A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Thursday; Westpac cuts mortgage rates; GDP rise better than expected, migrants more family oriented, NZGB strong again, swaps up, NZD down, & 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
Westpac has cut some home loan rates today for 3, 4, and 5 years with their 2-5 year rates now among the lowest of the big banks. More details 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
Westpac also trimmed its 3, 4 and 5 year TD rates. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

BETTER THAN EXPECTED
The economy's activity had a solid start to 2026 with GDP rising by +0.8% in the March quarter. That put it up +1.5% from a year ago on a 'real' basis and even per-capita GDP rose. Revisions to recent history made this a stronger overall result than many were expecting. 'Manufacturing' (especially of primary products) was a key driver top the Q1-2026 result.

FAMILY REUNIFICATION STRONG
Older people aged 60-plus along with children and teenagers made up just over a third of all immigrant residency visa approvals in the May year.

UPGRADE APPROVED
The Commerce Commission has approved the first $1.1 bln stage of a two-stage plan to replace the three ageing Cook Strait cables, install a fourth, and build new termination stations. This will increase inter-island capacity from 1,200 MW to 1,400 MW. The costs will be added to Transpower’s regulated asset base and recovered over the life of the equipment, shared by the electricity consumers and generators that benefit from the HVDC link. Construction will be completed in the early 2030's.

NZX50 LITTLE-CHANGED
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index is little-changed again (-0.1%), with a weekly rise now of +1.3%. It is up +0.9% from six months ago. From a year ago it is now up +6.0%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is unchanged so far today. There have been 42 gainers so far today led by Vista, Synlait, Hallensteins and Freightways. There have been 35 decliners led by AirNZ, The Warehouse, Mainfreight, and Kathmandu.

NZX GETS FMA'S TICK
The FMA has reviewed the NZX and says they meet the requirement to operate the stock exchange properly.

MORE ASIA, LESS AMERICA
Air New Zealand's May metrics shows that their business to Asia is growing while it is declining to North America. Across the Tasman, things were stable. Domestically it expanded.

EASY FUNDRAISING
There were two well-supported NZGB bond tenders today, attracting 49 bids worth $1.58 bln. 18 of those bids for the $450 mln available were successful.

EXCEPTIONAL DEMAND & PRICES
Competition at the farm gate for livestock to keep processing lines running and satisfy rising demand for lamb and beef is seeing prices rise even further. Yes, it is off-season and prices normally rise, but new all-time records are being achieved after essentially no main-season falls. If normal patterns repeat in the July-November period then we are going to see exceptional records created for sheep and beef.

GROWING TWICE AS FAST
Australia's population grew by +412,500 (1.5%) in the year to December 2025 (about the population of Canberra) and was 27,801,000 at that time. For reference, New Zealand's population grew by +34,300 (0.6%) in the same year (about the population of Gisborne) to be 5,342,000.

SWAP RATES RISE
Wholesale swap rates will likely be higher 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 2.67% on Wednesday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is up +1 bp at 4.79%. The China 10 year bond rate is little-changed at 1.73%. The Japanese 10 year bond is up +2 bps at 2.63% today. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.45%, up +3 bps from this time yesterday. (The RBNZ data is now 'prior day' with the Wednesday rate down -7 bps at 4.38%.) The UST 10yr yield is up +2 bps at 4.45%.

EQUITIES MIXED, MOSTLY LOWER
The local equity market is now lower from yesterday, down -0.2%. The ASX200 is down -0.5%. Tokyo is has opened up +1.6%. Hong Kong is down -1.8% but Shanghai is only down -0.3% at its open today. Singapore is up +0.3%. Wall Street ended its Wednesday with the S&P500 down -1.2% in closing trade. The Nasdaq closed down -1.3%

OIL PRICES LITTLE-CHANGED
American oil prices are down -50 USc from yesterday with the WTI benchmark now just on US$75.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is just on US$78.50/bbl.

CARBON PRICE STILL ON HOLD
There have been few trades again today and the price is still holding at $53/NZU. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD SLIPS SLIGHTLY
In early Asian trade, gold is down -US$19/oz from this time yesterday, at US$4313/oz. Silver is down -US$1 at just on US$69/oz.

NZD RETREATS
The Kiwi dollar has retreated -40 bps from this time yesterday against the USD, now just on 57.9 USc. Against the Aussie we are down -20 bps at 82.3 AUc. Against the euro we up +10 bps at 50.3 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now just on 61.6 and down -30 bps from this time time yesterday.

BITCOIN DIPS
The bitcoin price is now at US$64,646 and down -1.8% from this time yesterday. Volatility has been modest at just on +/- 1.7%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

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