What happened Monday

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; one rate change, services expanding, house prices falling, Hargreaves' dream team, 90 day bills 3.68%

14th Jul 14, 4:00pm by David Chaston

For Monday, July 14, 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.

TODAY'S RATE CHANGE
TSB Bank changed home loan rates today, the only institution to make any changes. They raised 6 mth and 1 year rates and dropped 4 and 5 year rates. None of the changes were market-leading. However, they have retained their 5.80% 2 year fixed rate special, which certainly is market-leading.

TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT
Our World Cup reporter (David Hargreaves) has sent in his final report: "Here for your edification is my "Team of the World Cup". I have not included a genuine striker since there weren't any and the last name I actually put on this team sheet was Messi. Blind I have picked as left back, since there were not many good left backs in the tournament... No Brazilians. However, had we been picking a worst team the name David Luiz would have received honourable mention ..."

"Neuer (Germany), Blind (Netherlands), Zabaleta (Argentina), Hummels (Germany), Yepes (Colombia), Mascherano (Argentina), James (Colombia), Messi (Argentina) Muller (Germany), Robben (Netherlands), Sanchez (Chile)"

SERVICE SECTOR EXPANDING
The PSI for June was 54.7. This was up 0.6 points from May. All five main sub-indices were in expansion during June. New orders/business (58.3) reduced a further 2.0 points from May, but remained in strong territory for expansion. Activity/sales (54.7) rose 0.6 points after a dip in expansion during the previous month. Employment (52.4) also picked up, while stocks/inventories (55.2) rose 1.9 points. Supplier deliveries (53.5) went back into expansion after a slight contraction in May.

HOUSE PRICES DOWN AGAIN
Median house prices and sales volumes were sharply down in June, with Auckland leading the decline. The Real Estate Institute of NZ said the national median selling price was $427,250 in June, down 0.6% on May but still up 8.4% on June last year. But prices declined more sharply in the Auckland region, where the median declined 4% to $600,000 in June, compared to with $625,000 in May.

WHOLESALE RATES
Wholesale swap rates were unchanged today but the 90 day bank bill rate was up +1 bp again at 3.68%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar took cues from no-one today and limped sideways at its giddy heights. It is at 88.2 USc, at 93.8 AUc. The TWI is still at 81.9

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.

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4 Comments

by Boatman | 14th Jul 14, 5:33pm 1405316024

With the swap rate at 3,68% , and mortgages at around 6% , the banks are really coining it with a margin of around 70% .

by MortgageBelt | 14th Jul 14, 5:41pm 1405316483

In a world struggling to keep afloat, why on earth is NZ punishing itself with very high relative interest rates?

by bigblue | 14th Jul 14, 6:20pm 1405318843

Wheeler and the big banks are shafting us royally! There was absolutely no justification at all for the OCR increases that have taken place so far in 2014. Should cut OCR back to where it was at the start of the year, or lower, to save our exporters and businesses that use a mortgage against their house to fund their small to medium enterprise. Mortgage approvals in the last 4 weeks are 13.8% down on the same period last year and 22.3% down on the same period during 2012 in fact they are now not far above the approval figures seen in the recessionary period. Wheeler will be happy with this turnaround though!

by Gummy Bear Hero | 15th Jul 14, 5:26am 1405358819

Vantablack ! ... an UK company ( Surrey Nano-Systems ) has developed the blackest substance known , absorbing all but 0.035 % of the visible light that hits it ...

... it is constructed from carbon nano-tubes , each one ten thousandth the thickness of a human hair ....

It appears to the human eye that you're looking at a void , not at a solid substance , any creases or folds in the material disappear ....

... vantablack has commercial uses in telescopes , astronomical cameras , and infrared scanners ...

No need for that gastric bypass surgery after all , Bernard ... a tee-shirt made out of this material would make it look to observers that you were a head with no torso !!!!