A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; Auckland house prices up, big Aussie trade deficit, DMO relents, Govt debt falls, wholesale rates jump again

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today - so far.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today.

IN THE CLOUDS
Auckland house prices just keep on rising. Barfoot & Thompson's reported sales that continued upward with average prices now above $822,000. But it is too soon to say if the new RBNZ lending rules will have much effect on Auckland market.

SHARP DROP
There was a dramatic turn in the Australian trade deficit today. The average of the previous three April trade deficits was less than A$400 mln but April 2015 came in with a deficit of A$3.2 bln, even more on a seasonally adjusted basis. Exports were at their lowest level for any month since February 2013. The data knocked the Aussie dollar.

BETTER THAN EXPECTED
The value of residential and commercial building work slipped back in the March quarter. They were up in Auckland but with much of the Christchurch housing rebuild now completed, are tailing off there. While the results are modest, they were better than markets were expecting. On the non-residential side, completion took a dive.

WHITE FLAG, HIGHER RATES
September 2035 $100 mln Government inflation linked bond tender was heavily oversubscribed today with only 1 in 3 bids accepted. The Government is paying 2.6% over future inflation. Remember, the DMO rejected all offers at 2.3% in the last auction. But they have relented and taken market rates this time.

EXTENDED SEASON
Housing loan approvals are not showing much seasonal retrenchment. Volumes are holding and values are rising.

LESS DEBT
The Government let some Treasury bills mature, extending the decline in total debt securities they have on offer. This is now at its lowest level since June 2014.

WHOLESALE RATES UP & STEEPER
Reflecting the extended sharp overnight rises on Wall Street, local wholesale swap rates moved higher today at the long end by +10 bp (which is +40 bps since the beginning of April) and the short end was up +1 bp. The curves have steepened dramatically today. The 2-10 curve is now at its steepest since July 2014 and the 1-5 is its steepest since December 2014. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 3.46%. But NZ Govt bond yields have jumped sharply as well.

NZ DOLLAR SLIPS
No such drama for our exchange rate however. The New Zealand dollar is still at 71.4 USc, 92.4 AUc, 63.4 euro cents, and the TWI-5 is at 75.4. Check our real-time charts here.

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