Financial markets sceptical of US jobs report; US budget deficit to get much worse; China faces return of deflation; Australia gets borrowing surge; UST 10yr at 4.17%; gold up, oil up; NZ$1 = 60.6 USc; TWI-5 = 63.9

In their forthcoming first economic outlook for the year, Westpac's economists now think there will be SIX hikes of the OCR during next year as the current excess capacity in the economy is swallowed up more quickly than earlier expected

CEO Vittoria Shortt says when ASB finds issues it works with regulators to fix them as interim results highlight 3 court cases against the bank

Stronger than expected US labour market figures all round - payrolls up 130k, unemployment rate drops to 4.3%. Market pares expected rate cuts this year, US Treasuries curve flattens