Here's my summary of the key events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news we are likely to see a boost in tourist visitor numbers from China in October.
But first, American consumer spending grew briskly in August (Table 10) and the Fed's favoured measure of inflation (PCE) crept up, signs of strength in America's domestic economy that could lead them to tighten interest rates despite weakness abroad.
That 'weakess abroad' includes softening profitability of major Chinese manufacturers. They are still quite profitable, but are facing costs that keep rising and product prices that keep falling, and the decline was at the sharpest rate in four years, down -8.8% of the same month a year ago. But the drops were concentrated in only 10 of the 41 sectors surveyed; the rest showed improvements.
Coming up next week is China's 'Golden Week' holidays and despite their lower currency and some local economic questions, reports are showing that locals are still spending freely and bookings for international holidays are at record levels. Expect a flood of Chinese tourists here over the next two weeks.
In Switzerland, their competition regulator has opened an investigation into possible collusion in the precious metals market by several major banks, the latest in a string of manipulation probes. Targeted banks include HSBC, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley and three others.
In Europe, other manufacturers are owning up to installing diesel 'cheat' software. Now Audi and Skoda add another 3.3 mln cars to VW's 11 mln. Silence (or denial) from these brands in New Zealand is not acceptable.
And in Sydney, we are hearing that Baycorp has been sold by its private equity shareholder to large American investor Encore.
In New York, the UST 10yr yield benchmark has started the week lower, now down to 2.13%.
However, the US benchmark oil price is unchanged at US$45/barrel, Brent is at US$48/barrel.
But the gold price is lower too, at US$1,133/oz.
However, the New Zealand dollar starts today holding on to most of yesterday's gains. The NZD is now at 63.5 US¢, at 90.6 AU¢, and 56.4 euro cents. The TWI-5 is at 68.2.
If you want to catch up with all the local changes overnight, we have an update here.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here »
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