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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; no retail rate changes, sagging business confidence, rising Chinese inflation, swaps stable, NZD soft, & more

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; no retail rate changes, sagging business confidence, rising Chinese inflation, swaps stable, NZD soft, & more
ID 22702269 © Daniaphoto | Dreamstime.com

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.

'TEETERING'
Latest preliminary results from the ANZ Business Outlook confidence survey suggest the post-lockdown economic rebound may have run its course. Business confidence deteriorated 10 points to -42%, and own activity slipped 8 points to -17%. However, it wasn’t all one-way traffic in the indicators.

CHINESE INFLATION BENEFITS US
Inflation in China is rising
. In July it was up to 2.7% pa, a rise from 2.5% in June and more than the 2.6% expected. Food prices are rising fast (+11.9% pa) driven by pork prices (up more than +100% pa). Beef prices however seem to have stopped rising in recent months but lamb prices are still going up, up +11% year-on-year and up +1.1% in July from June. The cost of medical care, and education, both are rising at only modest rates. Rent is declining. Petrol went up sharply in July, but is down significantly year-on-year (-12.6%).

LEVELING OFF
The number of people missing payments on consumer debt fell again in the week to July 31, according to the latest RBNZ update, and this level is now the lowest since data was first collected in late March. But the number of homeowners missing mortgage payments is holding, and the number of businesses missing loan payments are both virtually unchanged in this update.

70/30 SPEND/SAVE IMPULSE
One in three Australians (32%) received a Federal stimulus payment in May. These payments were intended to stimulate spending, but many (29%) used them to add to their saving. However, using them to pay household bills was the next most common use (28%) and 12% of this money was used to buy food.

FULL-ON CRACKDOWN
Hong Kong police have been sweeping up the owners of an independent news organisation, Next Digital, accusing them of endangering national security and working for foreign powers. They were handcuffed, removed and denied access to lawyers. Independent reporting out of Hong Kong is now suspect.

EQUITY UPDATES
The NZX50 Capital Index started its Monday session up +0.5%, but those gains have withered since. This is the week that major earnings results will be released, so it could be a bumpy ride. In Australia, the ASX200 has opened up +1.4% but hasn't reached a withering stage yet. The Shanghai market has opened up +0.4%, Hong Kong has opened down -0.4% and Tokyo has opened down -0.4%. According to the futures index (SPX), Wall Street is looking like it will open tomorrow flat.

SWAP RATES UPDATE
Swap rates were probably little-changed again 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 different movement. The 90-day bank bill rate is unchanged at 0.30%. The Aussie Govt 10yr is up +2 bps at 0.87%. The China Govt 10yr is unchanged at 3.00%. And the NZ Govt 10yr yield has held on to all of last week's gain and is still at 0.77%. The UST 10yr is also unchanged at 0.57% today.

NZ DOLLAR SOFT
The Kiwi dollar has stayed at the lower level it reached on Saturday, now still at 66.1 USc. And against the Aussie we are softer as well at 92.1 AUc. Against the euro we are at 56 euro cents. And that means the TWI-5 is softer at 69.2.

BITCOIN RISES STRONGLY
The price of bitcoin is firmer today, now at US$12,022 and a +5.2% rise from this morning. 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 ».

Daily exchange rates

Select chart tabs

Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
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Source: RBNZ
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Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
End of day UTC
Source: CoinDesk

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53 Comments

I think 12k is my lucky number :) (for the record I took profits just below, at 11955, and just above at 12,045).

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Hi lonewolf
Saw bitcoin hit that 12k and immediately thought of you. You will be smiling.
Where to from here?

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Hard to say. My prediction here in Jan was for EOY $10k, I made another one somewhere for $12k. Personally I don't see an all time high this year, and if we approach it we'll blow off top. I have a large amount in gold, silver and ethereum (the latter which has been the best performer). My best buy for BTC this year was $4.7k so I'm a happy hodler. But like I said, I'm a seller at the moment. We are post halvening though - if we get two weekly closes above 12.5k, then clear $14k, could be another parabolic run.

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I have a large amount in gold, silver and ethereum (the latter which has been the best performer). My best buy for BTC this year was $4.7k so I'm a happy hodler. But like I said, I'm a seller at the moment.

You sound like a brother from another mother. I own all those assets too and my lowest price purchase for BTC was USD4,800.

Never sold any of my crypto holdings except for the last 'boom' 10 days ago or so when I sold some XRP and distributed to ETH and BTC. Working out entry / exit strategies if we go parabolic.

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will you all feel just as good when you file your tax returns and pay 33% on the profits

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Only fair. Less good is having to pay my accountant $4,500 to spend weeks working through my trades. I have figured out to split my trading stash and hodl stash between different entities, so no tax on the hodl stack until I sell.

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will you all feel just as good when you file your tax returns and pay 33% on the profits

10% as a non-resident for tax purposes but nothing sold on my behalf. Incidentally, as a 'global citizen', we slip through various cracks.

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I have those too - plus a few others like Pax Gold. My best buy this year was Nexus Mutual. My god. It was $1.50 in march, today it was $31 for a brief moment - and its a security token so pays dividends!

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I'm HODLing ,,,

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No LINK?

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Yeah but nothing substantial.

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DGB

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Dinosaur coins hehe. If you wanted to speculate on crypto right now, its all about the defi coins. YFI did x100 in one week, and is now worth $5000 with six forks already!

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Shamino, they so are, practically prehistoric! I'm not ashamed ;-)

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Looking at the patterns between halvings my prediction for BTC is rising to 80-100k within 6-9 months then dropping to 40-50k. https://masterthecrypto.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/bitcoin-halving-…

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I don't like this stuff. Too simplistic. It's like Ashley Church's 7-10 year prophecy.

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The code is complex so the rules are simple. Bitcoin is an immutable force. It should follow very consistent patterns.

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good gambling

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Yes, much like on housing/stock market/bank accounts... hang on, they are "investing" right? Nothing speculative about them at all right?

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Its not gambling, as far as the NZ taxation service is concerned, it is holding a cash equivalent and as such is no different to holding $US and any change in the return is seen as a currency gain and taxable, of course any loss is your own business and not claimable.

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Actually they treat it like gold - so you are taxed on resale. But make a loss and you can claim it against your PAYE, get the refund in cash, and invest in it again! (I may or may not have done that...)

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You would need to declare yourself as an active Trader for that to happen. Besides that's a pretty backwards way of doing things, you'd still get taxed on any gains you made on your refund

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Nope. The IRD's guidelines on gold and cryptocurrency are crystal clear. They don't differentiate between traders and investors. With very few exceptions, gold and cryptocurrencies are assumed to have been acquired for the dominant purpose of disposal. I've declared profits and losses over the years and I'm not an active trader.

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Whilst you're technically correct RCD the IRD must prove there was an "intention"to profit and only if there is a declaration of gain in income made. Both things pretty hard to track down and enforce.

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Not quite, they just need to say that you acquired with the intention of resale. Any proof to the contrary is on the taxpayer to prove (which MIGHT be possible if say, your crypto produces a passive return)

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Tell you what.. the audit fees wouldn't be worth the headache and they'd certainly smoke any gains you made. The IRD would just go on trading frequency. Going on the last 12 months of BTC prices, buying and holding would have netted you SFA -

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Not so easy for me. I've probably traded between 100 cryptos. But you could just look at total value at beginning and end of the tax year, thats the sane way to do it. Remember our tax year is 1 April. So IRD would be looking at a BTC price of $4k, and comparing it to 1 April this year ($6.5k I think)

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Well If you do that then you made good gains - 4.8K/coin very nice. I wouldn't declare it or sell it though - you'll just lose about 25% of your holding.
1 April '19 - 6K, 1 April '20 - 10.8K x 100 (480K) = about 120K tax liability

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Yep. With all my other cryptos, my portfolio quadrupled over that time, and believe it or not, has more than doubled again this side of the tax year.

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Going on the last 12 months of BTC prices, buying and holding would have netted you SFA -

That's not how to invest in cryptocurrency. For example, with BTC,

past 1 month=+30%; past 3 months=+37%; YTD=+67%; past 12 months=+6.4%; past 5 years=4,585%.

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Well all I can say is well done. You've obviously done the right thing but remember we did start talking about taxation liabilities. Obviously if you're not selling there is no actual realised gain therefore no liability. I do admire risk takers who get it right.

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Yes. BTC fell 50% in March. Many people cannot handle this kind of volatility. Others see it as an opportunity on a path to price discovery.

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There's a saying I've heard - if you can't handle price fluctuations of 1k at 10k, you won't be able to handle fluctuations of 10k at 100k.

But if you hodl for 20 years the pattern is 10s of millions per BTC. Bitcoin is more scarce than gold, and if you look at the gold market cap, that's probably not unreasonable.

The only test Bitcoin has left, is whether it can beat governments. But good indictors from China, Lebanon, Argentina and Venezuela that it definitely can.

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"Bitcoin is more scarce than gold"
Bitcoin2 could be made tomorrow...There is no gold2

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Bitcoin2 could be made tomorrow

You mean like Bitcoin Cash? Thanks but no thanks.

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"You mean like Bitcoin Cash?" No i didnt.

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That's called a hard fork and it's happened 3 times already, one of which was called Bitcoin cash that JC is referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bitcoin_forks

And no surprises people don't understand Bitcoin. No one understood the internet in the late 90s either.

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A concerning development in HK if it can be verified. China has crossed a line there.

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When this new National Security Law came into effect I pointed out HK would become a police state. It's happened.

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I'm not sure if it's there yet but incarcerating independent media is certainly a big step towards it. Having said that, the increasingly violent and destructive "protests" certainly opened the door to this type of action. I personally think the protest movement got ahead of itself.. should have pulled back a notch or two when the extradition law was rescinded.

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I don't think the issue was the protests per se but the Xi policy of trying to annihilate all opposition wherever it may manifest itself.

Calamity Lam unlike her predecessors who trod a line between appeasing Beijing and trying to keep the local population content has completely ignored the wishes of the majority of the HK electorate. This has caused the protests and the absolute horror show of the actions and inaction of the HK Police has only made matters worse.

If we look at the South China Sea, Xinjiang, HK, political positioning re Taiwan, general Wolf Warrior rhetoric, it is all overly aggressive and unnecessary action.

Xi is set to become the new Mao not because he has taken China to the next level but because he is butchering his own people and creating chaos in ways the leaders between Mao and Xi have avoided.

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Lam showed herself to be a puppet.. no doubt about that. But look at the BLM protests in the US. Increasingly violent and destructive and got a response in a similar vein.. National Guard. If those types of protests had happened here we'd see the same response - curfew and arrests (remember the Auckland riot). HK cannot change what happens in mainland China nor should they attempt to IMO. All HK did was provide an excuse and opportunity for Xi to implement his crackdown. As I say, they should have taken the wins they got in the State Councils and picked their time better. Because they overreached they are now much the poorer for it.

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Do not worry Hook.

HK without spies from CIA and MI6 will be a much prosper place.

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Haha Xingmo, The CIA and co maybe many things but dumb and easily identifiable isn't part of it. If Xi thinks he can use that as an excuse I'm afraid he needs new advisors

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Just ask Allende

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I think Bitcoin will hit new highs in the coming months. If I was fleeing HK I know how I would transfer my $$ out of the country quickly and easily.

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Feeling like 2017 again with the alt coins, except this time is defi rather than ICOs. Many are up 1000% this year, just insane. I guess their profits will at some point come back to BTC.

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HK has no capital controls. If you have a foreign bank ac you can transfer what you want when you want without buying crypto.

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Good news - would still use BTC to aviod the banks cut if sending large sums however (which CCP must be monitoring?)

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If Business Confidence was a human , I would arrive to the conclusion he (or she ) was a P-Addict .

From a high one day to a low the next ...................looking for the next fix of QE or a wage subsidy maybe ?

The reality is the Business has every reason to not be confident , and should be very wary right now , erring on the side of caution , at least until the pandemic has gone away or a vaccine found

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Wow , Pork in China up 100% , but to be fair Chicken and Pork were really very cheap in China

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Pork was, until ASF got in. Hopefully our Bio(non)Security people are looking at NZs import standards for pork, but I'm not actually expecting much.

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NZH ... "Addressing the WHO, President Xi Jinping of China supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global response to COVID-19. Video / WHO"

Presumably only if the WHO conducts the investigation.

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