A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Wednesday; retail sales stay strong, house values fall faster, threat to regulate fuel prices, ASB swamped in bond acceptances, swaps slip, NZD stable, & 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
Unity Money raised its floating rate. Nelson Building Society raised its fixed rates.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
The Cooperative Bank has raised its 6 month TD rate to 3.85%, and its 1 year TD rate to 4.60%.

SPENDING LIKE NO OCR HIKES
Data for October for electronic card transaction activity, a close proxy for retail spending, was stronger than expected, with "spending appetites remaining resilient in the face of interest rate hikes over the past year". Retail was up +16.6% year-on-year, and services were up more than +40% on the same basis. Month-on-month the gains were up more than inflation too. The higher OCR isn't holding back consumer activity yet.

DOWN FURTHER
The latest QV figures show average dwelling values in Auckland & Wellington are down almost -$200,000 so far this year. The average value of NZ homes is down -$113,000 since the start of the year according to this Government valuation agency.

FUEL POLICY TWEAKS
The Government has announced it will give the Commerce Commission the power to step in and set 'fair' fuel prices if necessary. It is part of its revised "fuel sector strengthening" program which includes setting minimum onshore fuel-holding obligations, and a postponement of its "sustainable biofuels obligation" till 2024.

BNZ REPORTS BIG RESULT
The last of the big-four Aussie-owned banks reported its September year-end results today. BNZ said its annual profit topped $1.4 bln as income, lending and net interest margins all rose.

ASB FILLED IT BOOTS, BUT COST IS HIGH
ASB's unsecured 4 year bond offer "for at least $100 mln" has closed having raked in $650 mln. The interest rate they will pay for this is 5.93% pa. (ASB's four year TD rate offer to retail investors is 4.60%.)

BNZ JEALOUS
Today BNZ said it is about to go to the same markets for its own "unsecured unsubordinated fixed rate" bonds, for a six year term.

FONTERRA'S NEW CFO
Today Fonterra announced the appointment of Neil Beaumont to the role of Chief Financial Officer, effective early February 2023. He replaces Marc Rivers who is moving on. Beaumont was Senior Managing Director, Chief Financial and Risk Officer at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), with responsibility for leading the operations, finance and risk functions for the CAD$500 bn investment fund.

SWAP RATES SLIP BACK
Wholesale swap rates may have settle back a bit today after yesterday's strong lift but most of the real action happens near the close. Our chart will record the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is up another +2 bps at 4.21%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is now at 3.95% and down -9 bps. The China 10 year bond rate is down -1 bp at 2.71%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.66%, and down -4 bps from this time yesterday but still well above the RBNZ fix for the NZGB 10 year which was down -6 bps at 4.56%. The UST 10 year is now at 4.15% and down -7 bps from this time yesterday.

EQUITIES MIXED
In a volatile session on Wall Street, the S&P500 closed up +0.6% in its Tuesday trade. Tokyo has opened -0.3% lower. Hong Kong has opened -0.4% lower, Shanghai has opened -0.1% lower. The ASX200 is up +0.6% in afternoon trade. The NZX50 is up +0.4% in late trade.

GOLD JUMPS
In early Asian trade, gold is at US$1709/oz and up +US35 from this time yesterday, but down -US$4 from where it closed in New York.

NZD HOLDS
The Kiwi dollar is little-changed at 59.5 USc. Against the AUD we are also little-changed at 91.6 AUc. Against the euro we softish at 59.1 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 is now at 69.6 and and unchanged from this time yesterday.

BITCOIN DUMPED
Bitcoin is sharply lower today, now at US$18,369 and down an eye-watering -10.9% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been extreme at just over +/- 9.1%. Remember, it was exactly one year ago today that bitcoin hit is record high of US$67,554. It's been ugly since. Today's disaster is because a large platform (FTX)  shook near collapse, and has been "rescued" by the even larger (and arguably more dodgy) Binance (and its CEO Changpeng Zhao).

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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