Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news the New Zealand dollar briefly topped 80 USc overnight on more confidence about the economic outlook for China, which drives growth and commodity prices in our region.
China's economy grew 8.9% in the December quarter from the same quarter a year earlier. This was the slowest growth rate in two and a half years, but was better than expected.
It also reinforced expectations that China's authorities would ease monetary and fiscal policy to prevent a further slowing of growth. See more here at Bloomberg.
The hope that China can avoid a hard landing boosted expectations that commodity prices and demand from China would remain high, which helped lift growth currencies such as the New Zealand and Australian dollars, along with the Brazilian real.
However, the head of China's Statistics Bureau Ma Jiangtang said a moderation of growth was desirable and he pointed to China's current five year plan, which is for growth to average 7% over the 5 years to 2015.
Chinese stock markets rallied 4.2% on signs of a soft landing in China, while US stocks were up 0.8% and European stocks rallied 1.5%.
European stocks were helped by a sharp fall in Italian and Spanish bond yields, which eased some of the concerns about the European sovereign debt crisis.
Spain sold almost €5 billion of short term bonds in well received auctions. The one year bond yield fell to 2.05% from over 4% last month.
The key driver is strong demand from banks for short term government bonds after these banks borrowed almost €500 billion from the European Central Bank. Their governments are encouraging them to invest this cheap money from the central bank, which costs them 1%, in government bonds yielding 2% or more. This has become known as the LTRO (Long Term Refinancing Operation) carry trade.
Here's a nice description of the LTRO carry trade here at FT Alphaville (no pay wall)
Meanwhile, closer to home, the NZIER's Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion showed a deterioration in sentiment as the excitement around the World Cup faded through November and December. See our article on the NZIER's survey here.
The NZIER now expects the Reserve Bank will hold the Official Cash Rate until late 2013 and said there is a chance of a contraction in New Zealand's GDP early this year.
No chart with that title exists.
24 Comments
Shame on you Bernard....don't you know what day this is?
What really matters is whether the media are under govt control and or too stupid...or even too corrupt to report the truth....in the case of the usa...it's corruption and lying to the public to protect the interests of the corporate that owns the media outlet...much the same going on here in NZ.
90% of the public are too daft to know what day it is.
Ahh, yes the old government media conspiracy. If only they were honest and toed the line that the government is just there to steal your money and waste it on their pet projects. If only they could explain the dark secret of what CPI figures really mean.
Good thing the public still know when to knock it off and go for a weekend isn't it.
Waste...yes govt waste. Too many examples to fit here. Let's just look back to the 50 million or so blown on tarting up govt house...enuff for you Nic? How about the SCF waste...filled the pockets of many in downtown Auckland who knew what was going down..hundreds of millions!
Media amounts to cut and paste...to reporting what a govt dept head has said can be reported...journalism died in NZ a long time ago.
How about the farce in Europe...the ECB lending freshly created credit to banks at 1% or less and the banks using some of the billions to buy Spanish shite bonds at what%...who cares...it's a farce...a fraud...the ECB is the buyer of the bonds using the banks as tools to hide the ECB violation of EU rules....
Watch the FX rate on euro.....the market will decide on the farcical fraud.
Sadly the stupid useless media reports it as recovery...something good happening...are they sick or what.
The axe blade will fall when the Greek bond holders demand the insurers of their bonds fork out the losses....then the collapse will gather pace...you just don't want to be holding euro or piigs debt once that starts..
Draghi is already talking about "tentative signs of stabilisation activity" (http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2961712&LS=…) - the only stabilisation is because the ECB is giving away money and buying up bonds in the secondary bond market. These short term bills aren't too important anyway, the yields to watch are on the longer issues - the banks won't be spending their printed money on those as they theoretically have to give it back in three years. The debt talks in Greece aren't resolved and Monti's pleading for German support for ECB bond buying isn't positive. The Euro FX pop up looks purely technical to me.
My pick is the primary fire was at some point starved of air but was still undergoing pyrolysis. The HRV system was sucking mostly combustible gas rather than flame but when it hit oxygen at the other end, whoopmph. That is assuming that a source of ignition was present, perhaps an ember sucked through as well? The gases would only be 2-300 °C so wouldn't melt the alloy(700°C) or pyrolyze the paper.
I had worked with a fellow once that had previously been a captain of large cargo vessels. He missed out on a voyage one time that was an LGP ship leaving the USA East Coast for South America. There was a fire on board and the airconditioning distributed it to all the occupied areas and killed the entire crew.
I've heard that too - but on the positive side the HRV would distribute all that hot air to other rooms in the house that have no heating. Obviously the house isn't a leaky home or with the damp it would have never burnt down - one again HRV doing its job.
On a serious side, I think they are a waste of time. If you have to buy one to prevent damp building up, I would change my house rather than trying to spend money caused by a building defect.
We're saved...we are saved...no really the white knight is riding to our rescue..we won't have to rely on the fools in the Beehive and the spin from Treasury...forget Bollard and the OCR games...we are saved....honest...
"Calm down you fool..tell us why"
American actor Tommy Lee Jones is returning to New Zealand to play US General Douglas MacArthur in Emperor, a movie set in the aftermath of the Japanese surrender in World War II.
Cameras are due to start rolling this month in various New Zealand locations with some shooting also taking place in Japan. herald
It's the post RWC bonanza ...think of the media coverage....the tourism spin....maybe Donkey can play a part...a target perhaps..no..use Gerry for that. Maybe they can work in some bomb site scenes using chch...!
Put your money on Tommy Lee Jones. and the bloke with the funny pipe......http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10779484
"with some shooting also taking place in Japan." Gosh what a chance to get rid of some pollies...they would make great targets...we better let Tommy know.
How much time and money was wasted by the EQC on producing themselves this load of BS.
http://static2.stuff.co.nz/files/EQCmedia.pdf
Something is seriously wrong inside this state entity....maybe the bosses are not being paid enough...no bonuses....!!!!
Last year we had the suggestion from John Pagani that NZ ought to follow the French economic model....remember?
Attention goldbugs...this is a cracka...exposes the dirty fraud going on...points to where things are heading..fast.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article32678.html
PAGE is not something that can be taken lightly as it is part of China’s 12th five year plan to catapult China to be the Global Superpower in Economics, Politics and Military
The setting up of PAGE is not a ‘spurred of the moment’ event but a carefully crafted strategic development in the key areas of China’s planned financial dominance in the next few decades
China’s dominance in the Banking world have already been felt and currently the top three biggest bank by market capitalization in the world are Chinese, namely ICBC, CCB and the Agriculture Bank of China. This can be shown by the chart below.
the Chinese banks through their SOE (State Owned Enterprises) are buying up what they called the ‘hard assets’ or productive assets such as energy and mining companies, hugh blocks of agriculture lands in Africa, efficient and technologically advanced Western companies. Consequently, this will help to provide the necessary raw materials and technology to catapult its economic development to the next level.
the consequences:
FIRST, it will be the internationalization of the use of Renminbi, which will eventually replace the US dollar as an international reserve currency. This will further help promote the use of the Renminbi in the international arena and also help reduce the monopoly or dependence on the US dollar in the trading of precious metals. Since all trades in PAGE are denominated in RMB, a purchase by an international investor will initiate the buying of RMB and hence diversifying out of the dollar
SECOND, currently the gold and silver prices are highly manipulated. As we know, gold all along had been the arch rival of ‘fiat currency’. What happens to fiat currencies when people start converting all their paper currencies to gold? That will be the end of the paper currency regime. Hence the authorities will do whatever they can to suppress the true value of gold so as to make it less attractive than ‘fiat currency’ even though most of their value had already been debased by more than 95%
THIRD, when the PAGE comes online in June 2012, authorities at LBMA and COMEX will find that they can no longer manipulate the gold price by raising the margin requirements of the gold contracts without the agreement of the Chinese at the other side of the Pacific
FOURTH, by now most of us will know that the leverage of both the LBMA and COMEX are more than 30 to 1. On the other end, the Chinese PAGE is 100% back by physical gold and it is guaranteed by the Chinese government. Delivery of the physical gold will be made as effortless as possible because the contracts are in the actual name of the purchaser and the delivery cost for a 10 ounce mini gold bar will initially be price as little as RMB 332
FIFTH, there will be a large migration of investors from to West to the East upon the discovery that PAGE is 100%
China likes the low gold price Wolly, they are importing a lot. It will only be once physical supply shortages hit the market, that we have true 'price discovery'. The margin hikes smacked down silver big time, and the chart painting shorts by JPM (since they picked up the massive short position from Bear Sterns) will still continue.
I'm pretty happy with the low price, it gives me time to scratch around for some money. Silver is only up 9% for the year.
What I like about that article skudiv is the clear account of how the prices are being manipulated. Also it screams to me that I must buy the quality gold mine stock when the market spews its guts this year or next as it will.
Hate to be the owner of a paper promise that my gold is in safe hands in a vault somewhere!
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