Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There was an important move by ASB today. They tweaked up their one year 'special' by +4 bps, and cut their three year 'special' to 4.49%, a market leading rate. Also, the Heretaunga Building Society cut -15 bps to their 1 and 2 year rates.
TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Today, Nelson Building Society reduced some term deposit rates.
SHARP DROP
Auckland's Barfoot & Thompson warned today that buyers no longer feel pressured to accept high prices; their sales volumes declined -21% in October, although prices held.
UNWELCOME RISE
Statistics NZ reported that jobs fell -0.4% in Sept quarter and the unemployment rate rose to 6.0% from 5.9%. The participation rate also fell and jobs growth was weaker than expected.
ITS NOT ONLY HOUSES ...
Car sales in October reached spectacular levels. It was the highest month since June 1989. Growth in sales has been steady and relentless since April 2009. The chart tells it all. Interestingly, some of the new car strength seems to be at the expense of used imports. The high NZD has made 'new' seem less of a premium to the 'imports'. And, we have gone hog-wild for Toyotas, both new and used-imported. This brand is the clear winner with 26% market share (new+imports) and the next is Nissan at 11% on the same basis, mainly through its strength in used-imports.
HMMM ...
Today's LGFA debt tender didn't go quite as hoped. The allocations had to be re-jigged as the coverage ratio was down at 1.8x. The average yield slipped slightly to 3.8%.
MORE GROSS DEBT
Total Government securities on issue reached $79.4 bln in October, their highest level since March 2015, according to data released by the RBNZ today.
SHORT WEEK, STRONG APPROVALS
There were 5,637 new home loans approved last week. The number was lower because of the shorter holiday week, but that was running +7.7% higher on a 'per day' basis that the week before.
GE MONEY BEING RENAMED
The GE Australian and New Zealand consumer finance business being bought by Varde Partners, Deutsche Bank and KKR from General Electric for A$8.2 billion, is being renamed Latitude Financial Services. Its CEO will be Sean Morrissey, who joins from GE Money Bank in the Czech Republic.
WHOLESALE RATES FALL
Local wholesale swap rates diverged from the Wall Street signals, following the weak dairy auction and weak employment report. Short term rates fell more than long term ones as a December OCR cut possibility came back into market thinking. The 90 day bank bill rate fell -2 bps to 2.93%.
NZ DOLLAR FALLS
Today our dollar turned south today following the less-than-impressive data. It is now at 66.4 USc, at 92.2 AUc and 60.7 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now at 71.5. Check our real-time charts here.
You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.
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