Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news of a startling income gap in China.
But first, American consumer confidence dipped slightly in April but has remained near a six-year high, while home prices rose in February, suggesting their economy was regaining some momentum after a winter lull.
The American home ownership rate fell to its lowest level in nearly 19 years according to data out overnight. The share of Americans who own their homes was 64.8%, the lowest since the second quarter of 1995, when it was 64.7%. Their rental vacancy rate was basically unchanged.
In some fresh research carried out by five Chinese universities and co-ordinated by the University of Michigan, the income gap between the rich and poor in China has surpassed that of the US and is among the widest in the world.
They found that the Gini coefficient for family income in China is now around 0.55 compared to 0.45 in the U.S. In 1980, China's Gini coefficient was 0.30. In 2012, the Chinese government refused to release the country's Gini coefficient data.
Generally, when the coefficient reaches 0.5, it indicates that the gap between rich and poor is severe. New Zealand's last Gini score was about 0.33 in 2011 but is said to be rising.
In China, their central bank issued its annual financial stability report overnight and said some high-risk investment products should be allowed to fail in 'an orderly way'. They also signaled more regulation of fast-growing internet-based financial products.
In London, the five member gold price setting committee is falling apart. One member, Deutsche Bank, has tried to sell its seat on the committee but failed. No-one wanted it. So it has resigned. It's a four member group now.
The gold price dipped overnight to $1,289/oz while oil was steady. Equities are up in late afternoon trade while the benchmark UST 10 yr bond yield is about 3 bps higher at 2.71% today.
We start today with the NZ dollar pretty stable against the US dollar at just over 85.5 USc, also stable against the Aussie at 92.3 AUc and the TWI is at 79.6.
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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