Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report again today.
TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
None here either.
NO MORE MR NICE GUY
ANZ is advising its customers that from 1 October, the 9.95% interest rate for ANZ Low Rate Visa cards will automatically revert to the standard rates (currently 12.90% on purchases, and 19.95% on cash advances). (Kiwibank also has a 9.95% low rate Visa card, but that is not to suggest that Kiwibank will be raising that rate like ANZ. We have had no advice from Kiwibank of any changes.)
NEVER ENDING RISES
Westpac economists expect house prices to rise +8% next year, as interest rates to keep falling. They expect household debt levels to keep increasing, but falling interest rates will keep repayments affordable for the time being, they say.
REPAYMENTS RESTART
The IRD reports that student loan repayments are rising as expat Kiwis return. Almost 5600 overseas-based borrowers had returned to New Zealand in the 20 weeks between mid April and August this year.
BOOMING NOTEBOOK DEMAND
COVID-19 has had large impacts on demand for PCs as businesses prepared for lockdowns by purchasing notebooks to mobilise their workforce. In Q2-2020, New Zealand shipments of both commercial and consumer PC devices grow by 61% year-on-year and 13% respectively. Notebook sales leapt +61% while desktop sales fell -12%.
A NEW FRAUD
The Financial Markets Authority is warning people to be wary of scammers attempting to impersonate the FMA as part of a money transfer scam. On 5 August, the FMA was contacted by a woman who had tried to transfer a significant amount of money from China to New Zealand, saying she and her family had been “stranded in New Zealand” due to COVID-19 and had needed the money for living expenses. She said she had seen an advertisement on a community news outlet offering money transfer services, and arranged the transfer via WeChat. The money was sent to a bank in Inner Mongolia. However, when the money didn’t arrive, the woman was told it had been “frozen” by the FMA due to money laundering suspicions. She was later phoned by a man posing as an FMA official, falsely saying she would have to pay more to release the original sum – which, unfortunately, she did
AUSSIE BUSINESS CONFIDENCE STILL WEAK
In Australia, their business conditions got worse in August. They unwound most of the previous month’s gains, mainly reflecting a weakening in the employment index, though trading and profitability were also weaker. But underlying confidence did rise, even if it is still underwater.
STUPIDITY SPREADING
China, which arrested an Australian newsreader who was working for State TV, is now going after other Aussie journalists working there. This has unnerved them. The China correspondents for The Australian Financial Review and the ABC boarded a flight to Sydney last night after spending five days under protection in Australian diplomatic missions. China (and Russia) views journalists as newsworkers for the State and just can't understand they operate independently when working for Western newsrooms. It's a willful blindspot that generates stupid policies. (And is remarkably similar to the QAnon-type conspiracy theorists.)
EQUITY UPDATES
The NZX50 is up about +0.2% in late trade today. The ASX200 is up +0.6% in early afternoon trade. Shanghai has opened flat in early trade and Hong Kong is similarly flat. However Tokyo is up +0.5%. The S&P500 futures market is signaling a +0.2% gain when Wall Street opens tomorrow.
SWAP RATES UPDATE
Update: Swap rates for two and three years hit a new record low of 0.03% each. There wasn't an equivalent fall at the long end however. Swap rates details are not yet available yet. If there are notable changes again today, we will update this item. The 90-day bank bill rate is unchanged at 0.30%. The Aussie Govt 10yr is unchanged at 0.97% after yesterdays strong rise. The China Govt 10yr is down -3 bps at 3.15%. But the NZ Govt 10yr yield is up +1 bp at 062%. The UST 10yr is off -1 bp at 0.71% as it readies for Wall Street's opening tomorrow.
NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The Kiwi dollar is marginally softer at 66.9 USc. Against the Aussie we are also marginally softer at 91.9 AUc. Against the euro we are little-changed 56.6 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 is marginally softer at 69.9.
BITCOIN FIRMER
The price of bitcoin is +1.1% firmer at US$10,354. 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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38 Comments
So I just found out it doesn't pay to be good with IRD. Instead of applying for the 8 week wage extension right away, I waited until my business actually showed a 40% drop in revenue, then applied. Now I cannot apply for the 2 week extension because our 8 week subsidy runs out on the 13th Sept & the application for the 2 week extension expired on the 3rd of Sept. Of course I still have to pay my staff full wages
So you applied for the original 8 weeks mid-July and must have expected, before 3rd Sept, that come 13th Sept you'd qualify for the 2 weeks to take you through to the end of Sept and didn't apply? Why not?
Even if you got a welcome boost in revenue to take you over-cap before 13th Sept you just had to either let the IRD know not to pay you or pay them back after the extension.
bw, I did apply for the 2 week extension but it was rejected because the application was made less than 8 weeks after the previous application and I cannot wait for the 8 weeks to expire because applications for the 2 week extension closed on the 3rd Sept. Do you now understand?
You posted " Now I cannot apply for the 2-week extension..."
But you did. That's a different issue.
If your original application takes you through until the new end date, then, of course, you can't get an extension beyond that. Makes sense.
It's like getting any insurance renewal. If you miss the start date, for whatever reason ( you didn't expect your income to fall below the line?) and pay later, the end date remains the same.
I get it, I had a similar question for my financial controller, "is the 8 week subsidy, which can only be applied for post a 40% loss in revenue, to compensate for that 40% loss in revenue or is it to dress the financial wound moving forward?" If it is for moving forward, is the subsidy counted as revenue when calculating revenue moving forward? In my opinion if the loss was incurred the subsidy is for that period, not the period moving forward.
You dish it out, you get it back.
If I dish it out, I expect it back. That's the way it goes.
You've told us all about your businesses, and their trials and tribulations, and your triumphs. I am interested to know how air b and b is faring out there, generally speaking.
But of course you are under no obligation to say.
So feel free to ignore.
Airbnb's in NZ are picking up quite well since the end of L3 lockdown, it seems plenty of Kiwis are itching to travel locally. Holiday places outside of NZ are much worse, villa in Bali is 95% empty and has been so since April, apartment in Spain picked up well in July but is now struggling also
Aussie banks have quietly been laying off permanent staff as part of a 'major restructure' to cut operational expenditure. More than a hundred workers from the AML and compliance teams were let go at a Melbourne-based big-4 bank.
What's interesting is that these teams were beefed up at various staff levels in response to the Royal Commission inquiry and seem to be the obvious place to start downsizing headcount when Aussie banks no longer care about reputation in their current survival mode.
Fire sale on NZ's motor home stock. Not much use for them anymore. I would be offering 50 cents on the dollar tops.
China, which arrested an Australian newsreader who was working for State TV, is now going after other Aussie journalists working there. This has unnerved them. The China correspondents for The Australian Financial Review and the ABC boarded a flight to Sydney last night after spending five days under protection in Australian diplomatic missions. China (and Russia) views journalists as newsworkers for the State and just can't understand they operate independently when working for Western newsrooms. It's a willful blindspot that generates stupid policies. (And is remarkably similar to the QAnon-type conspiracy theorists.)
Can this be refuted? - 'Presstitutes: Embedded in the Pay of the CIA': Udo Ulfkotte's book now available in English
This from USA perspective,
Offers one explanation of how elderly & positive sent back to aged care.
https://nypost.com/2020/09/06/its-now-looking-like-the-lockdowns-may-ha…
The interesting question for us, NZ is:
Have we flattened and stamped the curve or, delayed the curve?
Does anyone know the COL or MOH modeling of the health event when NZ community, meets and mixes with the international community?.
Where do I start.....????
Flight changes, our daughter who is a minor getting put on to a separate flight to my wife and I, issues around what we have got in terms of seat selection versus what we had paid for....a shambles.
I remain nervous that flights will get changed again, and our time down there will be slashed ..
"China (and Russia) views journalists as newsworkers for the State and just can't understand they operate independently when working for Western newsrooms." Not sure what world you live in but its obvious that independent journalism is a fiction. Most mass medias are barely making money and in general making losses covered by taxpayers or big businesses. So when another "journalist" is caught for breaching laws and acting as foreign agent funded by US or EU government all western mass media start crying and appealing to the democracy and a freedom. This is a typical and cynical long term position of western allies, nothing changed in last 70 years. Journalists are playing in these dangerous games, breaching rules and laws, now have to face consequences.
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