Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today.
TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Asset Finance cut their two, three and four year TD rates.
WESTPAC PULLS OUT OF PACIFIC
The Westpac Group is selling its Pacific businesses, Westpac Fiji and Westpac’s 89.91% stake in Westpac Bank PNG to Kina Securities for up to AU$420 mln. The sale follows the Group’s strategic decision to focus on consumer, business and institutional banking in Australia and NZ. Westpac Group last week announced the sale of Westpac General Insurance and Westpac General Insurance Services for A$725 million to Allianz and entered an exclusive 20-year agreement for the distribution of general insurance products to Westpac’s customers.
POWER MOVES
Infrastructure and utilities investor Infratil (IFT) says its conducting a 'strategic review' - corporate speak for looking to sell - its 65% stake in Tilt Renewables, developer and operator of wind farms here and in Australia. The 'review' may take six months. Tilt told the NZX in a statement the review "may result in an offer from a third party for all outstanding shares in TLT and therefore the directors of TLT will begin preparations to be able to respond to such an offer". Would state-controlled generator Mercury (MCY) be interested? It owns 20% of Tilt. It told the NZX in its own statement that "there is currently no arrangement between Infratil and Mercury in relation to Infratil’s strategic review". "Mercury is very satisfied with the performance to-date of its investment in Tilt and has not reached a position on the future of that investment. The directors of Mercury will monitor developments closely."
MORE CORPORATE BOND APPETITE
Ryman Healthcare (RYM) is looking for up to $150 mln in a new six year bond issue. It will have a minimum interest rate of 2.50%. There will be no public pool for this offer, it all being distributed through institutional channels.
TOUGH NEGOTIATIONS
Ground rents for some key downtown Auckland waterfront property are up for negotiation again and the going is tough to get agreement. This land went 15 years until 2011 with zero increases, and since then they come up every three years. It never seems to get 'easier'. Land owner Ngati Whatua Orakei Whai Rawa Ltd are represented by Chapman Tripp as their legal counsel, and have Michael Stiassny as a director. The interests of the land owner and the property lessees are unlikely to ever align easily.
DIALING BACK
Although their daily online data updates won't change, the Ministry of Health is reducing the frequency of media updates to four times a week - currently scheduled to be on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
AUCTION FRENZY, BUT PRICES STAY CONSTRAINED
Even though the number of Australian housing auctions were -30% less last week than in the same week a year ago, the overall clearance rate rose to 75% with Sydney recording an 80% clearance rate. In fact auction clearance rates in Australia are now at their highest in four years. But selling values are only rising at about +3% pa there.
NO-SURCHARGE OK FOR NOW
In Australia, the RBA seems to have concluded that the BuyNow, PayLater schemes of enforcing a no-surcharge rule on their merchants works to "promote innovation", and that these benefits outweigh the harm the sector does to some users. But they do note that at some point, no-surcharge rules will need to be unwound.
GOLD PRICE RECOVERS
The price of gold fell -US$6 in early Asian trade today from the closing Saturday New York price. and then it rose back to be at US$1838/oz.
EQUITIES UPDATE
The NZX50 has opened this week's trading unchanged from Friday in late trade. The ASX200 is up +0.7% in early afternoon trade with strong rises by the iron ore miners. The very large Tokyo market has also started the week flat. Shanghai has opened down -0.3% and Hong Kong is down -0.9% in opening trade.
SWAP & BOND RATES HOLD HIGHER
We don't have todays swap rate movements yet. If there are material changes today when the end-of-day swap rates are available, we will update them here. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged today at 0.25%. There is a bond selloff going on at the moment with consequent rises in benchmark rates. The Australian Govt ten year benchmark rate is still up at 1.06%. The China Govt ten year bond is unchanged at 3.32%. But the New Zealand Govt ten year is back up +6 bps at 0.97% and above the earlier RBNZ-recorded fix of 0.94% (+3 bps). And the US Govt ten year is holding today at 0.97% to where it rose on Friday NYT - by +6 bps.
NZD EDGES LOWER
Against the US Dollar, the Kiwi dollar is now at 70.4 USc after being higher earlier. On the cross rates it is down against the Aussie to 94.7 AUc and against the euro we are also softer at 58.1 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 has moved down slightly from this time on Friday to 72.5.
BITCOIN HOLDS
Bitcoin is now at US$19,336 and virtually unchanged from the price we reported this time on Friday. 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 ».
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