A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; commodity prices hold, Fonterra sells farms in China, car repairs questioned, swaps stable, NZD firm, & more

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
Kiwibank cut its 32 day NoticeSaver rate to 0.65%, a -10 bps drop.

HIGH COMMODITY PRICES HOLD
The ANZ World Commodity Price Index eased just -0.2% in September as lower dairy and meat prices were largely offset by stronger prices for logs and fruit. But in local currency terms the index fell -1.3% as the NZD strengthened.

IT DIDN'T WORK OUT I
Fonterra has sold out of its China farms business for $555 mln. They say sale of the China Farm interests will allow them to 'prioritise the areas of its business where it has competitive advantages'. Even at that price, the China Farms strategy has been a large financial negative. Much of that negative however has already been written off in prior results.

IT DIDN'T WORK OUT II
A car parts supplier has allegedly been misrepresenting car parts as genuine to New Zealand repairers. This has insurers reassessing the quality of repairs they have paid for. Clients may be called to arrange remedial work if the actual parts did not meet OEM standards.

HOPING IT WILL WORK OUT
More than 250,000 New Zealanders are using Sharesies, Hatch and InvestNow to invest in publicly traded shares, with three-quarters of users aged 25-44. The rush to do so is raising concerns that many of these beginner investors are jumping in without a good understanding of what is involved.

BEGINNER RESOURCES FOR UNDERSTANING NZX50 SHARES
We have launched a new resource profiling the companies on the NZX50 - what they do, who leads them, and their financial history. We have released profiles for FPH, MEL, ATM, MFT, EBO, FBU and GNE. A new one will follow each week.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE
Federated Farmers is blaming rushed new Government policies on the recent rash of high country fires that have happened recently following the policy change to destock leased Crown land. They say there is no science to support destocking and that sheep grazing would have effectively controlled these risks. "Now people have lost their homes because of mismanagement by DOC," the farmers' lobby group claims.

A NEW HURT LOCKER
We have just reached the six month anniversary of the serious onset of COVID-19 economic impacts and start of the public support programs. Many of these are expiring now around the world, and only some are being renewed. The economic fallout from this next transition is likely to be outsized. And many new people are in for significant stress.

DID YOU KNOW ...
New Caledonia rejected independence for a second time in a referendum in voting yesterday. But this time it was much closer.

GOLD PRICE UNCHANGED
The price of gold is now at US$1900 in early Asian trading, and little-changed from Friday's closing price..

EQUITIES UPDATE
The NZX50 Capital Index has had a flat day, although that means it gave up some small earlier gains. The ASX200 in early afternoon trade is up a very strong +2.3% on expectations their Budget tomorrow will be very friendly to their economy. Shanghai and Hong Kong are still closed. Tokyo has opened up +1.4%. The futures market indicates the S&P500 will open up +0.8% which is a large turnaround from a -1% indication a few hours ago.

SWAP & BOND RATES SLIP
We don’t have the final data for today yet and if it is significant we will update it here. The 90 day bank bill rate is down -2 bps today to 0.27%. In a record that goes back to 1985, the lowest ever was on June 10 this year at 0.25%. The Australian Govt ten year benchmark rate is up +3 bps at 0.89%. The China Govt ten year bond is unchanged at 3.16%. Meanwhile, the New Zealand Govt ten year is up +1 bp at 0.52% and above the earlier RBNZ-recorded fix of 0.50% . And the NZGB five year is not negative anymore and is now at +0.02% pa. The US Govt ten year is up +1 bp from this morning to 0.71%.

NZD HOLDS
The Kiwi dollar is marginally firmer this afternoon compared to this morning, now at 66.5 USc. Against the Aussie we are unchanged at 92.5 AUc. Against the euro we are also little-changed at 56.7 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 is up very marginally at 69.8.

BITCOIN FIRM
Bitcoin is a little higher in today's trade, now at US$10,716 and up a lit less than +1% from this morning's open. The bitcoin rate is charted in the exchange rate 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 ».