A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; flood of used cars, rents stable, recovering meat's markets, Brown's junket, NZGB yields jump, NZD stable

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today - so far.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today, but we are aware of lower rates coming on Monday.

A USED IMPORT BUBBLE
New registrations of used imported cars are continuing at a frantic pace. In May there were 12,435 which is 400 for every day of that month (and one sold every 90 seconds of every day between 8am and 6pm !). It has been pretty much like this since December and something we have not seen in nine years. It far outshines what the new car industry is doing. A lot of people are making a large amount of money in this trade. And a lot of people are upgrading their vehicles. We are probably buying more cars than bikes. The Green Party campaign to get us peddling is going nowhere.

RENTS STABLE IN MAY
Rent data for May is out and there are no new indicators of rising rents. They are stable in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for a 3 br house at $575/week, $500 and $445 respectively. (This is data from MBIE and their bond database.)

RABOBANK NOTE ISSUE RAISES NZ$400 MILLION
Rural lender Rabobank has borrowed $400 million through a five-year note issue. The direct, unsecured, unsubordinated debt obligations will pay investors 4.592% per annum, which is the swap mid-rate plus 98 basis points. The offer sought $200 million plus oversubscriptions, and Rabobank said its order book reached $600 million.

FROM ECONOMIST TO LENDING MANAGER
Respected Rabobank economist Hayley Moynihan has been shifted to the new role of general manager Country Banking, in New Zealand.

RECOGNISING A FAILURE
Federated Farmers have 'welcomed' a new focus on getting better lamb returns in the market. They say, “Beef + Lamb New Zealand has identified we aren’t putting enough effort into promoting our meat exports at the moment and it has been working with the meat industry to get a joint farmer/industry promotion of NZ$7 - $8m a year commitment together.  I commend that. It’s been disappointing over the past few years for farmers, who are heavily investing in more efficient production on farm, to then see the value of their product being let down overseas.  The need for collaborative marketing was identified back in the Red Meat Strategy back in 2011.  I would hate to see meat industry politics derail or water down this proposal.”

COLD WEATHER ESCAPE
Auckland's mayor, two councilors, many ATEED hangers-on and 43 'business people' are off to Los Angeles to take part "in the inaugural Tripartite Economic Alliance Summit in Los Angeles" which is a sister City along with Guangzhou - "with the aim of bringing greater investment to Auckland". I bet the whole thing will be quickly forgotten next month.

ANOTHER RATINGS AGENCY LAGGING ANNOUNCEMENT
A second year of low milk prices will raise asset-quality pressure at New Zealand banks, says Fitch Ratings. But they don't say which ones will be especially affected. They do say the full impact will depend on how long it will take milk prices to recover, and on future interest rates and the level of the New Zealand dollar.

WHOLESALE RATES TAKE A BREATHER
Interest rate swaps have taken a breather after a sharp run-up at the long end. They are off about -1 bp today. The 90 day bank bill rate is higher however by +2 bps at 3.48%. But NZ Govt bond yields have jumped sharply again with the longest 2027s up more than +10 bps today.

NZ DOLLAR DITTO
Another day of tracking sideways. The New Zealand dollar is still at 71.4 USc, 92.8 AUc, 63.7 euro cents, and the TWI-5 is at 75.4. Check our real-time charts here.

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