A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; TSB cuts mortgage rates, Barfoots sales volumes solid, FMA frustrated, another huge Govt bond tender, swaps steepen and rise, NZD rises, & more

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
TSB has cut fixed mortgage rates for 6 months, one year (to an equal market low) and 18 months. (And of course they are still running their Price Match Promise with the carded rates from the big four Aussie banks.)

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes here today - yet.

RISING VOLUMES
Barfoot & Thompson sold more homes in June than it did in June last year as Auckland property market recovers from lockdown. Selling prices are stable, both median (minor slip) and average (minor rise).

BRIDGES VERSUS PETERS
National Party leader Todd Muller has unveiled a minor reshuffle of his shadow cabinet. Simon Bridges, the man Muller deposed as leader, replaces Gerry Brownlee as foreign affairs spokesman and is ranked 17th. Bridges will shadow his old sparring partner, Winston Peters. Shane Reti rises to number 13, in place of the departing Paula Bennett, taking on the role of associate drug reform spokesman. And deputy leader Nikki Kaye takes on the women portfolio. Amy Adams will take the portfolio of Drug Reform. She will work with Shane Reti in this area.

FMA FRUSTRATED
FMA's inability to have a say in the AMP Life sale prompts a push for a law change requiring it, as the conduct regulator, to be consulted on mergers/acquisitions.

KEEN BIDDERS
Treasury offered $800 mln in two nominal bond tenders today and got offered $2.086 bln for them. The 43 winning bids (of 126 submitted) won the April 2025 bond at 0.45% pa yield (an increase from last time) and the April 2031 bond at 0.98% pa yield (a decrease). They also offered a tiny $50 mln inflation indexed bond April 2040 which was won at 0.48% pa plus CPI.

A SENIOR WESTPAC APPOINTMENT
Philip Houghton-Brown has been appointed as "Head of Investment Solutions" at BT Funds Management NZ, which is the investment arm of Westpac NZ. He is well-traveled, having held senior roles at Mercer, OnePath NZ/ING NZ and AMP Asset Management.

POWERHOUSE TRADE RESULT
Australia posted an +AU$8 bln trade surplus in May continuing and building of its growing trade wins. For the year to May, the merchandise trade surplus is now up to +AU$77 bln and a new record. But within that, exports are holding at +AU$386 bln per year (+4.8%) while imports are weaker, at -AU$313 bln per year (-2.6%). Alone, May imports were down more than -12%.

INVESTORS CHOOSE SHORT TERM MONEY OVER LONG TERM FREEDOMS
China's takeover of Hong Kong is being described as "chilling" and is attracting international condemnation. But not only does Beijing not care, the Hong Kong stock market seems not to either.

EQUITY MARKET UPDATES
The S&P500 ended its Wall Street session up another +0.5% with a late dip. Shanghai has opened up +1.1%. Hong Kong has opened up +1.6%. Tokyo has opened up +0.7%. The ASX200 is up +1.1% in early afternoon. The NZX50 Capital Index is up +0.6%.

SWAP RATES UPDATE
Swap rates probably rose slightly and steepened today. We don't have final wholesale swap rates movement details yet but we will update this later in the day if they show a significant movement. The 90-day bank bill rate is up +1 bp at 0.31%. The Aussie Govt 10yr is up +2 bps at 0.94%. The China Govt 10yr is up 1 bp at 2.89%. The NZ Govt 10yr yield is up +7 bps at 1.00%. The UST 10yr is unchanged at 0.68%.

NZ DOLLAR STILL FIRM
The Kiwi dollar is still rising, now at 64.9 USc. Against the Aussie we are also firmish at 93.8 AUc. Against the euro we are up at 57.7 euro cents. And that means the TWI-5 is now up over 69.7.

BITCOIN FIRMER
The price of Bitcoin is marginally firmer although all of that happened overnight. It is now at US$9,254 and up +1.5% since this time 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 ».