A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; lower home loan rates, higher TD rate, derivatives rise, spot falls, jobs market more confident, rental yields sink, swaps drop

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Both SBS Bank and BNZ launched new low three year fixed home loan rates today. The BNZ's were the lowest. Westpac raised its 'special' two year rate and that resulted in BNZ's two year 'special' claiming the lowest carded rate for that term also.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
The Nelson Building Society has tweaked its one year TD up to 3.60% today.

O'OH
The fall in dairy derivative pricing today for WMP won't thrill many (any) farmers.

SUPERPOWER RIVALRY
Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf is in Beijing representing New Zealand at the official launch of China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and apparently getting kudos for NZ being the first OECD member to sign up. There are 56 'founding members'. The AIIB is a direct challenge to the the US-dominated World Bank which has been struggling for relevance recently.

DERIVATIVES UP, SPOT SLIDES AWAY
December brought a significant jump in NZD currency swap transactions after a surprisingly quiet November. What is especially interesting about this data is the fall away in spot transactions. Dec-15 spot transactions were -25% lower than the same month a year ago, and the lowest in almost three years. The NZD may be one of the 'world's most traded currencies', but it is decidedly little-league.

A BREAK IN THE CLOUDS
New Zealanders have become more upbeat about employment conditions, particularly their own job security and earnings growth prospects. After falling for much of 2015, the Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index bounced 2.2 points in the December quarter to 101.5. However Westpac says, "we’d warn against getting too carried away by the positive outturn. While there has been a broad-based improvement in confidence this quarter, the overall level of confidence remains well down from those we saw in 2014, indicating that workers have not entirely stopped fretting about employment conditions."

RENTAL YIELDS SINK
Infometrics is reporting that residential rental inflation reached a seven year high of +5.5% nationwide in 2015 but ended the year just slightly lower. In Auckland they reached +6.8%. But given the almost +20% house price inflation there, that means yields are tumbling.

THE SUV EVIDENCE
The number of new passenger cars sold in Australia in 2015 was at a 19 year low. But the number of new SUVs sold more than made up for the decline, now accounting for 35% of their new-vehicle market; cars are down to 45% share. More evidence that what people say they want and what they do with their money are disconnected.

WHOLESALE RATES SLUMP
We are seeing a strong move lower with a pronounced flattening trend today. Two year swap rates are -4 bps lower today while 10 years are down -7 bps. Local markets are responding to the fierce risk aversion theme on Wall Street on Saturday (Friday NY time). US markets will be quiet tonight because of the Martin Luther King public holiday. The 90 day bank bill rate is up +1 bp however at 2.75%.

NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The New Zealand dollar has held it lower levels today, now still at 64.5 USc. It is stronger against the Aussie, up a whole 1c at 93.8 AUc, and is holding at 59.2 euro cents. The TWI-5 is basically unchanged at 70.1. Check our real-time charts here.

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