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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; BNZ closing branches, scams proliferate, Harmoney lists, farm sales up, bond yields rise, insurers lose, NZD up, & more

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; BNZ closing branches, scams proliferate, Harmoney lists, farm sales up, bond yields rise, insurers lose, NZD up, & more
ID 22702269 © Daniaphoto | Dreamstime.com

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The Policy Credit Union trimmed its 1yr fixed rate.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
And the Police CU also cut term deposit and savings rates.

SHUTTING
BNZ announced it will shut 38 branches across New Zealand between December and June next year, saying it will help staff 'find new job opportunities at BNZ'.

WARNING
Investors were warned today to beware of a rising volume of scams including phishing scams, in dual warnings from the Financial Markets Authority and Department of Internal Affairs.

LISTING
Online lender Harmoney starts trading on the stock market. It was New Zealand's first peer-to-peer lending firm and has raised around $100 million from investors.

RISING
There were 119 farm sales in New Zealand in October, a good increase on the 74 sold in the same month in 2019. 14 were dairy farms, 28 were grazing units, and 47 were finishing units. Another 13 were horticultural blocks. All were much more than sold in October 2019.

HOT PROPERTY
There were +50% more lifestyle blocks sold in October 2019 (938) than in the same month in 2019 (638), in a surge of activity. In fact, it was the largest number of lifestyle block sales for an October ever. In fact, that caps four straight months of sales over 900.

RISING YIELDS BRING HIGHER DEMAND
There was another $600 mln in NZGBs tendered today. These three tranches attraced $2.669 bln in bids and more than $2 bln was left unsatisfied. Overall, only 41 of 129 bids were accepted. The May 2024 tranche ($250 mln) was won at a 0.22% pa yield. The May 2031 tranche (also $250 mln) was won at a 0.84% pa yield. And the $100 mln May 2041 tranche was won at a 1.59% pa yield. These are all higher than the equivalent previous tenders.

HIGHER AUSSIE JOBLESS RATE
Australia's jobless rate rose to 7.0% in October data released today from 6.9% (NZ = 5.9% in September.) Full-time employment increased by +97,000 and part-time employment increased by +81,800. Their participation rate rose to 65.8% (NZ = 69.8%.)

INSURERS CAN'T DODGE COVID LIABILITIES
In Australia, the NSW Court of Appeal has ruled that pandemic exclusions in business interruption policies are invalid.

GOLD PRICE DOWN
The price of gold has slipped in Asian trade, now at US$1871/oz and down by another -US$7 from this time yesterday and by -US$1 from the closing New York price earlier. London closed last night at US$1876/oz.

EQUITIES UPDATE
The S&P500 ended its session this morning down another -1.2%. The ASX200 is lower by -0.1% in mid-day trade. The NZX50 Capital Index is down -0.4% in late trade. The very large Tokyo market has opened down -0.5%, Hong Kong has opened down -0.7%, and Shanghai is down -0.2% in early trade today.

SWAP & BOND RATES LITTLE CHANGED
Swap rates settled back by a couple of bps yesterday. We are awaiting today's wholesale swap rates. If there are material movements today, we will update them here later. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged today at 0.25%. The Australian Govt ten year benchmark rate is unchanged at 0.90%. The China Govt ten year bond is up another +2 bps at 3.34%. And the New Zealand Govt ten year is down -3 bps at 0.84% and below the the earlier RBNZ-recorded fix of 0.86% (-3 bps). And the US Govt ten year is little-changed at just under 0.86%.

NZD RISES FURTHER
The Kiwi dollar is a little firmer today, up to 69.1 USc. Against the Aussie we are a little firmer at 94.7 AUc. Against the euro we are a little higher too at 58.3 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 has risen to 71.8.

BITCOIN EDGES UP
Bitcoin is a little firmer than this time yesterday, up +1.1%, and now at US$17,927. 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 ».

Daily exchange rates

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End of day UTC
Source: CoinDesk

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21 Comments

RE: Aussie unemployment - Jobless rate is a lagging indicator when assessing the strength of labour market; job ad growth by industry is the preferred leading indicator.

Mining investment is booming once again across the ditch, housing consents going up in leaps and a steady pipeline of infrastructure has been announced. The tide on Kiwis returning to NZ could start turning soon.
A couple of our engineering draughtspersons are actively being poached by Aussie recruiters promising involvement in large defence and energy projects. Can't beat that!

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Mining investment is booming? Any evidence to support that?

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Look at the stock prices of miners on the ASX - most are increasing

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Stock prices have nothing to do with mining investment, which is infrastructure.

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Miners are pretty soft at the moment but a bit of retracement is to be expected after such a run up, I'm keeping an eye on SSR Mining.

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Miners are pretty soft at the moment but a bit of retracement is to be expected after such a run up, I'm keeping an eye on SSR Mining.

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I wonder if banks shutting branches is a good idea. I hardly ever use one but I am not sure I would choose a bank that doesn't have a branch nearby if others do. If anything it is a form of advertising.
If the main banks don't have any branches what advantage do they have over smaller players?

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They don't. There is huge room for the big players to have their lunch completely eaten.

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One of my criteria for choosing a bank is that they either have no branches (eg the now defunct BankDirect, which I found to be much better than their parent ASB), or if they do have branches, I never have to go into them. Not usually a productive or pleasant experience.

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Grum, Yes Bank direct was good , BAD POOR SERVICE with ASB , Wait time 45 mins on phone

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“And the $100 mln May 2041 tranche was won at a 1.59% pa yield”

Am I missing something or is this just one massive bath in the making?

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Too low for too long, I thought the same,

It will be fund money, and the weighted average over time wont show the loss so clearly

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Price history
Issue yield on 21 July 2020 was 1.64%
Tendered at 1.1800% 13 October 2020
Tendered at 1.2445% 28 October 2020
Tendered at 1.2220% 10 November 2020
Tendered at 1.5854% 24 November 2020
IR swap -25.04

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Great Reset Agenda
https://youtu.be/1xO723gH7Go
Seems all equal outcome stuff.

As great actors will say... Whats my motivation here?

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Good to see someone else has picked up on this great reset agenda, i have discussed this with various people and they look at me like i'm a crazy tinfoil hatter until i show them the video clip of Klaus Schwab speaking at the WEF.

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Earthquakes!
The PM supporters didn't need claim the earthquakes response, as her fine works, in order to gain the award votes.

“The Prime Minister exemplifies principled, effective and just leadership, exactly the kind of leadership our students aspire to uphold. She has wielded a steady and swift hand, an open mind, and a keen reflection of her entire community in meeting challenges of terror, earthquakes and now Covid-19. The prime minister reminds all of us that strength, compassion, science, clear communications, humility and activism go hand in hand to create positive results.”

https://cpl.hks.harvard.edu/news/new-zealand-prime-minister-jacinda-ard…

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Just goes to show the cloistered intellectuals at Harvard have nothing better to do. Cringeworthy drivel. Next we'll see is some muppet nominates her for a UN post - Secretary General of Hugs and Concerned Frowns. What a joke.

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Oooh...JDS?

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OB1, you wish.
Policy failures seen by her base constituentency, the base are growing in voice.....

Yet one can’t help but still feel betrayed by how the Prime Minister has once again appealed to the hopes (and fears) of our most vulnerable to gain power, only to then turn around and declare loyalty to the most privileged in Aotearoa whose interests are in diametric opposition to theirs......

However, one can’t resist the feeling that her voice and smile are being used more and more as weapons against our most vulnerable and resilient, capable of disguising the cruel rejection of tangible and evidenced-based steps for change as fair and even necessary for the greater good.

AAAP’s Janet McAllister also captures the injustice of Ardern’s refusal nicely, stating: “Calling for ‘enough’ for ‘adequacy’ for ‘not-poverty’ is a very low bar. Preventing people from having enough - that’s unreasonable. Using children as economic shock absorbers - that’s unreasonable. Covid-response policies that stretch inequity even further - that’s unreasonable.”

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-cruel-violence-of-kindness-and-unity

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Child poverty- fail. Housing affordability - fail. COVID response - fail. Gun registry and buyback - fail. Secretary General of Hugs and Concerned Frowns Lol upvote.

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IAG in Australia going to the Vampire Squid with cap in hand to shore up capital.

https://www.afr.com/markets

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