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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; NZ Home Loans adjusts mortgage rates, the job market is still surging, check on Wellington buildings, yields retreat, Kiwi dollar heads up again after sharp sell-off

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; NZ Home Loans adjusts mortgage rates, the job market is still surging, check on Wellington buildings, yields retreat, Kiwi dollar heads up again after sharp sell-off

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
NZ Home Loans followed other recent moves in the market to a lower short-term fixed special and higher longer rates. Its 1 year special saw the rate dipped from 4.29% to 4.19%, while the 3 year special moved from 4.39% to 4.59%, the 4 year standard went from 4.90% to 5.10% and the 5 year standard moved from 4.99% to 5.20%.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
ASB trimmed various call/savings rates by 25bps.

JOB MARKET STILL SURGING
ANZ economists say advertising for jobs is the strongest it's been in five years, with job ads having not fallen in any month this year. ANZ's monthly survey showed job ads rose 0.6% in October (seasonally adjusted) to be 18% higher than a year ago (3-month average). ANZ chief economist Cameron Bagrie said labour demand is clearly very strong, although labour supply has also increased, courtesy of both strong net migration and strong labour force participation. "We nonetheless expect wage growth to soon start to respond to growing labour shortages." 

MBIE TO LOOK INTO WELLINGTON BUILDING ISSUES AFTER QUAKE
A technical investigation into the performance of buildings such as Statistics House at CentrePort will be undertaken to "help inform improved building regulation", Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith says. “This week’s significant earthquakes have tested the seismic strength of many of Wellington’s multi-storey buildings. This investigation will focus on Statistics House to understand its performance and where there may be wider lessons for improved design,” Smith says. “My advice from officials is that the vast bulk of Wellington buildings have performed well but if information comes to hand on other issues related to seismic performance, the investigation may be widened." Smith said it was important people did not "jump to incorrect conclusions" on buildings’ seismic performance from Monday’s earthquake.

EX-FONTERRA CHAIRMAN TO HELM RABOBANK NZ
Henry van der Heyden is succeeding John Palmer as chairman of Rabobank New Zealand Limited, while Scales Group managing director Andy Borland has also joined the New Zealand board, filling the position left vacant by Palmer’s departure. Former Fonterra chairman Sir Henry takes over at one of New Zealand’s largest rural lenders and a major provider of corporate and business banking services to the country’s food and agribusiness sector. Chairman of the international Rabobank Group Wiebe Draijer said the bank was fortunate to have an experienced agribusiness leader and seasoned company director of Sir Henry’s calibre take over the chairmanship of Rabobank’s New Zealand operations. Sir Henry has been on the NZ Rabobank board since 2012

AgriHQ FORECASTS $6.24 MILK PRICE
AgriHQ says dairy companies are under pressure to revise their milk prices as dairy commodity markets continue to firm. The AgriHQ milk price forecast for the 2016-17 season now sits at $6.24/kg of milksolids (MS), nearly a full $1 above Fonterra's current forecast ($5.25). Prices rose again at this week's GlobalDairyTrade auction. AgriHQ dairy analyst Susan Kilsby said global milk supply was continuing to decrease across the globe and this has tightened the market for dairy commodities. Both the physical and derivatives markets have firmed in the past fortnight and this is supporting the higher milk price forecast.

SOGGY SPRING DAMPENS FARM SALES
The Real Estate Institute's reporting that the soggy Spring weather is prompting a lot of would-be farm sellers to hold off marketing their properties.

GOVERMENT SUPPORTS KAIKOURA
The Government has announced a package of support for small businesses in Kaikoura that will be badly affected for months to come by the closure of roads for tourists and damage to fishing and other infrastructure.

YIELDS RETREAT
Both bond and swap yields have fallen in unison today. The NZ swaps curve continues to steepen. The 2-10 swap spread currently sits at 1.01% and is 30bps higher than at the start of November. Today's 2025 Govt bond tender was well supported and the weighted average accepted yield was 2.88%, compared to 2.52% at the last auction one month earlier. This particular maturity has received solid support from the market and the last three auctions have been heavily over-subscribed  The 90-day bank bill is down -3 bp at 2.02%.

UPWARD TREND AFTER SHARP SELL-OFF
The Kiwi dollar was sold off in the early hours of this morning and has spent most of the day battling against the tide. It is currently sitting around levels posted late last night before the USD gained some serious support. This saw the USD index hit a 13 year high overnight. Trading in the NZD/USD continues to trade in familiar territory between 70c and 71c. Australia's unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.6% and the impact from this data release was negligible. The NZD/AUD cross rate is closing in on 95c again. The Kiwi dollar is up slightly from this time yesterday against the US at 70.93 USc. On the cross rates, it is trading well up on yesterday at 94.8 AUc, and is at 66.3 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now  at 76.15, slightly up from yesterday at the same time. Check our real-time charts here.

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Source: CoinDesk

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2 Comments

Would be interesting to know who the architects, engineers and builders were for the BNZ and Statistics buildings and look at what other buildings they have been involved in over the last 10 years - perhaps there are more problem buildings out there yet to be identified.

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Or who manufactured and tested the steel beams.

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