Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Today it was the turn of the smaller institutions to announce their floating rate increases. AMP Home Loans, Kookmin Bank and RESIMAC all added +25% to their floating rate offers.
TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
On the saving side, the Nelson Building Society raised all its term deposit rates for terms up to 12 months by +10 to +25 bps.
HOUSING CONSENTS GROW
Today's release of June building consent data for housing was a bit of a disappointment except in key zones in the South Island. Across the regions, the largest annual gains in building consents was seen in Christchurch (+68%), Waikato (+57%) and Otago (+39%). Manawatu/Wanganui, Hawkes Bay, Nelson and West Coast all experienced declines in building consents over the past year of between -36% and -38%. Missing in action is Auckland.
MEANWHILE IN THE REAL ECONOMY ...
Non-residential building consents recorded another bumper result in June, with the monthly total of $490 mln the second-highest value of consents on record (in both actual and seasonally adjusted terms).
HANGING IN THERE
Housing loan approval data for last week was a slight improvement over the week before, but nothing spectacular either way. Approval volumes are down -14.8% on a similar period last year while values are down -9.4%. Those are reduced declines however, so there is a faint positive suggestion in this data.
HANDS OFF IN JUNE
There is speculation about whether the RBNZ has or is about to intervene in foreign currency markets to 'encourage' a fall in the NZD. Data out today for June shows that they kept their powder dry last month.
DOUBLE-TEAMING
The Serious Fraud Office and the Financial markets Authority signaled they will be working closer together today.
Data collected by the New Zealand Transport Agency on State Highway usage for the first six months of 2014 shows a +3.8% increase compared with the same period a year before. In Northland and Auckland the rise was +3.6%, +4.2% in the Waikato and BOP, and a +5.4% increase in Canterbury. Wellington, Nelson, Marlborough was the laggard at +1.8% growth. This sort of data is a good proxy for the yet-to-be released Q2 data due out on September 18, 2014.
WHOLESALE RATES
Swap rates slipped by -1 bps across all terms today, reflecting Wall Street overnight. The 90 day bank bill rate was up +1 bps today at 3.70%.
OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar has run through pretty much unchanged again today after the overnight fall. The NZD is at 85.0 USc, is at 90.7 AUc and the TWI is at 79.5. The 'Fonterra reaction' seems to have ended; it was all late yesterday and overnight.
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