A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Monday; more retail cuts, house listings at decade high, rental yields low, more electricity price extremes, swaps stable, NZD stays firm, & 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
SBS Bank cut its 18 month fixed rate to 5.99%. WBS also cut rates, including its floating rate (by -10 bps). All rates are here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
Rabobank cut its rates today. That now only leaves one Korean bank (Kookmin) with a 6% offer for any rate in the TD market. Otherwise 6% has vanished. Heretaunga Building Society also Trimmed rates. SBS Bank did too, late on Friday. All updated rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

'STOCKS DIDN'T LAST', BUT MANY GRABBED THOSE HIGH RATES
Households plunged an extra $2.1 bln into term deposits in July as they sought to take advantage of high interest rates ahead of anticipated reductions in the rates. That was the most since the mid-2023 surge on the way up. Interestingly, that wasn't at the expense of either transaction or savings account balances; both those rose too. The shift was from non-bank investments.

DECADE-HIGH INVENTORIES
The number of dwellings for sale is starting spring 2024 at a 10 year high, Realestate.co.nz figures show. So buyers still have the upper hand as the housing market heads into this next season.

INVESTMENT, OR SPECULATION?
Low rental yields and negative cash flows a feature of three bedroom houses as rental properties, our Yield Report shows. It is the multi-unit properties that are the way to go for investors who value yield. Houses are more of a 'capital gains' play, and there aren't any of them presently. Multi-unit properties are cheaper to buy for similar rents, but have less chance of capital gains.

NZX EQUITY MARKET UPDATE
Check out our quick update of how the NZX is faring today, as at 3pm. We welcome comments on that update story. Updates to annual results were released today for Meridian and Precinct.

GOVERNMENT CONSULTS ON 'OPEN BANKING' & 'OPEN ELECTRICITY'
With the Customer and Product Data Bill before a parliamentary select committee, the Government's opening consultation on consumer data regimes for both banking and electricity. The Bill will establish an economy-wide legislative framework for secure data sharing, with the next step being the development of regulations establishing the rules for how a consumer data regime will work for different sectors, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Energy Minister Simeon Brown say. Open banking is the first cap off the rank with Bayly and Brown saying they're targeting open banking being fully operational by the end of 2025, six months ahead of the target set by the recent Commerce Commission banking market study. They're also seeking feedback on how a consumer data regime could be established for the electricity sector, and in time also plan to draw in other sectors such as insurance and telecommunications.

SHORT, BUT NOT QUITE AS MUCH
Eighty-three percent of bank customer deposit funding is now due to roll over within six months. That may seem high (and it is) but it is the lowest level since October 2018. Perhaps the July rush to one year TDs that yielded 6% gross has something to do with this small anomaly.

THE PERSONALITY TRAITS OF CRYPTO OWNERS
Do you own crypto? The types of people doing so have been analysed by this Florida/Canadian study. It might describe people you know who do own (and defend) that type of "investment". It is pretty unflattering, and the more so when you know that those in the study self-reported what they saw in themselves and other crypto holders. This was that crypto owners tend to score higher on measures of need for chaos, paranoia, schizotypal attributes, dogmatism, victimhood mentality, and psychological reactance, which is a clinical term for motivations triggered by feelings that personal freedoms have been lost.

MORE ELECTRICITY PRICE EXTREMES
But this time, it is the other way. Wholesale prices have been bouncing around $1/MWhr the past few days. And as we write this they seem to have hit $0.01/MWhr. You will recall they were well over $1000/MWhr in parts of July and August. Now they have moved into the $1 to $2/MWhr range, still very low.

HYBRID NEW CAR SALES GRAB RISING SHARE
There were 6761 new passenger cars sold in August, 8181 used imports. That is -3.2% less than the same month last year, -6.3% less for used imports. Of the new passenger cars, only 564 were pure EVs (one in twelve), but 2712 were hybrids (40%). So almost half of new cars sold were NEVs which was the highest level since the end of the Clean Car Discount. One bright spot was the registration of commercial vehicles which were up +12% from August 2023. Although to be fair August 2023 levels were rather light. The August 2024 level is more 'normal'.

SWAP RATES LITTLE-CHANGED
Wholesale swap rates are probably little-changed again today although there is a hint of firmness in bond rates that may influence swap rates. Our chart below will record the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is down -2 bps at 5.21%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is up +7 bps at 4.05% on sticky inflation worries. The China 10 year bond rate is down -1 bp at 2.17%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up +9 bps at 4.37% and the earlier RBNZ fix was at 4.29% and down -2 bps bps from Friday. The UST 10yr yield is up +7 bps from this morning at 3.91%. Their 2yr is now at 3.92%, so that curve has now tightened right up, inverted by just -1 bp.

EQUITIES MIXED, BUT CHINA LOWER
The NZX50 is little-changed in its late Monday trade. The ASX200 is down -0.2% in afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened its Monday trade up +0.2%. Hong Kong is down a sharpish -1.6% and Shanghai has opened down its own -0.6%. Singapore is up +0.3% at its open. Wall Street will be closed till Wednesday, their Labor Day holiday.

OIL DOWN SHARPLY
The oil price is down nearly -US$2 from this morning at just over US$72.50/bbl in the US, and at just under US$76.50/bbl for the international Brent price.

CARBON PRICE FIRMER
Today the carbon price is firmer again today at $62/NZU. See our new daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD DROPS FROM ITS HIGHS
In early Asian trade, gold is down -US$14 from this morning at US$2492/oz.

NZD TURNS UP FURTHER
The Kiwi dollar is essentially unchanged from this morning, still at 62.4 USc. Against the Aussie we are up +20 bps at 92.2 AUc. And against the euro we are up +50 bps at 56.4 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now at 70.4 and up +30 bps.

BITCOIN DROPS AGAIN
The bitcoin price is down -3.3% from this morning, now at US$57,426. Volatility of the past 24 hours has been modest at just on +/- 1.4%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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