 nationwide for the month, but 7% below the same month a year ago. Volumes were stronger in Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and Otago, and weak in Taranaki, Wellington the Waikato and Canterbury.

TAME
Home loan approvals in the latest week were also very average, and little changed from last week. But they are running -15% lower this year than the same time a year ago.

IT'S HARD IN MEDIA
APN today had its senior debt facilities downgraded by S&P from junk to junkier. That is APN's senior secured bank facilities went to 'BB' from 'BB+' and the recovery rating to '4' from '2'.

WHOLESALE RATES
Swap rates fell again today. From 2 to 5 years they were down -1 bp, for seven years they were down -3 bps, and for 10 yrs they were down -4 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate was unchanged today at 3.71%.

OUR CURRENCY
Check our real-time charts here. The NZD held its own again today. It is up marginally to just under 81.8 USc, down against the Aussie to 90.2 AUc. The TWI remains at 78.6.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.