A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Wednesday; still no major rate changes, retail sales rise weak, FMA wins against market manipulators, house prices slide faster, more CCCFA changes, swaps firm, NZD soft, & 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
ICBC raised most fixed rates today. Basecorp raised their floating rate. Update: ANZ has announced some broads rate increases for all home loan products, but only for those 2 years and shorter.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
ICBC also raised their term deposit rates. They new 6 month rate is now 5.50% and their one year rate is 5.85%. Update: ANZ has announced rate rises for both term deposits and its Serious Saver at-call account.

RETAIL RISES STRONGLY FROM A YEAR AGO, WEAKLY FROM FEBRUARY ...
After falling in February, retail (card) spending rose in March to be +15.5% higher than year-ago levels. For all card spending it was up +17.7% on the same basis. These are outsized because the base was very pandemic-affected. High inflation helps too. But the rise from February was only half of what was expected. After an unusually soft December, retail spending regained its ground over the first three months of this year. That will probably contribute to a Q1-2023 GDP expansion.  But that  does not change the overall view of 2023 that the year will be weaker than 2022. Mortgaged homeowners will be refixing at substantially higher interest rates in the months ahead, which is likely to keep the squeeze on discretionary spending. (H/T MG)

... BUT NOT AT KIWIBANK
At the same time, Kiwibank released its card tracker data (from its client base) and they report that their values fell 9% in Q1-2023. That is very much less than StatsNZ +1.2% rise from Q4-2022.

'LATITUDE WILL NOT PAY A RANSOM TO CRIMINALS'
Latitude Financial says it has received and rejected a ransom demand from the criminals behind the recent cyber-attack it suffered. Latitude CEO Bob Belan says there's no guarantee paying a ransom would result in any stolen customer data being destroyed and would only encourage further extortion attempts on Australian and NZ businesses. Latitude has said millions of customers' driver's licence details and details from tens of thousands of passports, dating back to 2005, were stolen in a cyber-attack last month.

NIGEL ANNETT LEAVING ASB
ASB says Nigel Annett, its Executive General Manager of Corporate Banking, is leaving to pursue a new role away from banking. Annett has been at ASB since 2011 in a range of roles. ASB says Annett will remain at the bank until a decision is made on his replacement.

GUILTY OF MARKET MANIPULATION
A judge at the Auckland High Court has ruled that two directors of ONL engaged in market manipulation in all the seven cases brought by the FMA against them. Penalties are yet to be assessed for the crime. The two other individuals admitted their wrongdoing in connection to the proceedings and were ordered to pay pecuniary penalties of $180,000 and $130,000 respectively in March 2022.

SLIDING FASTER
Average home values in Auckland and Wellington both down by more than $250,000 since the start of last year, according to QV data. The rate at which property values are falling is speeding up, suggesting further big declines are on the way.

YET MORE CCCFA CHANGES
The Government's has had another go at fixing problematic credit rules it first implemented nearly 18 months ago, but the bankers are still not thrilled.

SUCCESSFUL BOOKBUILD
The LGFA has got away a $1.1 bln 7 year bond which will be priced at +0.61% above the swap rate. These funds will cost the LGFA members 4.76%. More than $1.6 bln was bid for these bonds. It will have a coupon/interest rate of4.50% per annum.

SWAP RATES STAY FIRM
Wholesale swap rates have probably risen slightly again today. However, the real action in swap rates comes near the close. Our chart will record the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 5.52% and 27 bps above the OCR. The Australian 10 year bond yield is now at 3.25% and up +3 bps from yesterday. The China 10 year bond rate is down -2 bps to 2.84%. And the NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.07%, and that is up another +5 bps from this time yesterday, and still above the the earlier RBNZ fix at 4.01% which is up +1 bp. The UST 10 year yield is now at 3.44% and up +4 bps from this time yesterday.

EQUITIES VARIED AGAIN
After a steady but modest rise all session on Wall Street the S&P500 fell away sharply at the end to finish unchanged. The NZX50 is up +0.4% in later trade here. The ASX200 is up +0.6% in mid afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened up +0.7%. But Hong Kong is down -0.8% at its open. Shanghai has opened up +0.2%.

GOLD RISES
In early Asian trade, gold is up +US$20 from this this time yesterday, now at US$2016/oz. It closed in New York earlier at US$2004/oz and in London at US$2003/oz.

NZD FALLS BACK FURTHER
The Kiwi dollar has slipped against the US dollar to just under 62 USc. Against the Aussie we are now under 93 AUc. And against the euro we are still soft at 56.9 euro cents. That means the TWI-5 is down at 69.9 with a -40 bps fall from this time yesterday. 

BITCOIN OSCILATES AROUND US$30K
The bitcoin price has changed very little on a net basis since this time yesterday, still at US$30,017. But volatility over the past 24 hours has been moderate at +/-2.4%. 

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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