A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Wednesday; fixed & floating rate hikes start to flow through, fewer building consents, lower business confidence, households like higher TD rates, swaps firm, 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
Westpac has raised both its fixed and floating rates today, increases similar to yesterday's by ANZ. More here. Rates also rose at China Construction Bank.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Similar increases came from Westpac today for both term deposit and bonus savings accounts too. More here.

FEWER NEW DWELLINGS BEING CONSENTED
There was a big drop in the number of new homes consented in October. They fell -22% compared to September, but consenting levels in Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury remain high.

TAXPAYERS KEEP ON FUNDING PUBLIC BUILDING
Non-residential consents are holding up, but only because of public sector activity. The biggest positive contributions to activity in the year to October came from office and factory buildings, which totaled $1.7 bln and $1.5 bln respectively. Office consents (which include public transport buildings) were boosted in October by a $42 mln consent for Auckland’s City Rail Link and a $39 mln consent as part of ACC’s new building in Dunedin. Factory consents included a $30 mln consent for KiwiRail’s workshops in Christchurch and $23 mln of consents in neighbouring Selwyn. (H/T Infometrics)

CONFIDENCE SAGS SHARPLY
The latest ANZ Business Outlook Survey shows a sharp drop in confidence and own activity readings, while sentiment in the residential construction sector has 'tanked' and 'could hardly be lower'.

COLD COFFEE
Bank mortgage books grew less than +$1 bln in October from September, continuing a weak expansion that has been evident (and below +$1 bln) since July. At its height, these home loan books grew +$3.7 bln in March 2021, so this is quite a retreat from there. It is not as though non-bank lenders are winning business away from banks. Their expansion was only a mere +$21 mln. More here.

SMALL GROWTH BUT LARGE SHIFT
Household deposits grew very little in October from September, up a mere +$275 mln. But households are shifting their money around rather aggressively. They let their transaction balances fall -$1.4 bln, kept their savings accounts unchanged, and added almost +$1.7 bln to their term deposit balances, taking these up to just shy of $100 bln. They are up +$18.8 bln over the past year. Households are very motivated by rising term deposit interest rates, even if they aren't high enough to cover inflation (and still well short on an after-tax basis).

TOP JOB FOR COMMISSIONER
The Government has appointed Dr John Small as the new Chairman of the Commerce Commission. He replaces Anna Rawlings.

A FULL DOWNGRADE
Following on from yesterday's outlook downgrade for Wellington City Council, S&P has now given a full rating downgrade to Marlborough District Council, from AA+ to AA on their rising deficit and debt burden. Their outlook was already 'negative', and it remains so at the new rating level.

EMBEDDING THE ZERO CARBON ACT
From today, it has become a legal requirement for local governments to consider the Government’s National Adaptation Plan and Emissions Reduction Plan when preparing or changing regional policy statements, regional plans, and district plans under the Resource Management Act. The new requirement builds on changes made in 2020 that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act. 

VERY HIGH, JUST NOT A RECORD JUMP
In Australia, inflation eased to 6.9% in October from 7.3% in September, a retreat largely driven by lower food costs. But even at the new "lower" level, the increase remains unusually high.

VERY LOW, JUST NOT A RECORD DROP
Staying in Australia, the total number of residential building consents fell -6.0% in October, following a -8.1 fall in September. Year-on-year consents to build houses were down more than -11%.

SWAP RATES FIRMER
Wholesale swap rates were likely higher today on global trends. The real action comes near the close. Our chart will record the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged again at 4.42% to end the month. The Australian 10 year bond yield is now at 3.60% and up +5 bps. The China 10 year bond rate is at 2.92% and up another +3 bps and its highest in a year. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.15%, and up +6 bps and above the earlier RBNZ fix for the NZGB 10 year which is up +6 bps at 4.11%. The UST 10 year is now at 3.74% and up +5 bps from this time yesterday.

EQUITIES MIXED
Wall Street ended its Tuesday session down -0.2% and recovering as the session wore on. Tokyo has opened -0.7% lower today. Hong Kong has opened flat after yesterday's very sharp rise. Shanghai is also flat at its open. The ASX200 is up +0.3% in afternoon trade. And the NZX50 is up +0.8% near its close.

GOLD FIRM
In early Asian trade, gold is at US$1752/oz and up +US$10 from this time yesterday.

NZD MARGINALLY FIRMER
The Kiwi dollar is +40 bps firmer from this time yesterday at 62.1 USc. Against the AUD we are unchanged at 92.8 AUc. Against the euro we have risen back to 60 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 is now at 71.1 and little-changed.

BITCOIN RISES
Bitcoin is now at US$16,838 and up a sharpish +4.1% from where we were this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been moderate at just over +/- 2.3%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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