Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news two opinion polls are suggesting Winston Peters' NZ First Party will receive more than 5% of the vote in tomorrow's election and get back into parliament.
That would complicate National's ability to govern at all, let alone being able to govern alone with its own support of around 50%.
The final Roy Morgan poll before the election found NZ First at 6.5%, the Greens at 14.5%, Labour at 23.5% and National at 49.5%.
The final Herald/Digipoll put National at 50.9%, Labour at 28%, NZ First at 5.2% and the Greens at 11.8%.
If these polls pan out on election night, National would have to hope that ACT and United Future win their electoral seats for it to be able to form a government with Maori, possibly with some sort of side agreement with the Greens.
Meanwhile the European financial crisis continues to worsen.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel again spoke out against the creation of Euro zone bonds, and she is also opposed to the European Central Bank printing money to buy Southern European bonds.
These are both measures demanded by banks and many Eurocrats who believe they are the only way the Euro zone can survive in its current form.
US stocks were down fell more than 2.2% on Wednesday night in late trade as fears spread that Europe's bond market meltdown will destabilise Europe's banking system and spread to America.
European stocks fell overnight and bond yields rose further, signalling more problems inside Europe's financial system. See more here at Bloomberg.
Also, ratings agency Fitch downgraded Portugal's rating to junk because of its recession, heavy debt load and ruinously high interest rates. See more here at Reuters.
Germany and France are at loggerheads over what the ECB should do, although they have agreed to stop arguing about it in public. See more here at Reuters.
Meanwhile Reuters reported the ECB was looking at extending the terms of the loans it makes to European banks to 3 years from 2 years. It is the only major bank still lending to many European banks.
The New Zealand dollar remains weak around 74 USc, but is a tad stronger vs the Australian dollar around 76 Australian cents. See more here in BNZ's currencies report on our site.
(Updated with more details, links and currencies info, and corrected to make clear US markets were on Thanksgiving holiday overnight and fall was from Wednesday night. European stock and bond prices fell)
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