Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news Fonterra is starting an ambitious China expansion.
But first, in the wake of a rate hike by New Zealand’s central bank last week and the flagging of one by the Bank of England, the US Fed’s latest policy meeting on Thursday NZ time is even in greater focus. The US is moving to raise rates in 2015, less than a year away now.
In China, home sales fell 11% in May from a year earlier amid slowing demand even after the central bank ordered easing of mortgage lending. This data comes after the official stats were released for electricity consumption, a metric some watch more closely than Chinese GDP. Power consumption rose 5.3% over the same month a year ago.
Fonterra announced plans to build four to six farming hubs in China by 2020 that will produce 1 billion litres of milk a year to meet rising demand for dairy products in the country. They have five giant farms at its first hub in Hebei province and is building a second hub of five farms in Shanxi province.
Henk Bles, the newly appointed managing director of international farming ventures at Fonterra, said at a trade conference in China over the weekend that the location of farms is critical, because these facilities must meet standards for soil and water quality, climatic conditions and sufficient feed for cows. These are plans that will produce the equivalent of about 5% of New Zealand's current domestic output.
The price of Brent crude spiked on Friday after rising this week over concerns about the ongoing insurgency in Iraq.
That comes as the US oil production reached a key milestone; US oil production has now risen above its previous peak in 1970 as a result of the country’s shale oil boom. Four decades of decline in US oil output have been reversed in just half a decade of growth.
The benchmark UST 10 year yields fell a little on Friday in New York and are now at 2.61%. Credit spreads are now at a post-Lehman low. Gold ended the week at US$1,274/oz and New York equities rose at the end of trading on Friday.
Through the recent global political and risk turmoil, the Aussie dollar hasn't fallen even though it is a commodity currency and supposedly vulnerable to these types of uncertainty. More traders are regarding it as a 'haven' currency it seems, and the kiwi dollar is probably getting a halo effect. This is despite officials at the RBNZ thinking markets have got the pricing of the kiwi dollar wrong because they should still regard it as a 'risk' currency.
On the exchange rate the NZD starts the week much higher at about a cent and a half above the same point a week ago. It starts at 86.6 USc, at 92.4 AUc and the TWI is at 80.8.
If you want to catch up with all the changes from 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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