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 Cooperative Bank raise its home loan rates for all fixed terms 18 months to 3 years. But they have kept their very competitive 4.99% floating rate unchanged. All current mortgage 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
The Cooperative Bank has raised its 18 month TD rate to 4.00% and added +10 bps to its 2, 3 and 4 year TD rates. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.
"CLEARER GUIDANCE NEEDED"; TREASURY NOT NEEDED
The Government is concerned the current system for reviewing major infrastructure projects allows investments to move through the system and lets bad projects gain momentum – until it’s too late – wasting tens or hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on Business Cases and early design and feasibility on phantom projects. "For too long, decisions have been made with patchy or inconsistent information, and with too little visibility of delivery risk," they complain. It's solution is five new changes to the Investment Management System; "stronger investor-focused assurance, better use of specialist expertise, clearer advice to Ministers, new assurance for asset management and long-term investment plans, and greater ministerial oversight of major projects". The changes include transferring responsibility for infrastructure project assurance from The Treasury to the independent NZ Infrastructure Commission.
LESS VOLUME, LOWER PRICES
Today's full dairy auction featured a low amount of product offered and sold. -10% less than for the same week a year ago. Overall prices were down almost -2.75% below the last full auction in USD, down -5.85% in NZD. Northern hemisphere seasonal volumes are rising so global supply is very adequate. The main weakness in today's auction were from butter (-7.9%), AMF (-9.6%) and mozzarella (-3.1%). But WMP basically held its own (-0.6%) and SMP rose (+3.2%). Demand out of China rose, offsetting the unsettled Middle East demand.
A REMINDER ABOUT RECENT FBT TAX CHANGES
Recent legislative changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) rules are now in effect. These changes may affect how employers treat certain benefits. For employers, these changes may affect how they tax some benefits provided to employees. In some cases, employers now have more flexibility to choose whether to apply FBT or treat a benefit as employment income with PAYE deducted. Employers may want to review how they currently treat motor vehicles, gift cards, and certain employee reimbursements to make sure they’re applying the rules that best fit the situation. See this guidance.
MAKING SURE FINFLUENCERS STAY IN THEIR LANE
The FMA has joined regulators across the globe in a co-ordinated Global Week of Action Against Unlawful Finfluencers to tackle the risks involved with unlawful financial promotions by online influencers. During the week beginning 20 April, 17 regulatory authorities are taking part in the second annual operation, undertaking enforcement actions, regulatory measures, consumer awareness campaigns and educational programmes for financial influencers, or finfluencers.
NZX50 SOFTISH YET AGAIN
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index is down -0.2% so far today. It is heading for a -1.3% weekly dip. It is down -3.0% from six months ago. From a year ago it is up a net +9.1%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is down-1.4% so far today.
A SMALL DEPRESSIVE IMPACT
EBOS has trimmed its profit expectations based on the rising costs of freight and packaging which could cost up to $10 mln to be adsorbed. They now expect 2026 EBITDA earnings to be in the range of $610-$620 mln.
NEEDING A NEW CFO
Air New Zealand's CFO has quit. Richard Thomson had been with the airline for 18 years (interrupted by 4 years at Metlifecare).
FUEL STOCKS UPDATE
This is the latest MBIE update of current the fuel stock status: Note we have the least number of ship tankers on the way here since this monitoring started, and the least inventory of diesel. But the situation is not critical yet.
| Stock, days cover | Number of ships | Petrol | Diesel | Jet fuel |
| In-country | 29.5 | 21.0 | 26.1 | |
| On water within EEZ (up to 2 days away) | 6 | 15.1 | 12.4 | 1.5 |
| On water outside EEZ (up to 3 weeks away) | 5 | 6.6 | 8.2 | 19.8 |
| Total NZ stock, April 19, 2026 | 11 | 51.2 | 41.6 | 47.4 |
| previously reported | ||||
| In-country | 29.6 | 19.5 | 28.5 | |
| On water within EEZ (up to 2 days away) | 7 | 16.7 | 10.8 | 1.6 |
| On water outside EEZ (up to 3 weeks away) | 6 | 7.7 | 14.6 | 21.3 |
| Total NZ stock, April 15, 2026 | 13 | 54.0 | 44.8 | 51.4 |
| previously reported | ||||
| In-country | 25.3 | 20.8 | 21.3 | |
| On water within EEZ (up to 2 days away) | 5 | 10.6 | 10.8 | 10.0 |
| On water outside EEZ (up to 3 weeks away) | 7 | 20.4 | 13.8 | 15.7 |
| Total NZ stock, April 12, 2026 | 12 | 56.3 | 45.4 | 47.0 |
| previously reported | ||||
| Total NZ stock, April 8, 2026 | 14 | 59.7 | 49.1 | 50.7 |
| previously reported | ||||
| Total NZ stock, April 5, 2026 | 14 | 62.6 | 51.7 | 53.5 |
| previously reported | ||||
| Total NZ stock, April 1, 2026 | 16 | 61.9 | 51.5 | 50.1 |
| previously reported | ||||
| Total NZ stock, March 29, 2026 | 16 | 58.7 | 52.2 | 46.2 |
| previously reported | ||||
| Total NZ stock, March 25, 2026 | 15 | 59.3 | 54.5 | 50.4 |
| previously reported | ||||
| Total NZ stock, March 22, 2026 | 48.7 | 46.4 | 53.4 | |
| SOURCE: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/about/news/fuel-stocks-update | ||||
HUGE FRAUD
In Australia, listed travel management company Corporate Travel has released an explanation of the UK scandal that has had its shares suspended for a while. Apparently the fraud being uncovered in its UK division is very much larger than first suspected. Here is their explanation. Their shares are still suspended from trading.
STRONG EXPORTS
Japanese exports rose strongly in March. They topped ¥11 tln for the month, up +11.7% from a year ago, better than expected. This was the seventh straight month of export growth, boosted by stronger shipments to key trading partners including China, Taiwan, ASEAN, the EU, and India in that order. Sales to the US rose just +3.4%, the first rise in four months as headwinds linked to tariffs imposed by Trump eased.
WORST DEALMAKER EVER
And Trump has TACO'd again, extending his unilateral Persian Gulf ceasefire indefinitely. His excessive threats have dissolved into meaninglessness.
SWAP RATES RISE
Wholesale swap rates are likely firmer again today by about +3 bps across the curve on the expectation that higher inflation will bring a strong, earlier reaction from the RBNZ. 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 2.54% on Tuesday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is up +3 bps at 4.95%. The China 10 year bond rate is down -2 bps at 1.73%. The Japanese 10 year bond is up +2 bps at 2.40% today. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.68%, up +1 bp from this time yesterday. The RBNZ data is now 'prior day' with the Tuesday rate up +2 bps at 4.62%. The UST 10yr yield is up +4 bps from this time yesterday at 4.29%.
EQUITIES LITTLE-CHANGED LOCALLY
The local equity market has dipped another -0.1% in Wednesday trade so far. The ASX200 is down -0.8% in afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened on Wednesday up +0.5% in its initial trade. Hong Kong down -1.5% but Shanghai has opened up +0.1%. Singapore has slipped by -0.3% at its open. Wall Street ended its Tuesday trade the S&P500 down a net -0.6%, but that was before the latest Trump TACO.
OIL PRICES RISE
American oil prices have risen +US$3 from yesterday with the WTI benchmark now just on US$89.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is up +US$3.50 at just on US$98.50/bbl.
BIG DROP
US crude oil inventories fell rather sharply last week. They fell by -4.4 mln barrels in the week ended April 17, far more than the -1.0 mn expected, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
CARBON PRICE HOLDS ON RISING DEMAND
There have been quite few trades today on the secondary market, and the price has held at $49/NZU, its highest since early November 2025. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.
GOLD DIPS
In early Asian trade, gold is lower at US$4753/oz, down -US$51 from this time yesterday. Silver is now just on US$78/oz and down another -US$1.
NZD HOLDS
The Kiwi dollar is little-changed against the USD, now just under 59.1 USc. Against the Aussie we are up +10 bps at 82.5 AUc. Against the euro we are also up +10 bps at 50.3 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is still just on 62.5 and little-changed from yesterday at this time.
BITCOIN MOVES UP AGAIN
The bitcoin price is now at US$77,546 and up +2.6% from this time yesterday. Volatility has been modest at just over +/- 1.9%.
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19 Comments
Yep the TACO threats are useless now. He’s the weird looking orange man that keeps crying wolf.
Sounds like Labour circa 1935 (so much for 'market forces'...):
Cabinet has agreed to five key changes to the Investment Management System:
- Stronger investor-focused assurance: External investment assurance will be focused on what Ministers need to make good decisions on behalf of New Zealanders. This means simplifying the assurance space by consolidating existing products like the Infrastructure Priorities Programme (IPP) and Gateway – taking the best elements of both.
- Better use of specialist expertise: Responsibility for coordinating external assurance on central government-funded infrastructure projects will shift from the Treasury to the independent NZ Infrastructure Commission, removing duplication of assurance products and ensuring the Commission’s expertise is used to its full advantage. This means the Commission will look over major infrastructure proposals long before decisions are made, giving Ministers independent, expert advice on whether the investment meets a need, represents value for money and is deliverable. When it comes to the NZ Transport Agency, high-risk projects or those outside of the National Land Transport Fund, will be subject to this assurance
- Clearer advice to Ministers: For all Business Cases seeking Cabinet endorsement, Treasury will introduce a standardised two-page ‘Fitness Assessment’ for major investment decisions. This assessment will also play a strategic role by putting the project in context of the entity’s past performance and the fiscal landscape.
- New assurance for asset management and long-term investment plans: A dedicated assurance function will be established for capital-intensive agencies, covering asset management and long-term investment planning. The Commission will be responsible for providing assurance on these plans and Treasury will lead policy.
- Greater Ministerial oversight of major projects: The Infrastructure and Investment Ministers Group will review High-Profile High-Risk investments and long-term investment plans before they go to Cabinet, and monitor delivery after decisions are made.
Old wine new bottles.
Tsy were doing it now InfraComm is doing it with some different words
PDK... you said... "Sounds like Labour circa 1935 (so much for 'market forces'...):"
Without the capital being created as a public utility for this investment in infrastructure and future sustainable societal wealth, this new scheme will be nothing like the Public Banking Solution that was deployed in NZ in the 1930s and which became a standout blueprint for the world on how to kickstart an economy after the ravages of the Great Depression.
"The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. " - Abraham Lincoln
"Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce, and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." - President James A. Garfield, two weeks before he was assassinated
Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881 and died of his wounds several weeks later. Chester A. Arthur succeeded Garfield as President.
"There is too much loose talk nowadays about the danger of so much capital in the hands of a few men." - Baron Alphonso Rothschild, 1892
In 1896, William McKinley was elected President in the middle of a depression-driven debate over gold-backed government currency versus bank notes borrowed at interest from private banks. McKinley favoured gold-backed currencies and a balanced government budget, which would free the public from accumulating debt.
McKinley was shot by an out-of-work anarchist on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo, NY, succumbing to his wounds a few days later. He was succeeded in office by Theodore Roosevelt.
THOMAS EDISON DESCRIBED THE IDIOCY OF ALLOWING PRIVATE BANKS TO CREATE THE MONEY SUPPLY...
"People who will not turn a shovel full of dirt on the project nor contribute a pound of material, will collect more money from the United States than will the People who supply all the material and do all the work. This is the terrible thing about interest ...But here is the point: If the Nation can issue a dollar bond it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good also.
The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money broker collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%. Whereas the currency, the honest sort provided by the Constitution pays nobody but those who contribute in some useful way. It is absurd to say our Country can issue bonds and cannot issue currency. Both are promises to pay, but one fattens the usurer and the other helps the People.
If the currency issued by the People were no good, then the bonds would be no good, either. It is a terrible situation when the Government, to insure the National Wealth, must go into debt and submit to ruinous interest charges at the hands of men who control the fictitious value of gold.
"Look at it another way. If the Government issues bonds, the brokers will sell them. The bonds will be negotiable; they will be considered as gilt-edged paper. Why? Because the government is behind them, but who is behind the Government? The people.
Therefore, it is the people who constitute the basis of Government credit. Why then cannot the people have the benefit of their own gilt-edged credit by receiving non-interest bearing currency on Muscle Shoals, instead of the bankers receiving the benefit of the people's credit in interest-bearing bonds?" - Thomas A. Edison, New York Times, December 4,1921.
ALL WARS ARE BANKERS' WARS - Michael Rivero... quoted from his article ...
https://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/allwarsarebankerwars.php
"Flag waving and propaganda aside, all modern wars are wars by and for the private bankers, fought and bled for by third parties unaware of the true reason they are expected to gracefully be killed and crippled for.
The process is quite simple. As soon as the Private Central Bank issues its currency as a loan at interest, the public is forced deeper and deeper into debt. When the people are reluctant to borrow any more, that is when the Keynesian economists demand the government borrow more to keep the pyramid scheme working.
When both the people and government refuse to borrow any more, that is when wars are started, to plunge everyone even deeper into debt to pay for the war, then after the war to borrow more to rebuild.
When the war is over, the people have about the same as they did before the war, except the graveyards are far larger and everyone is in debt to the private bankers for the next century. This is why Brown Brothers Harriman* in New York was funding the rise of Adolf Hitler.
*(Prescott Bush, George H W Bush's father, was a partner at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. from its formation in 1931 until 1972, linking the Bush family to this influential investment bank. His involvement helped establish a connection between the Bush family and significant political and financial networks in the United States)
"As long as Private Central Banks are allowed to exist, inevitably as the night follows day, there will be poverty, hopelessness, and millions of deaths in endless World Wars, until the Earth itself is sacrificed in flames to Mammon.
My concern is that this rush to global war is a desperate attempt to force the world back onto the dollar - a war the US will, in my estimation, likely lose.
The path to true peace on Earth lies in the abolishment of all private central banking everywhere, and a return to the state-issued value-based currencies that allow nations and people to become prosperous."
...........................................
You can plaster as much lipstick on this pig as you like. Nothing will change in NZ, until society can grasp this simple concept and reinstate what should be a no-brainer.
Until our central banking system is run as a public utility that issues the currency, we will continue into a debt trap vortex and insolvency, and our country will remain a victim of the global private banking cartel.
There is a solution that is staring us all in the face. All we have to learn is how to embrace it en masse, and NZ could become a thriving powerhouse economy within a few short years.
Cheers to all
Col
The video link where Michael Rivero explained all this 13 years ago...
Democrats For Social Credit to re form and win Election 2026?
Japanese exports rose strongly in March.
Driven mainly by autos, semiconductor-related goods (especially to China and Asia), and price effects on nominal values, supported by resilient U.S. demand and a historically weak yen. Plastics, chemicals and general machinery also contributed to gains into Asian markets.
There auto sales may be slammed in China. But how's this:
Toyota best‑selling model in US 2024: RAV4, ending Ford F‑150’s multi‑decade run
Segment leaders: 2025 U.S. sales, RAV4 remained best‑selling SUV and the Camry was “America’s favorite car"
U.S. News’ 2026 rankings list 2026: Camry & Honda Civic Hybrid
I wonder how many ICE cars are being sold right now? Hybrids maybe.
Toyota Motor North America sales in Q1 2026, are down just 0.1% yoy. Compare that to total market down 8.5% yoy.
Toyota sells a very broad range of hybrids and a small but growing set of pure EVs in the US. The RAV4 and Camry are hybrids.
We bought a hybrid Toyota Corolla (new) last September. Very happy with it. Quite sporty. Doing about 4.8 litres / 100km.
Paying dividends recently, of course, especially as I knock up quite a few kms each week for my business .
Is that the hatchback hybrid with a smaller boot due to the battery under the boot floor? Or another model?
“Unless things change, we will not survive. I want everyone to acknowledge this sense of crisis," said Sato, according to a report from Automotive News. “Right now, we in the automotive industry are battling for our very survival," he said.
https://insideevs.com/news/791250/toyota-safety-supplier-warning-china/
Goes to show in times of hardship, reliability always wins. You can run Toyotas into the ground, plenty of parts if everyone has them, and not too complex to fix so much as their European counterparts.
The ex-Aotearoa based conman Benjamin Mauerberger (and a bagman for the Asia online scam industry) has funneled the filthy lucre through one of the world’s most luxurious hotel chains and property investor, the Aman Group.
Mainstream media very quiet about all this, but thankfully Tom Wright, the journo who exposed Jho Low and 1MDB scandal, is all over it.
https://whalehunting.projectbrazen.com/the-aman-infiltration-how-a-glob…
Justin Sun has now formally sued the Trump family–backed World Liberty Financial in U.S. federal court, escalating what had been a public feud over frozen WLFI token holdings into full‑blown litigation.
Sun invested tens of millions of dollars in WLFI after Trump’s 2024 re‑election, with several reports putting his total WLFI-related commitment around 75 million dollars, making him the project’s largest or one of its largest holders.
Justin Sun is a highly controversial founder who has faced multiple fraud allegations and regulatory actions, but has not been criminally convicted of fraud as of now.
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/justin-sun-sues-trump…
Oz's Juice Media: the world has turned to s****
Caution: definitely NSFW or young children
I forgot about that channel
I preferred Clark and Dawe who seemed to be able to pass the same message with incredible straight face, God I miss Clark, he was really something special
the fourth turning supposes that people will enshitfify everything before admitting the the system is so broken it can not deliver.
IMHO this is the time to personally prepare, isolate etc so you are not dependent on anything you cannot provide for your family, i keep saying it this means power - solar and wind/battery , wood for fires Vege garden, water tanks, meat if rural etc etc. and get rid of debt now. ie deleverage.
because sure as shit everything will get shitter as pollies tell you its all ok.
Surplus next year anyone? Hint it will always by 1 year plus 1 or 2
'the fourth turning supposes that people will enshitfify everything before admitting the the system is so broken it can not deliver.'
Great sentence.
So true, look around - so little admitting by so many
wasting tens or hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on Business Cases and early design and feasibility on phantom projects.
I've seen this before. Frontline govt workers (the real workhorses) get less pay and do harder work, then when moving up the career ladder, enter a world of beuraucracy where everyone gets more and more disconnected from the departments goals. The workers then learn to focus more on trying to look good, get their name on projects to get their name in front of management and help propel them to the next step up the ladder. Thus increasing inefficiency of funds and adding dead weight of pointless pet projects, and time wasted in pointless meetings, only for many projects to get shut down, or delivered (new intranet pages as an example) never to be used again, or superseded weeks later by other projects.
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