90 seconds at 9 am: NZ$ down to 81 USc after weak US and European jobs data hits recovery hopes; NAB passes on only 32 bps of RBA's 50 bps cut

It's great to be back. Many thanks to David Chaston for doing 90 seconds at 9 am while I was away on holiday in France.

Here's my morning briefing of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including a fall in the New Zealand dollar to near a four-month low on signs of weak economic recovery in both the United States and Europe.

The New Zealand dollar fell to an overnight low of 80.89 USc and is trading around 81.1 USc in morning trade. It tends to rise and fall in line with hopes for global economic activity, given this often drives commodity prices and those currencies seen most exposed to sharp rises and falls in commodity prices. See more in our currencies section and check out our interactive chart below.

The ADP Employment report for private sector jobs in America showed just 119,000 jobs were added in April, which was less than the 177,000 forecast on average by economists, Reuters reported.  The main US jobs report for April, known as Non Farm Payrolls, is due out late on Friday night New Zealand time. It is expected to show 170,000 jobs were added in the month, which is not expected to be enough to cut the jobless rate there from 8.2%.

Meanwhile European jobs figures for March show unemployment across the 17 nation Eurozone edged up to 10.9% from 10.8% in February, emphasising again how weak the European economy is. Even Germany's unemployment rate, which had been at a two-decade low, rose to 6.8% in March, Bloomberg reported.

Essentially, the developed world remains mired in no-to-slow growth as it tries to muddle through four years into a global financial crisis caused by debt growing much faster than the underlying economy for the previous decade. This deleveraging is pressing down on global economic growth and commodity prices, frustrating hopes for a 'normal' recovery.

All this weak economic data on both sides of the Atlantic dragged global stocks lower. The S&P 500 was down about 0.3% in late trade, while European stocks fell 0.7%.

Meanwhile, in Australia, National Australia Bank was the first major bank to cut its floating mortgage rate after the Reserve Bank of Australia's surprise 50 basis point cut in its official cash rate on Tuesday. NAB, which owns BNZ here, cut its mortgage rate by just 32 basis points but cut its deposit rates by a full 50 basis points, SMH.com reported.

The Treasurer Wayne Swan, labelled NAB's move an 'insult to hard-working Australians.'

ANZ NZ, which owns National Bank, reported a 13% rise in half-year underlying profits to NZ$684 million, partly powered by a 12 basis point rise in its net interest margin over the last year. This suggests there could be little justification for New Zealand banks not passing on all of any cut in the Official Cash Rate by the Reserve Bank here. See Gareth Vaughan's article on ANZ's profits on our site here.