A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; more mortgage changes, TD changes go both ways, commodity index sinks, growth still strong, more startup support, wholesale rates steepen

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
SBS Bank has set their 'specials' all at 5.35%, covering terms of 2, 3 and 5 years. HSBC has ended it 5.29% Premier 'special' offer, replacing it with varying rates. One year is now 5.20% for example, three years is 5.40% and five years fixed is now 5.60%. 

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
BNZ has clipped -5 to -10 bps off of its 18 month to 5 year term deposit rate offers today. HSBC has nibbled similar amounts away from almost all their term deposit rates. In contrast, SBS Bank has gone the other way adding +25 to +35 bps to their 6 and 9 month term deposit offers. That makes those two rates stand-outs among banks. FE Investments also raised their 18 month rate, to 8.00%, a level rarely seen these days. FE has a sub-investment grade credit rating of 'B'.

AUTUMN CHILL
The ANZ Commodity Price Index fell by -7.4% in April. This has reversed most of the gains seen since the start of the year, with prices -15% lower than 12 months earlier and -18% below February 2014 peaks. Dairy product prices led declines, down -15.2% to be one-third lower than 12 months ago. Most of the other major sectors prices were steady to up slightly. Prices for meat however rose +2.3%.

ROBUST GROWTH IN H1
This is what Treasury said about our economy today: "High business confidence and activity expectations indicate continued robust economic growth in the first half of 2015. Profit expectations and investment intentions have risen. Capacity constraints are emerging, but with fewer firms expecting to face cost increases over the next quarter, fewer intend to increase selling prices. Households remain optimistic, a reflection of the lower inflation, faster house price growth and low interest rates, supporting private consumption growth."

STARTUP SUPPORT
Money is now flowing into startups in New Zealand at a faster rate. Angel networks and funds invested $55.9 million into young New Zealand companies in 2014 - a record high and the first time the Young Company Finance Index has recorded consecutive $50 million-plus investment years. 2014 saw $26.2 million investment into software and services, continuing that sector’s very strong performance over the past two years. Food and beverage companies attracted $4.8 million of investment - a large rise on the $900,000 in 2013. Health sector companies saw a decline with $2.2 million of investment in 2014 compared with $8.4 million the previous year. Some of this growth was supported by the Government's $300 mln NZ Venture Investment Fund.

WAREHOUSE BONDS
The Warehouse Group said today it is looking at making an offer of 'new' five year unsecured, unsubordinated, fixed rate bonds to refinance its $100 million senior bond maturing on 15 June 2015 "and for general corporate purposes". The offer will be seeking to raise up to $125 mln with oversubscriptions, and will be made in a general offer to retail and institutional investors and an exchange offer to holders of the Maturing Bonds.

DRAWING IN SUPPORTERS
The lobby group, The NZ Bankers Association now takes 'affiliate members'. It has five, two of whom have just joined, law firm Chapman Tripp and Visa International.

WHOLESALE RATES STEEPEN
Wholesale swap rates rose +1 bp across the curve, except for 7 and 10 years which rose +2 bps. That firming and steepening follows Wall Street bond markets and was expected. More may follow. The 90 day bank bill rate is also higher today by +1 bp to 3.63%. Yields on Government bonds however are unchanged today.

NZ DOLLAR AMBLES
The New Zealand dollar meandered within a tight range today and is now almost at the level it started the day. As of late this afternoon it is at 75.3 USc, 96.2 AUc, 67.2 euro cents, and the TWI-5 is still at 79. Check our real-time charts here.

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