A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Friday; credit card rates rise, trade deficit shrinks, Mainzeal liquidation update, FPH update; swaps 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
Resimac has reduced all its fixed rates today, by between -10 bps and -30 bps.

CREDIT CARD RATE CHANGE
ANZ has raised its credit card rates by +1%. More here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
TSB has reverted its 6.25% one year TD 'special' back to 6.10%.

TRADE DEFICIT SHRINKS
The February merchandise (goods) trade balance delivered a -$218 mln deficit in the month, much less than the -$847 deficit in February 2023 or the -$715 mln deficit in February 2022. That was principally due to much better export levels which rose +16% from a year ago. Imports rose too, but only by +3.3%. (However there is some anecdotal evidence that containerised imports are suddenly shrinking as evidenced by arriving containers for discharge at our ports. If that turns out to be the actual case we may get a run of much better trade balance data.)

ADDITIONAL FLOOD FUNDING
The Government plans to contribute more funding to Auckland flood resilience through a $2 mln contribution to fund community-driven flood resilience projects. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell says last year’s flooding was some of the worst the country had ever seen and the $2 mln would “speed up” small-scale community projects focussed around flood resilience as we go into winter.

BETTER TRADING, BUT LOWER VALUES
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (FPH) said today that it has updated and raised its profit guidance slightly for the current year. But it also warned that it may have to write down the value of its premises in both Auckland and Mexico because higher interest rates have depressed the valuations of commercial property generally.

MAINZEAL 'PROGRESS'
The liquidators of Mainzeal have collected the court judgements on the directors Shipley, Tilby and Gomm in full. But they are having to pursue Richard Yan in China into bankruptcy. They say they have now recovered $23.8 mln from these directors so far, but it cost them $12.4 mln to pay out the litigation funder. They have also made some minor payments to creditors (6c in the $1) and currently have $12.2 mln on hand to settle the remaining $112 mln in valid claims (of the $159 mln sought).

JAPANESE INFLATION RISES
Inflation is finally embedding in Japan. It's been a long slog to get out of deflation. Their inflation rate climbed to 2.8% in February from 2.2% in the prior month, the highest figure since last November. It has been over 2% since March 2022.

SWAP RATES LITTLE-CHANGED
Wholesale swap rates are likely to be little-changed today. Our chart below records the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged yet again at 5.64%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is unchanged at 4.09%. The China 10 year bond rate is down -2 bps to 2.29% and flirting with its all-time low of 2.28%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up +2 bps at 4.65% and bouncing back up +11 bps in the earlier RBNZ fix to 4.61%. The UST 10yr yield is unchanged at 4.26%. Their 2yr is now at 4.63, so the curve is now inverted by -37 bps.

EQUITIES MOSTLY RISE, & SOME GOOD GAINS
Wall Street closed its Thursday trade with the S&P500 up a net +0.3%. In the first four days, that is a +2.4% rise. Tokyo has opened its Friday session up +0.6% from yesterday. Hong Kong has opened down -0.9%. Shanghai has opened down -0.1%. Singapore has opened up +0.1% from yesterday. The ASX200 is down -0.4% in afternoon trade but heading for a +1.1% weekly gain. The NZX50 is up +0.6% in late trade and heading for a weekly +1.8% gain.

OIL PRICES LOWER
Oil prices have fallen sharply in the US with their WTI price down -US$3 to US$80.50/bbl while the international Brent price is down -US$1 from this time yesterday at US$85/bbl.

GOLD SLIPS
In early Asian trade, gold is down -US$18/oz at US$2183/oz and off ts all-time highs.

NZD SLIPPED
The Kiwi dollar is down nearly -½c against the US greenback from this time yesterday to 60.5 USc. Against the Aussie we have stayed down at 92 AUc. Against the euro we are unchanged at 55.7 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 has slipped -20 bps.

BITCOIN RETREATS
The bitcoin price has retreated, now at US$65,875 and down -3.0% from this time yesterday. But volatility of the past 24 hours has been moderate at +/- 2.6%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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