Here are some stories that are worth noting before we get back to work, plus a summary of key data.
Top rated
Moody's has announced it is going to rate ANZ-National's first NZ$2.7 bil. covered bond program as Aaa. ANZ-National are the third NZ bank to bring a covered bond issue to market, following BNZ and Westpac. The bank itself recently had its Moody's rating lowered to Aa3 from Aa2, as did the three other main banks.
Two halves
The US unemployment rate rose to 9.1% in May, again raising concerns once about the underlying strength of the American economic recovery. Hiring there slowed in the month, with only 54,000 new jobs added.
Dignity and democracy
In today's Europe, the people are no longer in control. Instead, politicians have become slaves to financial institutions and the markets. We are partly to blame - and changes are urgently needed to nurse European democracy back to health. An Essay by Dirk Kurbjuweit.
A reminder to central bankers
"Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results."
- Albert Einstein
more below ...
| starting | end of | --- 52 week -- | ||||||
| today | May | high | low | |||||
| -------- | -------- | --------- | --------- | |||||
| FX rates | NZ$1=US$ | 0.8144 | 0.8187 | 0.8249 | 0.6584 | |||
| NZ$1=AU$ | 0.7605 | 0.7645 | 0.8203 | 0.7266 | ||||
| Gold | in US$/oz | 1,540 | 1,537 | 1,567 | 1,091 | |||
| in NZ$ | 1,891 | 1,863 | 2,004 | 1,546 | ||||
| Copper | in US$/t | 9,016 | 9,224 | 10,147 | 6,091 | |||
| in NZ$ | 11,071 | 11,182 | 13,507 | 8,951 | ||||
| Crude oil | in US$/bl | 103.44 | 107.26 | 118.70 | 70.14 | |||
| (Dubai) | in NZ$ | 127.01 | 134.49 | 149.14 | 101.31 | |||
| US Treasuries | 30 yr bond | 4.25% | 4.22% | 4.76% | 3.52% | |||
| Dow | DJIA 30 | 12,154 | 12,542 | 12,919 | 9,563 | |||
Forget Facebook?
Our cognitive capacities max out at three to five intimate friendships. Time to shrink our social networks?
"Look at the world through the eyes of a fool"
“We like to think that we live in a violent time. But violence has declined every millennium, every century, every decade,” says Stewart Brand. “The reduction in cruelty is astounding”. Violence and cruelty used to be the norm; now its news.
Up and down
Term deposit rates are declining for all terms of three years and less; they are holding for 4 and 5 year terms. The shorter the term, the steeper the decline. Offshore funding for banks is cheaper than ours (due to very loose monetary policies in the US and Europe), and loan demand here is anemic. It seems investors may need to start thinking about the alternatives to term deposits and taking an active interest in financial markets so they can make sensible choices about risk - if they want better returns.
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