A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday: no rate changes, Transpower saves a bundle, log demand stays healthy, Fonterra whipped in Australia, swaps slip, NZD lower, & more

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
None here either.

WILL CHEAPER INTEREST SPUR INVESTMENT?
Demand for Transpower's $150 mln bond offer with a September 2025 maturity (6 years) has been met with demand higher than that. Early indications are that it will be priced at 1.735% pa. Transpower has a similar bond maturing soon for $200 mln which had a coupon rate of 4.65% - so that should give a $4.35 mln boost to Transpower's bottom line every for every year of the new bond. Will Transpower actually raise its investment plans because of the lower interest cost? Even in a Government SOE? That is what the RBNZ is expecting to happen, generally ...

NO NEGATIVES YET
Demand out of China for New Zealand logs is rising, and prices are expected to follow. But trade war impacts may affect this. India demand is variable but still good. However local sawmills face lower local demand especially for industrial grades.

FONTERRA PRICE WATCH
The FCG share is at $3.17 today, the same price it closed at yesterday.

GETTING WHIPPED
Fonterra is reporting that the overall Australian milk industry production is down -8.2% in the year to June, down -9.9% in June alone. But Fonterra's Aussie June milk collections are down more than -28% in the same market. More here.

UPGRADED
The Port of Tauranga has had its credit rating raised one notch to AA- by Standard & Poor's, "on the back of strategic investments and constrained competitors".

TOP PERFORMER
Earlier today, Wall Street closed down -0.3%. In Asia, Shanghai is currently down a similar amount, Hong Kong and Tokyo are trading flat on the day. The ASX200 is up +0.1% while the NZX50 is up +0.8% so far which will the best performer of any global equity market today.

'UGLY' DOWNTURN
In Australia, the latest data for construction completed have been described as 'ugly' as they fell more than expected and suggesting economic slowdown fears are materialising.

SWAP RATES SLIP
Wholesale swap rates fell today by about -2 bps across the board. The 90-day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.19%. Australian swap rates fell about -3 bps across the curve. The Aussie Govt 10yr is down -1 bp at 0.88%. The China Govt 10yr is unchanged today as well, still at 3.07%, while the NZ Govt 10 yr is still at 1.09%. The UST 10yr yield is down -6 bps to 1.47%.

NZ DOLLAR LOWER
The Kiwi dollar is lower at 63.6 USc. Against the Aussie we are unchanged at 94.3 AU cents. Against the euro we are softer at 57.3 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 down to 68.9.

BITCOIN SOFT
Bitcoin is softer today than at this time yesterday, down -1.3% to US$10,115. The bitcoin price is charted in the currency set below.

This chart is animated here.