A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Monday; an eye-catching 6m TD rate, strong demand for some personal loans, costs stymie Suncorp, SFO probes failed crypto exchange, swaps on hold, NZD slips, & 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/LOAN RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
SBS Bank has launched a 6.5% term deposit rate for a six month term. More here.

BORROWING FREELY FOR CARS, HOME APPLIANCES
Consumer credit monitor Equifax said that December quarter demand for personal loans (for primarily cars and large home appliances) rose more than +16% from the same quarter in 2022. They saw mortgage demand up +3.8% over the same period.

SUNCORP SHINES
The other large Aussie insurer active in the local market, Suncorp, has reported stellar premium growth in New Zealand, up +19.6%. But profits in this market were lower due to faster rising claims. Profits in Australia leapt. Suncorp's strength is in consumer insurance (home, contents, car). In New Zealand it operates the brands Vero, AA Insurance, and Asteron Life. More here.

BIG ANZ PREF SHARE ISSUE COMING
ANZ is another bank 'wanting'/'needing' to bolster its capital - without asking for more support from its parent. So it is planning an offer of up to $250 mln "with the ability to accept unlimited oversubscriptions" of perpetual preference shares to New Zealand investors. (Usually these are heavily oversubscribed.) They will constitute additional Tier 1 Capital for ANZ’s regulatory capital requirements. These perpetual preference shares will remain on issue indefinitely and won't mature in the way a normal bond does. They are expected to have a credit rating of BBB from S&P which is lower than the bank's institution AA- credit rating. BBB is just two notches above a junk rating. AA- is seven notches above.

SFO PROBES DASSET
Failed Auckland cryptocurrency exchange Dasset is under Serious Fraud Office investigation. More here.

NZSF GETS NEW CHAIRMAN
The NZ Super Fund will get a new Chair of the Board, replacing Catherine Drayton. John Williamson will take over the role, having been a board member since 2016. He is a former CEO of ACG Education and Hellaby Holdings.

$20K TO START
Very dry weather and growing drought conditions in part of the South Island have triggered the start of emergency funding for farmer support services. This is only a small start however.

SWAP RATES ON HOLD
Wholesale swap rates will probably be little-changed today. However, the key reaction will come at the close. Our chart below records the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is down -1 bp at 5.72%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is down -4 bps from this morning at 4.11%. The China 10 year bond rate is little-changed at 2.42% and still near a record low. And the NZ Government 10 year bond rate is down -4 bps to 4.88%, while the earlier RBNZ fixing was at 4.84% and down -1 bp from Friday. The UST 10 year yield is now at 4.23% and down -2 bps from this morning. The UST 2yr is now up to just under 4.68% and so that key inversion is now out sharply from Friday to -45 bps.

EQUITY WINNERS & LOSERS
The NZX50 has opened its week down -0.3% in late trade today. The ASX200 was higher but is essentially unchanged now in early afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened up +0.5% (and observers are now on Nikkei225 40,000 watch). Hong Kong has opened down -0.2%. Shanghai has also opened down -0.2%. Singapore is down nearly -0.7% at their open. The S&P500 futures suggest Wall Street will open little-changed from where they closed last week.

OIL SOFTISH
Oil prices are -50 USc lower than this morning, now just on US$76/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is still at just over US$80.50/bbl.

GOLD SLIPS
In early Asian trade, gold is now at US$2030/oz and down -US$5 from this morning.

NZD RETREATS
The Kiwi dollar has retreated more than -¼c from this morning, now at 61.7 USc. Against the Aussie we are also soft at 94.1 AUc. Against the euro we have dipped to 57 euro cents. That means the TWI-5 is now at 71 today.

BITCOIN FIRMS SLIGHTLY
The bitcoin price has firmed slightly today, now at US$51,699 and up a minor +0.8% from this morning's open. There's been low volatility over the past 24 hours of just over +/- 0.6%. Also, see this.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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