A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Monday; more rate changes, Kiwibank's ownership simplified, Visa pushes against fraud, China cuts rates, swaps rise, NZD holds, & 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
ASB raised its floating rate, and for existing clients it will apply from September 1, 2022. The Cooperative bank trimmed tow short fixed home loan rates. More here.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Rabobank raised a number of its savings account rates, and their 3mth TD rate. The Cooperative bank also raised a couple of short TD rates, along with most savings account rates. And ASB also raised savings account rates, but for some it wasn't the full +50 bps. Xceda Finance raised all rates 5 months to 5 years.

ORR AT JACKSON HOLE
RBNZ Governor, Adrian Orr, will attend the global central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on 26 August. He will not be giving a speech at the Economic Symposium, but will be interviewed by Bloomberg TV at about 4.30pm, US Mountain Time, on August 25, which is 10.30am NZ time on August 26, 2022. (No other RBNZ manager is going.)

SIMPLIFICATION
The Government has simplified its control over Kiwibank, shifting to a direct stake in the way that most people assumed already existed. This is after one Crown shareholder, NZ Super, had wanted the option of private sector investment in the bank to help fund the bank's growing requirements.

PUCHING BACK ON AUTOMATED FRAUD
Visa is moving to force merchants to upgrade their protections against bad actors trying to get past card security systems. Requirements will include Turing tests (CAPTCHA), blocking logins after a specified number of attempts, and limiting the number of transactions per minute. Visa says their research shows more than half of Kiwis have abandoned online purchases, with the top reason that they were concerned about security.

THE NEW WAY
With the Marsden Point refinery now decommissioned and 70% disassembled, the new distribution system is launched with a large refined product ship now due to arrive. The STI LILY is classed as LR2 in size, which is among the largest refined product ships in the world. With a gross tonnage of 63,000 and deadweight of 110,000, the ship is 250m in length and is capable of carrying up to 120ML of refined product. It will be delivering fuel sufficient to fill half a million cars, fuel 9,000 flights between Auckland and Wellington, and keep 35,000 trucks on the road. It will fill nine of Channel Infrastructure’s tanks, including five of its largest, and is sufficient to meet eleven days’ worth of Auckland and Northland’s demand. Obviously, it is going to be a regular visitor, replacing crude oil tankers.

GETTING EXPENSIVE
Manawa Energy (ex-Trustpower) (MNW, #41) is looking for up to $150 mln in bond financing, essentially rolling over a December 2022 $125 mln bond. The new bonds will be unsecured, unsubordinated, fixed rate 5 bonds, and are expected to have a yield of swap plus a margin of 1.4% to 1.6%, set on Thursday, August 25, 2022. (Based on today's 5yr swap rate, that would give them a yield of about 5.45% - but rates are rising so the Thursday fix will be different.) The retiring MNW150 bond had a coupon of 4.01%.

CHINA CUTS RATES
The People's Bank of China cut their one-year loan prime rate by -5 basis points to 3.65% from 3.7%, while the five-year rate was cut by -15 basis points to 4.3% from 4.45%. A cut was expected, but -10 bps for each. Most new and outstanding loans in China are based on the one-year loan prime rate, which is now loosely pegged to the central bank's medium-term lending facility rate, while the five-year rate influences the pricing of mortgages.

SWAP RATES ROCKET HIGHER
Wholesale swap rates are probably sharply higher today on the global influences we noted this morning. There is curve steepening going on too. The 90 day bank bill rate was up +1 bp to 3.38%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is now at 3.57% and up +9 bps since this morning. The China 10 year bond rate is at 2.64% and unchanged and its lowest since May 2020. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 3.70% and up +13 bps from this morning, and now well above the earlier RBNZ fix for this bond which was up +4 bps to 3.56%. The UST 10 year is now at 2.33% and up +11 bps from this time Friday, but up only +2 bps from this morning.

EQUITIES MIXED
The NZX50 slipped last week -0.4% on some core weakness at FPH which was down almost -4.8% for the week. But today, this market is up +0.5% helped by FPH which is up +2.5% is a good partial rebound. The ASX200 is down -0.8% in afternoon trade today. This week, about a quarter of all ASX companies report earnings. Tokyo is down -0.4% in later morning trade. Hong Kong is flat to start their week. Shanghai is up +0.4% in early trade. The S&P500 futures are down -0.3% ahead of Wall Street's opening. More than 2500 US listed companies report earnings this week.

GOLD HOLDS
In early Asian trade, gold 'risen' +US$1 to US$1,747/oz.

NZD A TAD FIRMER
The Kiwi dollar is up +20 bps from its low this morning at 61.9 USc. Against the AUD we are unchanged at 89.8 AUc. Against the euro we are firmish at 61.7 euro cents. That means our TWI-5 is now at 71 and a tad firmer than this morning's open.

BITCOIN HOLDS
Bitcoin is virtually unchanged from this morning at US$21,432. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been modest at just on +/- 1.6%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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