A review of things you need to know before you go home; mortgage approvals slow, TSB raised TD rates, NZSF backs fuel cell tech; short rates up

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

HOME LOAN APPROVALS SLOW
Last week only 6,763 'new' mortgages were approved. The value of these approvals was $1.174 bln, which means the approval rate is running almost 10% lower than for the same period (q-on-q) as last year.

GUEST NIGHTS
The trend for accommodation guest nights appears to be flattening at a record high level, Statistics NZ said today. Trends for North Island and domestic guest nights are also at high levels, but after more than a year of growth are showing signs of easing.

TSB BANK RAISES TD RATES
TSB Bank has raised its term deposit rates for some selected terms. For 18 months, their rate goes up to 4.30%, a rise of 5 bps. For 24 months, it goes up to 4.75% a rise of 25 bps and now competitive with RaboDirect, Westpac and SBS.

NZSF RAISES STAKE IN FUEL CELL ENERGY
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has made an additional US$50 million investment in Bloom Energy, a US company and a maker of on-site power generation systems using fuel cell technology. The Fund made an initial US$50 million investment in Bloom in May 2013.

'JOHN KEY IS TO BLAME': GREENS
The Green Party is out of the blocks early, blaming the National Government for tomorrow's OCR rise and saying it will cost 30,000 jobs - and that "50,000 more Kiwis [are] unemployed than when John Key came to power" in 2008.

WHOLESALE RATES
Swap rates slipped back today another 1 or 2 bps across the longer end of the curve. At the short end, rates are up 1 bps. The 90 day bank bill rates eked out another small upward rise to 3.02%. Markets now want to see the RBNZ 90 day bill track from Dr Wheeler tomorrow.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZD is basically unchanged from this morning, at US84.7c and A94.4c respectively and the TWI is up a touch at at 79.44.