Housing starts and permits jump in the US; China grows at official rate; no cooling yet in China's housing markets; Canada cuts growth forecast; huge Saudi bond issue; UST 10yr yield at 1.74%; oil up, gold up; NZ$1 = 72.3 US¢, TWI-5 = 76.1

Here's my summary of the key events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news about some crazy housing markets.

Groundbreaking on US. single-family housing projects surged in September, pointing to sustained housing market strength even as a drop in the construction of multi-family units pushed overall building activity to an 18 month low. Building permits for future housing starts however were up +8.5% from the same month a year ago.

The Atlanta Fed's real-time forecasting tool today raised its estimate of US economic growth to +2.0% for the September quarter.

China already has their official growth forecast published for the September quarter - they say the world's second largest economy grew +6.7% which just so happens to be the official target. Released at the same time were details of retail sales growth, said to be up +10.7% from a year ago, and electricity consumption, said to be up +6.9%. Electricity production had been only growing at a modest level for most of the past year, but has really ramped up from July. China's tax revenue is growing far slower than these economic data show; in September it grew +4.9%.

Attempts by Chinese authorities at both city and national levels to take some of the heat out of a crazy housing market don't seem to be working. The value of China’s new home sales rose more than +60% in September from a year earlier, defying the policymakers’ moves. This increase compares with a +33% gain the previous month. Residential transactions have surged and at least 21 cities have introduced purchase restrictions and toughened mortgage lending since late September, reversing two years of easing to support buyers.

And speaking of crazy real estate markets, Bloomberg is featuring one today - Queenstown.

And earlier today, the Bank of Canada has cut its forecast for the Canadian economy again, blaming a combination sluggish exports, the crackdown on risky mortgage lending and nervousness about the American election. The darker outlook comes as the central bank kept its key interest unchanged Wednesday at an ultra-low +0.5%, where it’s been since July 2015.

In New York, the UST 10yr yield is slightly lower at 1.74%. Saudi Arabia has launched a NZ$24 bln bond sale earlier today, in what is the largest-ever emerging-market bond issue. It is the kingdom’s first international bond sale, a bid to support a sweeping effort to keep its economy afloat as oil income dwindles.

The US benchmark oil price is higher today by nearly +US$2, now just under US$52 a barrel, while the Brent benchmark is now just under US$53 a barrel. This is near a one-year high.

The gold price is up US$6, now at US$1,269/oz.

The New Zealand dollar is a higher too, at 72.3 US¢, although on the cross rates it has had a small pullback against the Aussie to 93.6 AU¢, but is up against the euro 65.9 euro cents. The NZ TWI-5 index is now at 76.1.

If you want to catch up with all the local changes yesterday, we have an update here.

The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».