A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; more rate cuts, higher rents, smaller C/A deficit, record indebtedness, oil explorers go home, swap rates rise again

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
We got some of the final floating rate reductions from some of the non-bank providers today. AMP Home Loans, Sovereign, and NZ Home Loans all dropped -25 bps from their floating rates today. Heretaunga Building Society reduced by -20 bps.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
The Cooperative Bank trimmed most savings rates by -25 bps, and the Nelson Building Society cut two key term deposit rates but by less than -25 bps.

UNRESOLVED
At the GlobalDairyTrade auction this morning, prices eked out a very small gain. But the weaker than expected rise has left big question marks over the attainability of Fonterra's $4.60 milk price forecast for this season.

EXTRACTING HIGHER PRICES FROM TIGHT SUPPLY
Median asking rents for Auckland homes has hit $500 a week for first time ever. Overall, asking rents on Trade Me Property are up +7.5% for the year, with overall Auckland rents up +8.7%.

BETTER BUT NOT GREAT
Statistics NZ reports the NZ current account deficit fell by NZ$332 mln in the September quarter; with annual deficit falling to -3.3% of GDP from revised -3.4% in June. Tourism and the education markets are making up for steeper weakness in the export of 'goods'. In September 2014, the deficit was -2.5% of GDP, in September 2014 it was -3.9%. (In September 2006 it was -7.4% of GDP.)

RECORD INDEBTEDNESS
Last week borrowers took on more new housing debt than in any previous week since records began - $1.556 bln in the week. The number of loan transactions was high also, at 7,181; not a record but the highest in a year.

INVESTORS EVAPORATE
The very low crude oil prices have seen local exploration collapse. Oil & gas companies have slashed their new exploration in NZ by 96%. Companies awarded the nine exploration permits only commit to spending $4.4 mln, down from $110 mln last year. The latest official offer fails to attract any new explorers to new areas.

WHOLESALE RATES KEEP RISING
Swap rates are rising and rising ahead of tomorrow's US Federal Reserve announcements. They are up another +3 bps across the curve. That makes our 2, 5 and 10 year swap rates their highest they have been since late August. When they were last at this level, fixed mortgage rates were +0.25% to +0.50% higher. But the 90 day bank bill rate fell -2 bps to 2.74% later in the day, and where it was on Monday.

NZ DOLLAR HOLDS HIGH
The Kiwi is holding at 67.5 USc. It is also holding higher against the Aussie at 93.8 AUc after being over 94 for most of the day. Against the euro it is at 61.7 euro cents where it was at this time yesterday after a brief time higher. The TWI-5 is still at 72.9. Check our real-time charts here.

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