A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Tuesday; filled jobs history, RBNZ makes record FCY purchase, QV sees fuel prices starting to impact construction costs, swaps rise, NZX lower, NZD dips, & 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
TSB raised some fixed rates today. WBS also raised some fixed rates today as well. More about there mortgage rates are currently is here. All current mortgage rates are here. And note, you can compare mortgage offers with our unique calculator that takes into account other costs and cashback incentives, here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

WAS LOOKING SLIGHTLY MORE POSITIVE
Filled jobs rose +0.3% in March, providing more evidence that the economy was regaining momentum before the Iran conflict. Before the fuel crisis burst on us, the strongest gains in recent months have been in areas linked to the public sector, especially public administration and healthcare. There have also been gains in sectors linked to tourism, particularly in the South Island. On the downside, manufacturing jobs have continued to head lower, though at a slower pace in recent months. Construction and professional services, the two biggest areas of weakness previously, now appear to have stabilised but have yet to return to growth. It is hard to be optimistic for April and May however. (H/T Westpac/Gordon.)

MULTIPLE MORTGAGES
First home buyers accounted for 24% of new mortgages issued in the second half of last year. Now more than a quarter of mortgaged households have more than one mortgage. There are a wide variety of reasons for that.

THE MOST IN AT LEAST 22 YEARS
The RBNZ's foreign currency intervention capacity rose less than +2% in March from February to just over $27 bln (US$16 bln). This isn't a record high and is largely a change due to the NZD:USD exchange rate. But they did reveal they had purchased +$562 mln of NZD in the month in FCY markets (US$330 mln), supporting the NZD. That was the most in one month ever (since this data series started in July 2004), but was less than the $1.26 bln in the five consecutive months from November 2008.

FUEL UP, BUT MOST CONSTRUCTION COSTS ONLY SHOW MODEST INCREASES - QV
QV says that construction cost rises remain relatively contained, despite significant fuel pressures. They report the sudden appearance of rising diesel costs – up +37.6% in a month and +109.8% since February – that are flowing through, particularly in fuel-intensive areas of work. Excavation recorded the most significant increase this month, rising by +7.9% since QV CostBuilder’s last update. But piling and demolition also increased by by only +1.6% and +1.3% respectively, despite higher diesel prices. Diesel costs also fueled rises in the elemental costs, including a +2.2% increase in site preparation and a +1.9% increase in substructure costs, with exterior works also climbing +1.9% over the month partly for the same reason.

NZX50 FALLING
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index is down -0.7% so far today. It is heading for a -1.0% weekly dip. It is down -4.6% from six months ago. From a year ago it is up a net +5.7%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is down- 0.8% so far today. There are 33 gainers so far today, led by Scales, Gentrack, The Warehouse and Skellerup. There have been 58 decliners, led by Ryman, Summerset, a2 Milk and Vista.

EXPECTING MIXED RESULTS
There is another dairy Pulse auction early tomorrow. The derivatives market is signaling that WMP will be little-changed, SMP will likely rise yet again9maybe +5%), but that butter will continue its fall and it might be a rather hard -10% this time.

ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
Trump has named David Brat, a hard line Christian nationalist and libertarian, as ambassador to Australia. He is likely coming to stir the the immigrant-bashing and religious pot and fuel Australia's culture wars.

THE NEXT CULTURE WAR EARTHQUAKE
India is now on the front line of election manipulation. In one state, West Bengal, about 10% or 9 mln names have been purged from electoral rolls there. So far 2.7 mln people have challenged their exclusion. They are predominantly Muslim or other minorities. Much of it seems capricious. Being on the roll is a key qualification to claim you have always been a citizen if you were born there. There are never any questions if you are Hindu. Modi and the BJP have been suffering in polls recently, nationwide, but especially in the South.

SWAP RATES RISE AGAIN
Wholesale swap rates are likely higher today. perhaps by as much as +5 bps. 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 2.59% on Friday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is up +5 bps at 5.04%. The China 10 year bond rate is unchanged at 1.76%. The Japanese 10 year bond is up +3 bps at 2.47% today and its highest since July 1997. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.78%, up +6 bps from this time yesterday. The RBNZ data is now 'prior day' with the Friday rate down -3 bps at 4.69%. The UST 10yr yield is up +1 bp from this time yesterday at 4.35%.

EQUITIES MOSTLY LOWER
The local equity market has fallen -0.8% in Tuesday day trade so far. The ASX200 is down -0.6% in afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened on Tuesday down -0.5% in its initial trade. Hong Kong down -0.7% and Shanghai has opened down -0.3%. Singapore has risen +0.1% at its open. Wall Street ended its Monday trade the S&P500 up +0.1%.

OIL PRICES RISE
American oil prices have risen +50 USc from yesterday with the WTI benchmark now just on US$97.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is up the same at just on US$109.50/bbl.

CARBON PRICE QUIET
There have been very few trades today on the secondary market, and the price has held $50/NZU. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD EASES AGAIN
In early Asian trade, gold is lower at US$4667/oz, down another -US$60 from this time yesterday. Silver is now just on US$74.50/oz and down -50 USc.

NZD MARGINALLY SOFTER
The Kiwi dollar is down -10 bps against the USD, now just on 59 USc. Against the Aussie we are unchanged at 82.2 AUc. Against the euro we are also unchanged at 50.4 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now just under 62.4 and down -10 bps from yesterday at this time.

BITCOIN RETREATS
The bitcoin price is now at US$76,893 and down -2.9% from this time yesterday. Volatility has been modest at just over +/- 1.9%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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