Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There have been no changes today.
TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
The Co-operative Bank cut -5 bps from the online saver account rate to 2.00%.
AUCKLAND STUTTER
QV said today the average dwelling values in Auckland fell in February for the second month in a row, but they rose in most other parts of the country.
MODEST RECOVERY
Global dairy prices made a slight gain to end a run of four consecutive auctions worth of losses; Wholemilk powder prices did, however, claim a respectable +5.5% gain.
MORE THAN DAIRYING
Tony Alexander, the economist at BNZ has run his first confidence survey of 2016. He summarised the results like this: "Our first quarterly BNZ Confidence Survey for 2016 has unsurprisingly shown that the dairying sector is extremely pessimistic and experiencing hard times while record optimism prevails in tourism where visitor numbers and spending are booming. The weakness in dairying is starting to spread out but construction around the country is very strong, regional housing markets are lifting, and in Auckland while real estate comments are highly mixed it is interesting to note some respondents observing more Chinese buyers recently."
FACTS UNDERMINE PRICE RISE JUSTIFICATION CLAIMS
New Zealand hydro lake storage is currently in the high 70%s of maximum, unusually high for this time of year. Inflows are running nearly three times 'normal'. The forecast last year of a dry El Nino period have proven well wide of the mark. As a consequence, wholesale electricity prices are running about -20% lower at this time of year than the equivalent period last year. That is not stopping electricity companies raising their retail prices on the basis that 'demand is higher'. Not true and unlikely to be true in the future; demand growth is just not there.
GOOD RESULT
Data out of Australia today brought quite a surprise. Their economy grew a remarkable +3.0% in the December quarter over the same quarter a year ago - despite all its mineral woes. December was +0.6% higher than the September quarter on a 'real' basis. The AUD strengthened on this news. The NZD rose in a halo effect. It might get another boost the week after next; New Zealand's GDP result for Q4 is due for release on Thursday, March 17.
BANKING OMBUDSMAN FORCED TO TRIAGE INCREASING WORKLOAD
Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden says she has had to put special steps in place to manage a burgeoning workload. In her e-newsletter Sladden says following a surge of disputes, her office "triaged" complaints as they were received to streamline processing. They also established a waiting list. This, she says, resulted in an "impressive number" of disputes being resolved, with the waiting list closed by Christmas. Sladden said key factors driving the spike were: early repayment charges as more bank customers broke their fixed-rate home loans to take advantage of falling interest rates: scams affecting customers who unwittingly gave fraudsters money or personal details: customer dissatisfaction with bank handling of debt recovery (including mortgagee sales): customer dissatisfaction with new requirements to give 31 days’ notice to break a fixed-term deposit. The Banking Ombudsman says she still has an unusually high number of scandal related complaints under investigation.
RETAIL SHIFTS ONLINE
Total online retail spending in January was up +15% compared to the same month a year ago, according to the latest review by BNZ and Marketview. Online sales at local merchants were up +11% on January last year, outpacing the growth in spending at physical stores (based on Statistics NZ figures for electronic card transactions) for the fourth consecutive month. International merchants continued to gain market share over locals, with spending at offshore sites by New Zealanders up +21% on January last year.
MORE FTAs COMING
The European Parliament has voted 479 to 140 to commence negotiations of a free trade deal with New Zealand. The provisions relating to agricultural will be fun.
BEST FEBRUARY EVER
The February data for the sales of new vehicles is the highest level ever for a February.
MORTGAGE APPROVALS HIGH
Mortgage approval levels last week reached a record high in terms of the average approval level. It reached $228,400. Last week 6,870 mortgages were approved worth $1.569 bln.
WHOLESALE RATES RISE SHARPLY
There has been a strong steepening move today. One year swaps are up +3 bps, two years are up +4 bps, five years are up +6 bps and ten years are up +7 bps. NZ swap rates are here. The 90-day bank bill rate is up as well, +2 bps to 2.58%.
NZ DOLLAR UP A LITTLE AGAIN
The Kiwi dollar us up from this time yesterday. It is now at 66.3 USc, but down at 91.7 AUc following the surprisingly strong Australian GDP result. The TWI-5 is at 71.3. Check our real-time charts here.
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6 Comments
Huge turnout at the Barfoot auctions today with approx 70% selling under the hammer - the most noticeable aspect though was that at least 75% of the crowd were Chinese. So the IRD # backlog appears to have cleared and the Chinese are back in the game big time!
Where you and bigdaddy at the same auction slightly different reports
"Many Asians but few of them were bidders"
The IRD backlog story was an urban myth.
Difficult to tell who was buying what as there were so many people crammed in down there and they were running two rooms at the same time. Average price achieved at morning session was just over $1.4m and median $1.3m. Quite an incredible sight and very different vibe to Nov/Dec when the new rules kicked in and the room was empty.
I was there too and can confirm the 'vibe' and the crowd.
FTA with the EU will be interesting, we will give up everything for sweet fa
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