A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; Auckland house prices drop, car sales top out, more cruises, yields still falling, swaps flatter, NZD holds high

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes today

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Both the Heretaunga Building Society and MAS made some minor changes to a handful of term deposit rates and savings accounts.

SUMMER CORRECTION
Sales by Auckland's major real estate agency were strong in January but the median price took an unexpectedly big drop. Sales of $1 mln plus houses fell quite sharply causing the median price to slump back to April 2015 levels. Having noted that, it is also worth noting that a December-to-January correction is a regular feature of their long run data. A look at our chart shows it clearly.

PEAK CAR ?
We got data today for January sales of used imports, to round out the new car data we got yesterday. Like the new car data, we are seeing a topping out, high but not growing from there.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
P&O Cruises is going to base a ship out of Auckland, the longest deployment of a P&O ship here. It is an aged (1988) workhorse, the Pacific Pearl. But it does highlight how valuable the trade has become, generating $250 mln in activity for retailers and the hospitality industry. That's a +30% increase year-on-year. But P&O cruises come with heath risks and pollution, similar to what other operators experience. Just so long as we are prepared.

YIELDS STILL FALLING
Our latest Yield Indicator report (done in conjunction with the REINZ) show prices rising more quickly than rents in most places but prices and rents both falling in Christchurch.

TURNAROUND?
Yesterday, following the weak dairy auction, WMP futures skidded lower. But today they have clawed back much of that loss signal.

RECOVERING?
Both the Shanghai and the Sydney stock exchange indexes are up +1.7% today.

ANOTHER STEP ON THE WAY
For the record, the TPP was signed in Auckland today, the next step in the tricky path towards ratification and adoption by all the 12 parties. These things always look difficult at the start, but they eventually get over the line. The path from here will be tricky, no doubt, but not as tricky or unlikely as it seemed when the Helen Clark government started the journey way back in 2003.

WHOLESALE RATES RISE & FLATTEN
More flattening today, but not to the same extent as yesterday. The 2-10 curve is down to 69 bps. But the rates themselves rose by a couple of bps. The 90 day bank bill rate fell -1 bp to 2.65%.

NZ DOLLAR UP
The Kiwi dollar has held overnight jump today. It is now at 66.7 USc (that is, the USD has stayed down), at 93 AUc, and at 60.2 euro cents. The TWI-5 is at 71.6. Check our real-time charts here.

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