A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; move fast to lock in fixed rates as wholesale rates are climbing quickly, listings expand, non-residents buy more bonds

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

ASB MOVES RATES UP
ASB and its siblings BankDirect and Sovereign all moved their floating mortgage rates up today. They follow ANZ and Co-operative bank yesterday. ASB also raised term deposit rates for 1-12 month terms, by +15 to +25 bps.

RISING TIDE
Currency market trading in the NZD in May was the highest in two and a half years, according to data published by the RBNZ today.

FOOD PRICES RISING
Food prices increased 1.8% for the past year to May 2014, the largest annual increase since 2011. The main rises were from Fruit and Vegetables (+5.6%), non-alcoholic beverages (+2.7%) and restaurants & meals (+2.1%).

MIDDLING MAY
Although still expanding, a softening of orders saw the May PMI slip a little again.

LISTINGS RISE FASTER THAN SALES
realestate.co.nz released May data today that showed a stronger rise in listings and asking prices than in supported by sales in the housing markets. Consequently the weeks of unsold inventory is growing. It is now at 31 weeks nationally, 16 weeks in Auckland, 19 weeks in Christchurch and 21 weeks in Wellington. It's and eye-popping 132 weeks (2 and a half years) on the Coromandel.

BEST FRIENDS
Foreigners are piling into our Government bonds. According to RBNZ tracking data out today, they now own 64.6% of them, up from 63.3% in April. That a big jump in just one month.

AHHH, THE POWER TO FINE
The NZX has fined Fonterra $150,000 for not informing the market quickly enough about the significance of the false botulism scare. The price of NZX stock was unchanged today.

YOU WANT TELECOM AS A TENANT?
The owner of the four buildings that make up the Telecom and Gen-i headquarters in Auckland is putting two of them up for sale. They will no doubt be attractive for foreign investors and are in a quadrant of the city that has only a 4% vacancy rate.

WHOLESALE RATES
Wholesale swap rates were up sharply again today with the 1-3 year terms up by another +4 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate also jumped again also by +4 bps, now at 3.53%. Hope you got your mortgage fixed today.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar has held on to yesterdays sharp rise higher. Late this afternoon, the USD is still at 86.6 USc, the Aussie is now at 92.1 AUc. The TWI is now at 80.7.