A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; watching for floating rate rises following +50 bps OCR hike, auction activity slowing, food prices jump, Auckland Council faces cutbacks, swaps settle in, NZD firm, & more

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
So far, no banks have announced floating rate increases yet. But they will come soon so keep checking. And there may be fixed rate increases coming at the same time given the squeezed margins recently. Further analysts are now expecting another +50 bps rise in May, so the pressure is on. Update: ANZ has now moved with a full suite of rate increases. See this. BNZ has hiked just its floating rates.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
None here yet but we do know that rates will be rising tomorrow from some banks. Update: ANZ has raised TD rates by between +5 and +25 bps across the board.

DOUBLE BANGER
Of course, today's major news is that the RBNZ OCR was raised +50 bps to 1.50%. More here.

SLOWING
Residential auction activity has flattened out over the last few weeks. Fewer properties are selling under the hammer in the Bay of Plenty, but Canterbury outperformed.

UNEVEN OUTCOMES
Consumer NZ says that NZ-owned banks again top their customer satisfaction survey. Bank customers are noticing their banks are doing better than them, they say. Their survey shows Westpac & ANZ bringing up the rear in satisfaction.

FOOD PRICE HIKES GROW
Food prices have their biggest rise in over 10 years. Statistics NZ says the 7.6% annual hike in food prices is the biggest since 2011 - and that earlier benchmark was affected by a GST rise. Analysts now estimate general inflation is set to top 7% annual rate as at end of March.

COSTS UP, REVENUE DOWN, SERVICE CUTS COMING
Auckland Council is now looking at budget cuts as it's squeezed between falling revenue and higher costs, pressures that mean cuts to services are looming.

RENTS RISE FASTER
Stats NZ reports that March rents rose +5.8% for properties that were offered in the month, compared to the same month a year ago. For Auckland, the rise was +2.7%, for Wellington the rise was +4.6%. But for the rest of the country, most rises were about +10% pa. For all properties including those not on-market, rents rose an average of +3.7%. Everywhere bar Auckland saw rents rise with a quickening pace.

FMA WARNING ON FINANEX 
The Financial Markets Authority is warning that Finanex Limited, which offers an online platform for investors to trade in cryptocurrencies, is falsely claiming to be authorised in New Zealand to provide financial services. Finanex is not a registered NZ financial service provider, the FMA says "Finanex Limited is also making statements regarding the returns an investor would receive from their financial service that appear to be false and misleading and/or unsubstantiated. We are concerned that Finanex Limited may be operating a scam and recommend caution when dealing with them and their website," the FMA says.

FMA ALSO WARNS ON TWO OTHER ENTITIES
The FMA is also recommending exercising caution before dealing with www.allianceequities.ltd and www.alphabase.ltd. It says these websites claim to be operated by NZ incorporated companies which is false. "We believe they are associated and are operating a scam," the FMA says The two are "misusing the details of incorporated New Zealand companies, Alliance Equities Limited and Alpha Base Limited respectively. These websites are not associated with, nor authorised by these companies." The FMA goes on to say that these websites claim they can guarantee returns on investment that appear to be unrealistically high. "The operators of these websites are not registered financial service providers in New Zealand. They do not appear to be subject to regulation by a regulator for the provision of these services or products."

GOLD FIRMER
In early Asian trading, gold is up +US$15 from this time yesterday at just on US$1971/oz.

EQUITIES ALL LOWER
On Wall Street, the S&P500 closed down -0.3% in Tuesday trade, unable to hold earlier gains. Tokyo has opened up +1.6% reversing yesterday's fall, Hong Kong has opened flat again after Monday's large retreat, and Shanghai has opened -0.4% lower. The ASX200 is up +0.2% in early afternoon trade. The NZX50 is down -0.4% in late Wednesday trade.

SWAPS SETTLE BACK
We don't have today's closing swap rates yet. They are likely to be a little softer now the full +50 bps hike has been delivered. The 90 day bank bill rate is up another +1 bp at 1.72%. The Australian Govt ten year benchmark bond rate is down -3 bps from this morning, now at 3.05%. The China Govt 10yr is little-changed at 2.82%. And the New Zealand Govt 10 year bond rate is down -7 bps at 3.51% but now below the earlier RBNZ fix for that 10yr rate at 3.55% (up another +3 bps) which pre-dated the OCR call. The US Govt ten year is now at 2.75% and down -7 bps since this time yesterday in a substantial reversal.

NZ DOLLAR FIRM
The Kiwi dollar jumped on the OCR hike, but has settled a little since and is now at 68.7 USc and a +½c rise since this time yesterday. At this level it is close to the average over the seven years since the start of 2015 of 69 USc. Against the Aussie we are a tad higher at 92 AUc. Against the euro we are up at 63.4 euro cents. That means the TWI-5 is now at 74.6, and and a +50 bps firming since this time yesterday.

BITCOIN FIRMS
Bitcoin is firmer, now at US$40,079 and up +1.4% since this time yesterday. Volatility in the past 24 hours has been modest at just under +/-1.8%

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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