A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Friday; no retail rate changes, fuel costs crowd out travel plans, waiting is safer, new borrowing jumps, Yili profits jump, Toyota securitises more, swaps up NZD stable, & 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
No changes to report today. 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 here either. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

AUCKLAND DWELLING COMPLETIONS RISE
Over 1000 new homes were completed in Auckland in February but residential construction in the region remains relatively subdued.

HIGHER FUEL COSTS, LESS TRAVEL
Retail spending on Westpac issued debit and credit cards remained soft in April as the increases in petrol and other living costs continued to bite. Travel spending has been particularly weak, they note.

"A REASONABLE DELAY"
The Banking Ombudsman has ruled that bank-imposed delays while they verify fraud isn't present, are reasonable. They say fraud checks can be frustrating but are necessary to prevent scams. They recently investigated a case in which a customer was unhappy with such a delay, and the consequences it caused. The customer asked the bank to transfer $500,000 so he could buy gold. The bank refused because it was concerned the payment could be a linked to a scam. (This customer had recently been the victim of a fraud.)

NOT B.A.U.
The Opportunities Party has released its Tax Policy. It probably won't appeal to the 1%. It calls for a UBI, a land tax, and upgraded KiwiSaver. They call it 'bold' and it probably is, in a political way.

NEW MORTGAGE BORROWING JUMPS
The RBNZ is reporting that there was $15.1 bln of new lending in March, up +37% from $11.1 bln in February, and up by 21.0% from $12.5 bln in March 2025. New owner occupier lending was most of the March increase with a preference for 2-year fixed term lending. We are also seeing a rise in three-year fixed terms being chosen by investors.

GULL-NPD MERGER APPROVED
The Commerce Commission has granted clearance for Astra Energy to acquire all of the shares in Gull and all of the shares in NPD. "[W}e are satisfied that the proposed merger is not likely to substantially lessen competition in any market", they said. Maintaining both the NPD and Gull brands, the combined entity will provide self-serve fuel at 240 sites from Invercargill to Kaitaia. It will also develop a national service for fleet customers.

ABOUT FUEL SURCHARGES
The Commerce Commission has set out the rules for recovering excess fuel costs. They say that "while fuel surcharges can be a legitimate way for businesses to recover unexpected increases in fuel costs, we want to remind businesses about how to apply them fairly. Fuel surcharges must reflect only the additional fuel costs your business is facing and cannot be used as an excuse to recover unrelated expenses or to increase margins. Any surcharge should be based on real and current cost pressures." Obviously 'fairness' rules don't apply to the international oil majors, all of while are reporting huge jumps in profits - because they aren't subject to ComCom oversight. (Since the end of February when Trump's Gulf War started, Ampol's share price has risen +21%. Ampol owns Z Energy.)

NZX50 FALLS BACK
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index is down -0.5% so far today but it is heading for a weekly rise of +1.3%. It is down -3.0% from six months ago. From a year ago it is now up a net +5.9%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is down -0.9% so far today. Turners, Sky TV, Tourism Holdings and Vista lead the Friday gains as a2 Milk, Ryman, Fletcher and Port of Tauranga decline.

YILI REPORTS RECORD PROFITS & REVENUE
The Yili Oceania group of companies which trade as Westland Milk Products, Oceania Dairy, Canary, Pure Nutrition and EasiYo, the group had revenue of $1.58 bln in 2025, up +14% from 2024. Pre-tax profit was $58.4 mln, up from 2023 and 2024 of $31.8 mln and $13.9 mln respectively.

SECURITISING MORE VEHICLE LOANS
Toyota Finance has launched a new wholesales unlisted $100 mln 5 year bond which will be rated A+. They say they will apply to the RBNZ for the bonds to be included as eligible securities for Domestic Market Operations. It is priced with a yield of 4.749% pa.

NEW BUSINESS BANKING BOSS FOR ASB
ASB says Rebecca James, its executive general manager for business banking, is leaving the bank today (May 8). She's being replaced by Ben Speedy, currently ASB's general manager for commercial banking and business strategy.

A CLEAR & PRESENT DANGER
In Australia, regulator ASIC is calling on all market participants to urgently strengthen their cyber resilience measures, as frontier artificial intelligence (AI) intensifies the global cyber risk environment. In an open letter to industry they urge the industry to act now and not wait for advanced AI tools to attack. Their systems need to withstand AI-accelerated threats.

THE FIFTH AUSSIE MAJOR OUTPERFORMS
Australian banking major Macquarie (#5) has delivered outsized tax-paid profits of AU$4.85 bln, up +30% for the full year to Match 2026. Group ROE was 14.8%.

STILL ILLEGAL
In the US, a key court has ruled that Trump's "emergency" 10% global tariffs are also illegal. This has come just months after the US Supreme Court struck down earlier tariffs he’d imposed.

SWAP RATES FIRM
Wholesale swap rates will probably be higher today, in a steepening shift. 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 2.61% on Thursday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is back up +7 bps at 4.98%. The China 10 year bond rate is little-changed at 1.75%. The Japanese 10 year bond is up +1 bp at 2.49% today. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.70%, up +5 bps from this time yesterday. The RBNZ data is now 'prior day' with the Thursday rate down -4 bps at 4.62%. The UST 10yr yield is up +4 bps from yesterday, now at 4.39%.

EQUITIES ALL LOWER
The local equity market is down -0.6% in Friday day trade so far. The ASX200 is down -1.7% in afternoon trade. Tokyo is down -1.1% at its open. Hong Kong is down -1.3% and Shanghai is down -0.5% today. Singapore is down 0.8% at its open. Wall Street closed with the S&P500 down -0.4% in Thursday trade, but that was before the resumption of hot hostilities in the Persian Gulf and Lebanon.

OIL PRICES STABLISE
American oil prices have stabilised with the WTI benchmark unchanged at just on US$95.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is down -US$1 at just on US$101/bbl.

CARBON PRICE DIPS
There have been few trades today on the secondary market, but some unusually large ones, and the price has slipped -$2 to $54/NZU. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD LITTLE-CHANGED
In early Asian trade, gold is up marginally at US$4715/oz, up +US$7 from this this time yesterday. Silver is now just under US$79.50oz and up another +US$1.50/oz.

NZD DIPS
The Kiwi dollar is down -20 bps from this time yesterday against the USD, now just on 59.4 USc. Against the Aussie we are unchanged at 82.3 AUc. Against the euro we are down -10 bps at 50.6 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now just under 62.7 and down -20 bps from yesterday.

BITCOIN IN SMALL RETREAT
The bitcoin price is now at US$79,643 and down -1.8% from this time yesterday. Volatility has been modest at just on +/- 1.4%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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