Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news US consumers have shrugged off higher taxes to boost retail spending by 1.1% in February.
Sales at American retailers climbed twice as much as forecast, and data for January was revised up too. Meanwhile, US business inventories in January rose by the most since May 2011 as data showed a jump of 1% following an upwardly revised 0.3 per cent rise in December. Both are signals the American economy is recovering despite the Federal budget stalemate.
The Dow is holding on to its recent gains in midday trading, and both oil and gold have fallen on the day.
In Europe, industrial production in sank faster than expected in January, raising the risk that a long-awaited return to growth will be further delayed. The fall included Germany.
Meanwhile, Ireland has successfully held its biggest bond sale since the near-collapse of its financial system forced the nation to seek a bailout in 2010. Ireland's return to the international bond markets marks a rare success for the euro zone in tackling its fiscal and banking crises. While others have faltered, the Irish government has stuck to its targets for cutting its budget deficit, while its economy is set to grow for the third straight year, albeit modestly
China is moving to focus more on inflation control according to the POBC governor. He said China will be on 'high alert' over rising prices after February’s figures exceeded forecasts.
And the Chinese government is limiting its gold holdings to 2% of its total foreign exchange reserves. It is probably at about that limit now. It says the market is too small and if it raised it's gold holdings that would push the price up and hurt Chinese consumers who want to buy the precious metal.
Bernard Hickey will be reporting on the RBNZ rate decision at 9am today, and the details of their Monetary Policy Statement. No change is expected, but there will be intense interest in how Governor Wheeler is assessing the drought impact, the exchange rate, the boom in house prices, and the now-clear growth in the domestic economy.
The kiwi dollar starts today basically unchanged against most currencies at 82.6 USc, at 80.1 AUc, and the TWI is at 76.2.
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