A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Monday; WBS goes surprisingly low, local authority rates boom hits 2 year streak, ANZ & FMA reach deal on failings, less food waste, swaps stable, NZD firmish, & 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
The changes today include China Construction Bank cutting all its fixed rates, and selected cuts from Heretaunga Building Society (HBS), the Police Credit Union, and the Wairarapa Building Society (WBS) where their 2 year rate fell to 4.59% which is market-leading (and very unusual for a non-bank). All rates are here. And note, you can compare mortgage offers with our new calculator that takes into account other costs and cashback incentives, here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
AMP and HBS has both cut TD rates today. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

ONE SECTOR'S REVENUE BOOMS
Updated data on the rates take by local authorities nationally has extended the +10% increase rate to the last eight quarters. Over the past year, rates income has risen by +13.2%, which is about the average for the past four quarters. There has never been such a surge in the 33 year history of this quarterly data. There was a +13.8% spike in one quarter in 2003, but that was preceded by low changes, and followed by low changes. +13% rises now seem to have been normalised.

ANZ DOBS ITSELF IN
ANZ has self-reported two fair dealing breaches to the FMA. The bank remediated $5.4 mln to client affected which included more than $1 mln in interest for the delay. They changed their processes since 2023 when the issue was first identifies. Now the FMA has decided that a 'fine' payable to the Crown of $3.25 mln for the breaches is sufficient penalty.

LESS FOOD WASTE
A survey supported by Rabobank and carried out independently shows that we are wasting less food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push total household food waste bill lower. The survey – undertaken in late July – found the average household reported wasting 10.9% of the food they bought each week, back from 12.2% in the 2023 survey. This fall drove a drop in annual food waste per household (down to $1,364 from $1,510 in 2023) and a reduction in overall food waste bill. This fell to $3.0 bln per annum from $3.2 bln (fall of -6.25%) despite increases in weekly household food spend and the number of households.

NZX50 TURNS FIRMER
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index was up +0.2% in a moderately positive Monday session. And it is up +1.3% over the past working five days. It also up +1.4% year-to-date. And it is now up +4.9% from a year ago. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is up +0.3% today so far. Gentrack, Infratil, Vital Healthcare, and Spark rise, Napier Port, Tower, Channel Infrastructure, and Kathmandu retreat

A LABOUR LAW EARTHQUAKE
In Australia, a major court decision will impact hundreds of thousands of businesses. Their Federal Court has "concluded that the annual salary and set-off clause did not have the effect of relieving Woolworths and Coles of their record-keeping obligations and that clocking and rostering data were not sufficient to constitute records for the purposes of reg 3.33 and reg 3.34." It gets 'worse'. Apparently the law is written in a way so that these businesses have to prove that the accuser is wrong, rather than the accuser having to prove its case. It seems to render time-keeping records as 'not sufficient' but doesn't actually say what is 'sufficient'. Life is going to get "very interesting" for the large number of employers who have hired salaried employees - i.e. most. Some think it could cost those two large supermarkets up to AU$1 bln.

ISHIBA OUT, WHO IS NEXT?
In Japan, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigned over the weekend and new candidates are lining up to replace him. Financial markets are buoyant there on the prospect that a new leaders may chase fiscal expansion.

SWAP RATES HOLD
Wholesale swap rates are will probably be a little softer but not at the sort end of the curve. Keep an eye on our chart below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. The 90 day bank bill rate was unchanged at 3.01% on Friday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is down -5 bps from this morning at 4.30%. The China 10 year bond rate is up +2 bps at 1.78%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is down -3 bps from this morning at 4.39%. The RBNZ data is now all delayed by one business day now, and was down -3 bps at 4.40% at the end of Friday trade. The UST 10yr yield is up +1 bp from this morning, now at 4.10%.

EQUITIES MIXED
The local equity market is marginally firmer in Monday trade, but only up +0.1% now. The ASX200 however is down -0.3% in afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened up +1.4% (see above). Hong Kong up +0.2% with Shanghai down -0.1%. Singapore has opened unchanged. Wall Street futures indicate the S&P500 will open its Monday trade up +0.3%.

OIL FIRMISH
The oil price in the US is up +50 USc and now just under US$62.50/bbl with the international Brent price just over US$65/bbl.

CARBON PRICE FIRMISH
There are more trades again today and the price has firmed slightly to $57.50. The next official carbon auction is next week on September 10, 2025 and heading for another failure. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD FIRMS
In early Asian trade, gold is up +US$4 from this morning at US$3589/oz and back up just off its record high.

NZD HOLDS FIRM
The Kiwi dollar is up +10 bps from this morning, now at 59 USc. Against the Aussie we are unchanged at 89.9 AUc. Against the euro we are up +10 bps at 50.4 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now at just over 66.4 and up +10 bps from this morning's open.

BITCOIN STILL ON HOLD
The bitcoin price is now at US$111,296 and again virtually unchanged from this morning. Volatility has been quite low just over +/- 0.4%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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