US momentum slows; Taiwan booms; China to limit SOE CEO pay; France ministers quit over austerity; India's coal mines 'illegal'; S&P500 hits record; NZ$1 = US$0.83.5, TWI = 78.8

Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news equity markets are exuberant.

However, data out of the US overnight was not stellar, but it wasn't first-tier data either. Firstly, new home sales for July were lower than expected, down 2.4% on the revised-up June number. Interestingly, the median sales price of new houses sold in the US in July 2014 was US$269,800 (NZ$310,000); the average sales price was US$339,100 (NZ$390,000).

And we got services sector data for August and while strongly positive, it was lower than for July and lower than expectations. Along with the factory data from last week, it did reinforce the expectation that American Q3 GDP growth will be strong, although there are suggestions of slowing momentum in their economy.

We often get news from China, but today it is from Taiwan - a place that is booming. Taiwan's industrial output hit a record high last month, largely driven by global demand for components of smartphones and other mobile devices.

In China itself, the reform agenda is attacking SOE CEO pay. Officials are moving to regulate it tightly, with a 600,000 yuan (NZ$115,000) maximum. It's the sort of restriction that might see another surge emigration by the well-off.

Yesterday we noted that trouble France seems to be in. Today we got news that some cabinet members have been fired for being publicly unhappy with the government's economic policies and direction.

In India, their top court has declared the issuing of 200+ licenses to mine coal in the country are all illegal. India is one of the largest producers of coal in the world and more than half of its commercial energy needs are met by coal. The legal move could temporarily strangle India's energy supplies.

Today the S&P500 index exceeded the 2000 level for the first time ever. It is just one more sign of the buoyancy in the equity markets. It has slipped below that level however in late afternoon trade.

UST 10yr benchmark bond yields are basically unchanged at 2.40%.

The US oil price remains unchanged at just over US$93/barrel. Brent is also basically unchanged at just over US$102/barrel. Gold had a small fall overnight and is now at US$1,276/oz.

We start today on the currency front virtually unchanged from the end of the business day yesterday. We are just below 83.5 USc, 89.8 AUc, and the TWI is at 78.8.

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 »