90 seconds at 9 am: US dollar gains; worries about Japan grow; BofE holds rates; dairy prices fall; Key and Brown focus on Auckland housing; NZ$1 = US$0.838 TWI = 78.0

Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news the US dollar is on a strengthening burst.

It has pushed through the US$1 = ¥100 barrier this morning to a four year high and is rising against most currencies, although less so against the NZ dollar. In fact, the Aussie has fallen almost back to parity this morning.

It is not clear at this stage what is driving such a big change, but worries about whether Japan's Abenomics will work may be a big part of it. Or maybe it is anticipating Japanese trade data due out in a few hours.

Also part of it may be that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week dropped by 4,000 to the lowest level in nearly five-and-a-half years.

British Prime Minister Cameron has restated his country's strong opposition to the financial transactions tax working its way into law in the EU.

The Bank of England has left is benchmark interest rates unchanged in it s latest review, amid doubts about the strength of any recovery. It didn't change its QE settings either.

The Dow is holding on to its gains; most metals are down in market trade today, including gold, but agricultural commodities are up. However the latest USDA dairy price monitoring records big falls in prices for dairy commodities from this region. Milk powders fell about 10% in NZ$ terms since the last survey two weeks ago.

And later this afternoon morning the Prime Minister and the Auckland Mayor will be making a 'major announcement' about affordable housing in Auckland. It is understood that big new projects in both Hobsonville and Tamaki are getting kick started in a partnership between the two government agencies. We will have more on these plans later after the announcements.

The NZ dollar  starts today at 83.8 USc, 83.0 AUc and our TWI now stands at 78.0. Basically any gains from the RBNZ reported intervention talk has vanished and lasted less than 48 hours at most.