A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; ANZ raises mortgage rates, Auckland house sales rise, building consents boom, car sales dip, swaps slip, NZD softer, & more

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
ANZ has raised its home loan rate card for some key fixed terms.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

AUCKLAND HOUSE SALES TURN UP
A surge of new listings and the best sales numbers in four years were reported by Barfoot & Thompson in January. And B&T's drop out rate fell to an all-time low in January. Average prices rose +2.6% in a year, median prices were up +6.9%.

DWELLING CONSENTS BOOM
The number of new dwellings consented in Auckland in December was up +31% on the same month of 2018. This drove a +22% rise in the national data. Waikato (+29%) and Wellington (+88%) data were up strongly as well. But there was a decline recorded in Christchurch (-0.5%). For all of 2019, residential building consents were up +14%, driven by apartments (+34%) and townhouses (+26%). A number of analysts think the Auckland activity is peaking.

FEWER CAR SALES
New car sales were down -8% in January compared with the same month a year ago. Commercial vehicle sales were down too, but by much less a drop. The sales of SUV's surged by more than +5% despite the overall fall, and they accounted for more than 70% of all sales, a new all-time high. Pure electric vehicle sales were softer with 140 units sold in January, with PHEV’s up slightly at 88 units, and 647 hybrid vehicles, continuing their strong sales for the month. These type of vehicles won a 9.6% market share in January.

COMMERCIAL CONSENTS MAKE A MOVE TOO
Non-residential consents grew +12% in the December month from a year ago, which helped push the annual value of non-residential consents in 2019 to over +5 higher than in 2018. The Government was behind much of this increased activity, but the consent for the $26 mln redevelopment of the O’Connells Shopping Centre in Queenstown was also notable.

FMA HAS 'SEVERAL' AML INVESTIGATIONS 'WELL ADVANCED'
Financial Markets Authority CEO Rob Everett says the regulator has "several" anti-money laundering investigations well-advanced, and a "sizeable" market manipulation investigation underway. Everett made the comments in a speech at a Financial Services Council event without providing details.

CBL'S HARRIS PLEADS 'NOT GUILTY' TO SFO CHARGES
Peter Harris, the former CEO of CBL insurance Ltd has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office. Harris faces five charges of ‘Theft by person in special relationship’, two charges of ‘Obtaining by deception’ and a single charge of ‘False accounting’. Another defendant in the case who has name suppression also entered a not guilty plea, the SFO says. This defendant has been charged with single counts, respectively, of ‘Theft by person in special relationship’, ‘Obtaining by deception’ and ‘False accounting’. Harris and his co-defendant were remanded on bail to reappear in the Auckland District Court on 30 April.

GRUMPY BUSINESSES
In Australia, the January Roy Morgan Business Confidence dropped 2.9pts (-2.8%) to a nearly nine-year low of 101.6. Business Confidence has only been lower during the last decade when it briefly dipped below the neutral level of 100 in July 2011 (99.8) during the height of the European sovereign debt crisis.

THE LOWE-DOWN IS DUE
The RBA is reviewing its monetary policy settings and cash rate target today. No-one expects it to make any changes. The current interest policy rate benchmark is 0.75%. The decision will be released at 4:30pm today.

DID YOU REALISE HOW MUCH HAS BURNED - SO FAR?
Fires in NSW have burnt almost 5.5 mln hectares since July, leaving a mounting damage bill. Add the huge areas in Victoria and the ACT and you are heading towards 10 mln hectares. Just so you can put that into perspective, the South Island is 15 mln hectares. Fortunately for eastern Australia, the rains may be coming soon.

THE EQUITY MARKET SIGNALS
The relief rally on Wall Street sort of ran out of stream. At one point earlier today the S&P500 was up +1.3% but it ended up 'only +0.7%. The NZX50 and the ASX200 have opened our time zone with widely differing tracks, with the NZX50 down -0.3% -1.6% and the ASX200 is up +0.4% so far. Tokyo is up +0.2% in early trade and Hong Kong is up more than +1.3% at the opening. Shanghai is opening up +0.6% after yesterday's -7.9% drop. Equity markets are pretty schizophrenic while they try to make sense of the likely early intermediate economic impact. But with now more than 20,000 cases and rising, the fear is of a global pandemic. (And its probably not near its peak, as I suggested this morning.)

BANKING 'RELIEF'
Westpac NZ is offering some banking relief for customers hit hard by the impact of the corona virus. Their relief package features a range of support options for both business and personal customers. These may include: a temporary overdraft facility; suspension of principal loan payments for up to three months; and deferred payment on business credit cards for up to three months. Other banks will likely follow. More broadly, credit rating agency S&P is watching how China's banks handle a real live stress test.

EYES ON THE NEXT DAIRY AUCTION
Speaking of corona virus consequences, there is a dairy auction tomorrow morning. It is widely expected to result in a substantial price drop. The dairy derivatives markets is suggesting a -6.5% fall for SMP and more than a -10% fall for WMP. Buckle up.

LOCAL SWAP RATES GO LOWER
Wholesale swap rates still falling, today down another -2 bps across all tenors. This is despite some expectation that they might have risen a little today. The 90-day bank bill rate is down -1 bp to 1.25%. Australian swap rates are also lower across the board but by only by -1 bp in early trade. The Aussie Govt 10yr is down another -3 bps today to 0.84%. The China Govt 10yr is now at 2.86% which is where it ended yesterday. The NZ Govt 10 yr yield is down -3 bps at 1.22%. The UST 10yr yield is holding at 1.53%.

NZ DOLLAR SOFTER
The Kiwi dollar is marginally softer at 64.5 USc. We have unchanged against the Aussie at 96.5 AUc. Against the euro we also holding at 58.3 euro cents. That means the TWI-5 is just under 70.

BITCOIN HOLDS
Bitcoin is virtually unchanged today US$9,314. The bitcoin price is charted in the currency set below.

This chart is animated here.

The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».

Our exchange rate chart is here.