A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; many small rate changes, Auckland house building slows down, job market tight, eyes on RBA, swaps up, NZD down, & more

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you already work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The Cooperative Bank raised all its fixed rates from 6mths to 1 year, with their 1 year rate now 4.49%. Kookmin Bank raised their fixed rates for terms 6mths to 2 years. Resimac raised their floating rate by +50 bps to 6.19%. Midland Mortgage Trust raised their floating rate by +110 bps to 7.60% floating for residential. Update: ANZ has raised most of its fixed mortgage rates. More here.

TERM DEPOSIT & SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
First Credit Union raised all their TD rates. Update: ANZ has raised many terms deposit rates. Details in our rate table pages.

BOTH UP & DOWN AT THE SAME TIME
The sharp fall in our currency has seen commodity prices react differently in the past month depending on whether you look at them in world price terms, or NZD terms. The ANZ World Commodity Price Index fell a further -2.8% in May, driven down by weakness in aluminium, dairy and forestry. But in local currency terms the index gained +2.0% from that currency effect.

DOWN
The number of new homes being built in Auckland is slowly declining. New home construction there is down -9.4% on a year ago.

DEFINITELY DOWN
In Australia, consumer confidence dropped a sharpish -4.1% last week, most likely on cost-of-living concerns as inflation expectations rose to 5.7%, its highest weekly reading since early April. Consumers there are especially pessimistic about the current economic outlook and their current financial circumstances.

TIGHTER
The local job market remains tight as a drum, according to the latest BNZ/SEEK Employment Report. Job adverts continue to rise - but the number of people applying for each job continues to fall.

MORE BONDS
Rabobank signaled today that it will be raising funds via a 3 year floating rate Note soon, possibly as early as tomorrow (Wednesday). Details then. Rabobank has an ongoing carded 3 year term deposit offer at 4.15%.

RITUAL TRAVEL
Finance Minister Grant Robertson is travelling for Sydney to meet with the new incoming Australian Federal Treasurer, Dr Jim Chalmers. He is following Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will is due to meet new Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese in Sydney as well. Albanese is just back from meeting the Indonesian President. The travel detail reveals the pecking order, and when administrations change, these visits are ritual.

RBA SURPRISES
The Reserve Bank of Australia has hiked its cash rate target by more than just about any analyst foresaw. It is up +50 bps to 0.85%. The AUD has jumped. Aussie bond yields have leapt another +4 bps. The ASX200 hasn't reacted yet but was already weak. More here.

SWAP RATES RISE SHARPLY
We don't have today's closing swap rates yet but they have probably firmed following the international rises especially in the US. Rises could be in the order of +6 bps although the RBA's decision might affect that. The 90 day bank bill rate is up another +3 bps today at 2.52%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is now at 3.51% and up +1 bp ahead of their imminent RBA review. The China 10 year bond rate is now at 2.83% and up +1 bp. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 3.72%, and up +5 bps from where we left it on Friday and above the earlier RBNZ fix for this bond which was unchanged at 3.70%. The UST 10 year is now at 3.05% and even higher than where we started this morning. A week ago it was at 2.74%.

EQUITIES MIXED
On Wall Street the S&P500 finished its Monday session up a minor +0.3. Tokyo is up +0.4% in late morning trade there. Hong Kong is down -0.3% in early trade. Shanghai has opened flat. The ASX200 is down a sharpish -0.9% ahead of the RBA's rate review. The NZX50 is down -1.3% to start the week here. All our majors are under pressure, but the -3.6% fall by Mainfreight (MFT, #4), and the -4.1% by Mercury (MCY, #12) stand out. The gainers today are mostly tiddlers, although they include a +1.2% recovery by Ryman (RYM, #11).

GOLD SOFT
In early Asian trade, gold has fallen -US$2 from this morning to under US$1840/oz. Recall we left it on Friday at US$1871/oz.

NZD SINKS AGAINST USD
The Kiwi dollar has moved down against the greenback, now at 64.6 USc and more than a fill -1c fall since this time Friday and almost half of that today alone. Against the AUD we are holding at 90.2 AUc. Update: following the surprise jump in the RBA's cash rate, the NZD has sunk by almost -½c. Against the euro we are softish at 60.5 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 is down to 71.7.

BITCOIN DIVES
Bitcoin is now at US$29,254 and down -6.5% from where we opened this morning. It can't seem to hold above US$30,000 in this current phase. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been very high at +/- 4.3%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

Keep ahead of upcoming events by following our Economic Calendar here ».