Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
ANZ and TSB have both dropped one year fixed mortgage 'special' rates. The ANZ offer is 2.99% while the TSB offer is 2.89%. Details here. The Cop-op has reduced rates. Westpac has matched ASB with 2.99% for two years fixed. More details here.
TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
ANZ cut its term deposit offers hard, mostly by -15 or -20 bps to record low rates across their card. But they left their longest terms unchanged, reinstating a premium for term.
(VERY) SMALL BUSINESS (VERY SMALL) LOANS
Applications are open today for the Government’s Small Business Cashflow scheme, making loans available to small businesses struggling with loss of revenue due to COVID-19. The IRD will administer this scheme, handling loan applications, and payment and repayments. Details about this scheme and application forms are here. This is not really an SME scheme, it's more a scheme for Micro businesses.
LOSS CARRYBACK SCALE
In an update, the Government has revealed that $62 mln in tax refunds have been paid in the first week that scheme has been in place. 676 businesses have applied under the loss carry-back provisions so far. It is a scheme they thought will top out at $3 bln so 98% remains to be delivered.
MORE CAPITAL, LESS BANK DEBT
Z Energy has successfully raised $290 mln in a fully underwritten 100 mln new share offer to existing shareholders who took 95% of the discounted offer. The funds will pay down bank term debt (Facility A), and as at March 2020 they had bank facilities comprising a $180 mln revolving term debt facility drawn to $180m plus a $350 mln working capital facility drawn to $70 mln, both maturing in December 2021.
SENTENCED
A former Auckland Council employee has been sentenced to five and a half months’ home detention for corrupting a council procurement process for financial gain involving a $7,500 kickback. He had plead guilty.
SLOWING TO A CRAWL
ANZ's truckometer data for April was released today "The Light Traffic Index fell 71.1% m/m in April, while the Heavy Traffic fell 45.0% m/m. The month included 27 days of Level 4 lockdown and 3 days of Level 3. This will mark the low point, with both heavy and light traffic seeing a big step up as a result of the move to Level 3, and another jump expected for Level 2."
BNZ EYES "CHANGES" AT 7 URBAN BRANCHES
BNZ says it's looking to make "changes" to seven urban branches, and is consulting with staff at its Parnell, Penrose, Glen Eden, 262 Queen Street, Karori, Cashel and Fitzgerald, and Russley branches. A BNZ spokesman says the bank continually reviews the footprint of its branch network to best meet customer needs, and is "consulting with our people on a plan to make some changes" in the branches named above. The seven branches have experienced "significant declining usage" as digital banking or other nearby branches within a 10 minute drive, are used instead, the BNZ spokesman says. Staff affected by changes will be offered other roles. BNZ currently has 152 branches.
FREE TRADE HYPOCRISY
China has halted to meat imports from Australia in what is being viewed as more economic coercion over the Aussie government's push for a "Wuhan investigation". That's how Canberra sees it anyway. The meat trade is in addition to the barley trade. Apparently what really sticks in China's commercial craw is the Australian's slapping anti-dumping levies on Chinese steel and aluminium. But how can they be 'dumped' if their are essentially Australian iron ore and bauxite? So the Australian want to sell to China at a high price, but don't want to buy the resulting products at a price lower than their domestic feather-bedded industry can tolerate. And then Canberra talks up 'free trade'. You can understand the Chinese exasperation over the double-talk. All very Trumpish.
LOCAL UPDATE
There are 1497 Covid-19 cases identified in New Zealand, with no new cases yesterday, a fall from +3 the prior day. Twenty-one people have died (unchanged). There are still only two people left in hospital with the disease (unchanged), and none are in ICU. Our recovery rate is now just over 93% with 99 people known to be infected (-12) and 76 of those are in 12 active clusters. That means 23 cases are recovering in self isolation in the community (-5 from yesterday).
UPDATED GUIDANCE
The RBNZ and FMA have issued guidance to the financial industry on how to operate in L2.
AUSTRALIA UPDATE
n Australia, there are now 6948 cases (+7 since yesterday), 97 deaths (unchanged) and an unchanged recovery rate of just under 89%. 49 people are in hospital there (+6) with 16 in ICU (-1). There are now 769 active cases in Australia (-5).
GLOBAL UPDATE
The latest compilation of Covid-19 data is here. The global tally is now 4,175,300 and up +74,000 from this time yesterday, which is an unchanged level of growth. Now, just over 32% of all cases globally are in the US, which is up +18,000 since this time yesterday taking the total to 1,347,400 and the only country to exceed 1 mln cases. This is an unchanged level of increase. US deaths have reached 80,400. Global deaths are about to exceed 286,000. Sweden is getting about 500 new cases per day, the same level as Western European countries ten times its size. The UK is still getting 5000 new cases a day, a per capita rate similar to Sweden. Denmark, Finland and especially Norway seem to have crushed their curves.
EQUITY UPDATES
The S&P500 ended its session earlier unchanged. Earlier, European markets closed about -1% lower on average. Shanghai has opened -0.5% lower, Hong Kong about -1.4% lower, and Tokyo is flat. The ASX is currently also -1.4% lower while the NZX50 is holding a +0.3% and unusual gain in late trade.
SWAP RATES UPDATE
Wholesale swap rates started the week little-changed. We don't have wholesale swap rates movement details today yet. We will update this later in the day if they show a significant movement. The 90-day bank bill rate is unchanged at 0.26%. The Aussie Govt 10yr is down -2 bps to 0.95%. The China Govt 10yr is unchanged at 2.65%. The NZ Govt 10 yr yield up +2 bps to 0.61%. The UST 10yr is little-changed today at 0.69%.
NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The Kiwi dollar slipped overnight but hasn't changed much today and is now at 60.7 USc. Against the Aussie we are up slightly to 94.1 AUc. Against the euro we are marginally softer at 56.2 euro cents. That means the TWI-5 is down to 66.9.
BITCOIN SOFT
The price of Bitcoin holding its lower level at US$8,670 and down -1% from this time on yesterday. The bitcoin price is charted in the currency set below.
This soil moisture chart is animated here.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».
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