A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Monday; Mortgage rate and TD rate moves, Smartpay surges, sales up, prices down for Barfoots, retail crime under reported, swaps up, NZD up, & more

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank trimmed some home loan rates, with emphasis on the longer term durations. Biggest drop was for the three-year rate, which was cut 24 basis points to 5.35%, but still above the current market-leading 5.19% being offered by Westpac. All rates are here.

Kāinga Ora dropped its floating rate 25 bps to 6.64% and one-year rate 30 bps to 4.99%.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank also gave its term deposits a trim. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

The Police Credit Union has trimmed its six, 12,18 and 24 month rates by between five and 10bps.

CHORUS LOOKING AT $170M CAPITAL NOTES OFFER
Telecoms infrastructure company Chorus is planning an offer of up to $170 million of unsecured, subordinated, redeemable, cumulative, interest-bearing capital notes, with details to be released later this week and the offer expected to open in the week beginning May 19. Forsyth Barr Limited is Arranger and Joint Lead Manager, and Bank of New Zealand is Joint Lead Manager.

SMARTPAY SURGES ON TAKEOVER DEVELOPMENT
The share price of eftpos service provider Smartpay surged by more than 20% after it confirmed it had entered exclusive talks with an unnamed "international strategic" party proposing to take it over for $1.20 a share. Australia's Tyro Payments, which had also been undertaking due diligence on Smartpay, withdrew its interest. 

SPENDING UP IN APRIL, BUT DOWN FOR EASTER
Payment provider Worldline NZ said nationwide consumer spending in April reached $3.74 billion, which is up +0.9% on April 2024, following adjustments for merchants coming and going from the network. However, spending in Easter, which fell fully in April this year compared with being across both March and April last year, was slightly down on 2024 levels.

RETAIL CRIME 'SIGNIFICANTLY UNDER REPORTED'
Retail crime rates are significantly under-reported in New Zealand, by almost 40%, a new report by industry body Retail NZ has found. For the report, Retail NZ got responses from 1500 retailers nationwide - and 99% of them experienced some form of retail crime or anti-social behaviour, totalling 140,746 incidents. Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young says the survey confirms the actual level of retail crime in New Zealand "is much higher than official statistics show".

VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS DRIFT
New vehicle registrations continued their downward drift last month; from 9223 in April last year, to 8839 in the month just gone. Motor Industry Association chief executive Aimee Wiley says April’s results continue an overall declining trend from the beginning of the year. "Registrations to the end of April totalled 41,380 vehicles – a 3.9% drop on the 43,079 registered over same period in 2024. This is likely due to continuing tight economic conditions impacting on spending behaviour." In April Toyota remained the top passenger marque with 2172 units registered for a 24.6% share of the market, but this represented a 8.6% drop on the 2378 units sold in April 2024.

SALES UP, BUT PRICES DOWN FOR AUCKLAND'S LARGEST REAL ESTATE AGENCY
Last month Barfoot & Thompson had its best April sales result since 2021, but the median selling price was the lowest for an April since 2020.

'WESTPAC COMPETING HARD TO GROW'
Westpac NZ is the smallest of the four largest banks, not satisfied with that position, and "competing hard to grow", CEO Catherine McGrath says. "That means offering points of difference, through competitive pricing and innovative products and services, while also helping drive action on issues that matter to New Zealanders like fighting fraud and scams, getting more families into their own homes and boosting financial inclusion." Westpac's net profit after tax for the six months to March 31 rose $3 million to $565 million from $562 million in the same period of its previous financial year.

TRADE TALKS WITH INDIA GETTING UNDERWAY
Minister for Trade and Investment Todd McClay says the first "in-person" round of negotiations towards a comprehensive India-NZ Free Trade Agreement will occur in India this week.

SWAP RATES LIKELY RISING
Wholesale swap rates will likely be up today. Keep an eye on our chart below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. The 90 day bank bill rate was down 1 bp at 3.41%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is up 10 bps at 4.32%. The China 10 year bond rate is at 1.62%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up 5.5 bp at 4.52%. The UST 10yr yield is on 4.31%, down 1 bp.

EQUITIES MIXED
The NZX50 is up 0.3%, but the ASX200 is down a solid 1.10% in afternoon trade. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai are closed. Singapore has opened up down 0.1%. 

OIL LOWER AGAIN
The oil price is down another US$2.26 at US$56.03/bbl in the US, and down US$2.22 to US$59.07/bbl for the international Brent price. 

GOLD RISES
In early Asian trade, gold is continuing its recent up-and-down-up-and-down volatile pattern, for the moment rising -US$25 to US$3625/oz.

NZD FIRMS
The Kiwi dollar is up 27 bps from early Monday, now at US59.74c. Against the Aussie we are up 17 bps at AU92.41c. Against the euro we are 52.71 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now at 67.00, up from 66.8 earlier in the day.

BITCOIN DOWN
The bitcoin price is at US$94,300, which is down about 1.8% in the past 24 hours.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

Keep abreast of upcoming events by 8ollowing our Economic Calendar here ».