Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news of another Fonterra product recall.
But first, in Thailand overnight anti-government protesters began blocking main roads and the financial district in Bangkok, disrupting traffic and increasing pressure on the Thai Prime Minister to resign.
Indonesia has announced an export ban on raw minerals in an effort to get more processing done within the country. The immediate market response has been to raise the demand for Australia supplies.
Overnight, the IMF added Denmark, Finland, Norway and Poland to its list of countries that must have regular check-ups of their financial sectors, under an effort to prevent a repeat of the global financial crisis.
And in Switzerland, the BIS diluted a planned leverage limit for banks amid warnings that the rule would penalise low-risk financial activities and curtail lending. A win for bank lobbyists.
In Washington, the US Federal Reserve is investigating whether traders at the world’s biggest banks rigged benchmark currency rates, raising the risk that firms will be penalised for lax controls as regulators worldwide look for wrongdoing. The Fed has taken action in the past on individual cases, but is now looking system wide.
In Australia, sales of new homes jumped to a two-and-a-half-year high - up 7.5% from November - adding fuel to hopes a recovery is underway in their residential construction sector.
Here at home, Fonterra said late yesterday that it is conducting a voluntary recall of some fresh cream products distributed in part of the North Island due to the possible presence of E. coli bacteria. It's news that is playing bigger in China.
Today we get the NZIER quarterly survey of business confidence, and will get the December QV numbers.
The NZ dollar starts today quite a bit higher at 83.6 USc, 92.4 AUc, and the TWI is at 78.7.
If you want to catch up with all the changes over the past three weeks, we have an update here.
The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »
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1 Comments
Fonterra , Fonterra , Fonterra , give us this day our daily train smash .
What is it with this secretive organisation that bumbles for one crisis to the next ?
The word HUBRIS comes to mind .
They only time we ever hear about them is when there is negative press or a major crisis
Imagine if Air New Zealand had so much negative press, it would be a goner ?
Fonterra produce highly perishable food products for goodness sake , surely they can get their systems right to avoid this type of embarassment .
Maybe instead of buying up dairy factories in China and South Africa , they should invest their surplusses right here in NZ , getting the local operation up to 100% squeaky clean first .
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