Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Theer are no changes to report today.
DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
NZCU Baywide have raised almost all their term deposit rates today.
STRENGTH HOLDING
The BNZ-BusinessNZ PSI which measures service sector confidence is still strongly expansionary, but unchanged in December from November on a seasonally adjusted basis. (There was the expected seasonal slippage however.)
ROCK STAR REVIVAL
HSBC's economist Paul Bloxham has given our economic prospects another 'rock star' tick for 2017. He sees the construction, tourism and dairy sectors rebounding, 'firing all cylinders again'.
MINIMUM WAGE TO RISE +3.3%
The minimum wage will increase by 50 cents to $15.75 an hour on 1 April 2017. The starting-out and training hourly minimum wage rates will increase from $12.20 to $12.60 per hour, remaining at 80 per cent of the adult minimum wage. This will directly affect about 120,000 workers (about 5% of the working labour force) and cost about $65 mln per year. This change is +3.3%, and much higher than the +0.4% inflation rate.
CRASHINING AFTER BELIEVING THEIR OWN PUBLICITY
A few years ago a high profile Sydney real estate agent floated his 'successful business' on the ASX. But the rocky state of their housing markets, and the unforgiving disciplines of being a public company have buffetted them hard. Their share price is down -60% from its high, and they are struggling to survive. Declining sales volumes in this industry can hurt quickly.
WHOLESALE RATES SLIP FURTHER
Following the slippage on Wall Street earlier today, swap rates have slipped -1 bp again today across all terms. The 90 day bank bill is also down -1 bps to 1.97%.
NZ DOLLAR FIRMS AGAIN
Currency markets got a bit skittish today about the greenback over comment being made by the new US Administration. The NZD was a 'beneficiary' of that unease, although to be fair the impact is not huge. The NZD is now at 72.4 USc. On the cross rates, we are at 95.3 AUc, and at 67.4 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is now at 77.8 and nearly at a 20 month high. Check our real-time charts here.
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Daily exchange rates
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1 Comments
80% Of Central Banks Plan To Buy More Stocks
The bad news, is that as more people realize that a free "market" now only exists in textbooks, and that Soviet-style central planning is the only game in town, confident in price formation will evaporate, in turn pushing even more market participants out of the quote-unquote market, until only central banks are left bidding on each other's otherwise worthless stock certificates. Read more
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