90 seconds at 9 am: S&P raises US outlook; Japan grows faster; OECD indicators up; MPI sees bright rural future; NZ$1 = US$0.789, TWI = 73.9

Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news of a string of upwards revisions around the world.

Overnight, Standard & Poor's raised its credit outlook on the United States government to stable from negative, citing Congress's avoidance of the year-end 2012 "fiscal cliff" and the higher-than-expected tax receipts that followed.

Japan’s economy grew more than their government initially estimated in the first quarter, revising up its growth rate to 4.1% from the initial estimate of 3.5%, and helping Prime Minister Abe to hold confidence in his campaign to defeat deflation.

The OECD acknowledged overnight when it published its monthly leading indicators that it is the US and Japan that are gaining some economic momentum while the eurozone is stabilising.

Worried about (or cheering?) house price inflation? New Zealand is up there in a world survey out overnight, but house prices are rising faster than us in ten other countries (including the US). We are #11 in this list, Australia is #26.

However we look expensive on both this survey's price-to-rent and price-to-income measures.

And finally, MPI's annual Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries has its own set of upgrades. It sees the dairy sector powering ahead at a compounding growth rate of 8% with output and price rises.

It also sees large harvest volumes in forestry in the medium term and good prospects. Meat is identified as a challenge with no working solution yet, although wine, pipfruit and horticulture all are working towards good futures, they say.

The NZ dollar stabilised overnight at 78.9 USc, 83.4 AUc, and the TWI is at 73.9.