A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; RaboDirect cuts TD rates, Truckometer takes a breather, markets slump, swap rates do the same, NZD holds

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The Police Credit Union cut their one fixed rate.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
RaboDirect cut all their rates for terms of 9 months to 5 years. These cuts ranged from -5 to -15 bps.

TABLES TURN
Today's report from QV for January shows average house values dropped in Auckland, with houses in coastal suburbs of the North Shore leading the fall. In other centres prices are rising. Wellington values are increasing at their fastest pace since prior to the previous peak in 2007 and there is good optimism in the Christchurch and Dunedin markets, said QV. Nationally, the QV Index is +12.6% above its level a year ago.

A BREATHER
ANZ's Truckometer data, which looks at commercial activity by tracking heavy and light truck mileage (from the diesel road-user charge returns) suggests January has started off softer than the high activity levels this index reported in December. The two Truckometer indexes more than unwound their December surge in January, returning back to trend. The Heavy Traffic Index. fell 4.3%, while the Light Traffic Index, which leads growth in the economy by six months, fell 1.4% month-on-month.

EQUITY PAIN GROWS
Equity markets slumped in Europe when they opened today, and that was mirrored on Wall Street which shed -3%. China is closed, but the ASX is now down more than -2% (that's a AU$36 bln tumble), with the NZX down -1.4%. Bank shares are big losers.

REFORM ABANDONED
In case you missed it, the Federal Govt in Canberra has flagged full-scale tax reform, dropping its realignment of their GST/income tax bargain. That is a big policy backdown, so what will follow will be talked up but is likely to be just tinkering, a can-kicking exercise.

STABLE?
Aussie business confidence held steady in the face of global market upheaval in January, according the latest NAB business survey.

WHOLESALE RATES SLUMP
Swap rates have fallen sharply today, down in a flattening bias. For one year, they are down -3 bps, for five years they are down -8 bps, and for ten years they are down -9 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate is also lower, down -3 bps to 2.64%.

NZ DOLLAR SLIPS
The Kiwi dollar has slipped to 66 USc today, to 93.8 AUc, and to 58.9 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now at 70.8. Check our real-time charts here.

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