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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; the mortgage war update, the term deposit peace silence, AUD strengthens, gold tumbles

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; the mortgage war update, the term deposit peace silence, AUD strengthens, gold tumbles
For Tuesday, March 25, 2014. <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</a>

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

2014 MORTGAGE WAR
The big banks are already showing signs that they will use the rising interest rate environment to battle hard for market share. In fact, ASB today activated a new skirmish with a cute "1 month interest free on a 3 year fixed mortgage" offer - equivalent to about 2.5% less interest over 36 months. In terms of their 6.60% interest rate, that is like getting it for 6.45% - not bad but not that special either given BNZ has a carded rate of 6.29% and Westpac 6.35% for the same term.

2014 TERM DEPOSIT PEACE
There were no term deposit or savings changes today. So far, only ANZ has offered comprehensive, across the board rises in response to the OCR hike.

ASB NOTES PAY 6.65%
ASB was also in the news today with an unsecured Note offer paying 6.65% for 5 years - far more than its current 5 year term deposit offer of 5.50%. Still, in a rising interest rate environment the capital value will be under threat if you did not hold them to maturity.

AUSSIE CURRENCY RISES
The RBA is looking a little impotent these days with its campaign to talk the AUD down - it has risen sharply today and is now at 91.4 USc, a rise of more than a 1c since Friday. That also means the NZD is declining vs the AUD and it is now down to 93.6 AUc.

JOB LOSSES
There were 70 jobs lost today at New Plymouth yacht maker, Alloy Yachts. It is newsworthy because the currency is probably involved - and more importantly because job losses are so rare these days. See our tally here.

GOLD TUMBLES
The yellow metal was at US$1,390/oz at the beginning of last week (NZ$1,630) - it is now at US$1,310/oz (NZ$1,530). The 2014 up trend which started at US$1,200 (NZ$1,465) looks like it is ending. It looks even worse for copper and aluminium.

WHOLESALE RATES
Swap rates are basically unchanged again today, although they did fall 1 bps across the whole curve on international influences. The 90 day bank bill rates is is up 1 bps today at 3.09%.

OUR CURRENCY
There has been little change in the NZ dollar again today, markets have run out of reason to change in any direction. The kiwi is 85.4 USc, 94.3 AUc, and the TWI is still just under 80.0 as we head for the weekend here, although remember it trades on in New York until about mid-day Saturday.

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2 Comments

I think this is about as crony capitalism  as it gets- the use of anti-terrorist special powers against a whistleblower who reported a dodgy Goldman Sachs / UK government deal.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/24/hmrc-criticised-mps-terror-law-tax-whistleblower-hodge

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I think Gordon Brown also misused this law to freeze iceland's money...

Sometimes it seems some laws are better not enacted....this is one of them.

 

regards

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