What happened Friday

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; down, down, down; five year mortgage rates fall below 6%, Govt deficit smaller, Govt bond yields below cash, NZD lower

23rd Jan 15, 4:00pm by David Chaston

For Friday, January 23, 2015. <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 MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Westpac has reduced its 'special' home loan rates, especially its five year rate which is now below 6%. We understand Kiwibank - possibly others - will also start next week with even lower five year rates.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Westpac has also reduced term deposit rates, along with a -10 bps cut to their bonus saver account.

GOVT ACCOUNTS ON TRACK
Treasury today reported the Government's deficit was NZ$121 mln below forecast; higher tobacco excise, lower spending more than offset lower than expected GST, PAYE receipts.

REDUCED SERVICE
Monday will be a public holiday in the north of the North Island and in Australia. We will still be publishing but our service will less than usual. Banks are open in the rest of the country however.

BELOW CASH
All the current secondary bond market offers for Government stock are now below the OCR. The December 2017s are at 3.27% and the April 2023s are at 3.33%.

WHOLESALE RATES SEE SMALL RISE
The local swap rates rose +2 or +3 basis points today across the curve but that has clawed back only a small part of the recent reductions. Westpac is picking inverted rates for possibly as long as one year, before reverting to a long positive trend. The 90 day bank bill rate was unchanged at 3.67%.

NZ DOLLAR LOWER
Check our real-time charts here. The NZ dollar was lower again today slipping below 75 USc for a time. It is now at 75.1 USc, at 93.7 AUc, and the TWI is now at 78.

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

Daily exchange rates

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Source: RBNZ

Source: CoinDesk

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3 Comments

by waymad | 23rd Jan 15, 4:29pm 1421983785

You fergot the two geopolitical happenings of the day, DC:

Saudi king pops clogs, succeeded by equally frail Prince
Yemen (at the south of Sunni Arabia) falls to Iran-backed Shiite militia

by Stephen Hulme | 23rd Jan 15, 9:58pm 1422003529

On that basis, and closer to home, we might want to know about megachat.

by Henry_Tull | 24th Jan 15, 12:26am 1422012414

and a cheero to one who may have had the single largest hand in F reduced ANZ earnings - call it a cool 300 to 400 million.

$1 a litre milk and destructuion of multiple F's SKU's ....

Former Coles boss Ian McLeod has resigned from the Perth-based conglomerate Wesfarmers to join US retail giant Bi-Lo Holdings. Mr McLeod, who was replaced by John Durkan as Coles boss last year, is widely credited with leading a five-year $1 billion profit turnaround at supermarket chain Coles where he earned almost $55 million under a private equity-style pay deal.

However, an admission by the food and liquor giant in December that it engaged in unconscionable conduct with small grocery suppliers may have taken some of the shine off Mr McLeod's track record.

Coles faces penalties of $10 million and may have to pay as much as $16 million in refunds for its dealings with suppliers after reaching a historic settlement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Coles initially denied the allegations and said it would vigorously defend both cases. In October, Mr Ian McLeod said the retailer would be "vindicated" in court.