Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news some ugly dairy price falls.
But first, the overnight international economic news was pretty good.
The US Federal Government posted its smallest March budget deficit in 14 years as an improving labour market saw tax receipts rise and federal government spending declined from a year earlier. At the same time, the latest American jobless claims put them at a seven year low.
The Australian unemployment rate has fallen to a surprise 5.8% from a decade-high 6.1% last month, with 18,100 jobs added to the economy in a sign that their sluggish labour market could be recovering.
The sale by the Greek Government of long term debt was eight times over subscribed. It was their first issue in five years. They were expecting to pay between 5% and 5.25%, but with the heavy demand the average yield was 4.95%.
Despite all this, markets are in retreat today. Stocks are down sharply in New York as investors bail out of tech stocks, bond yields are falling with the benchmark UST 10yr at 2.64%, oil is lower and gold is up now at US$1,320/oz.
And closer to home, the news is even tougher. The latest USDA dairy price monitoring reported overnight sees further large declines in dairy prices with Wholemilk Powder down 7.7% over the past two weeks and butter down a whopping 12.5% in those same two weeks.
We start today with the NZ dollar at just under 87 USc, 92.3 AUc and the TWI is still at 80.5.
If you want to catch up with all the changes yesterday, 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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