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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; only TD cuts today, Parliament in uproar over holdbacks, WMP signals positive, swap rates fall, NZD lower

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; only TD cuts today, Parliament in uproar over holdbacks, WMP signals positive, swap rates fall, NZD lower

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
TSB Bank has cut its floating rate by -20 bps, retaining 5 bps of the OCR cut, effective today for all. Their new rate is 5.54%. But still no word from BNZ.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
We had reductions today announced by WBS.

A HIJACKING
The big story today is the rising anger and frustration with our banks who have passed through all the OCR reduction to savers but only part (or none) of it to borrowers. Parliament has been in uproar over the issue, adding to the Government and RBNZ displeasure yesterday and Friday. The issue affects not only homeowners, but farmers and small businesses as well. Bank reputations are under attack from all quarters. A public policy change is not supposed to be hijacked by banks.

ANOTHER RISE?
Eyes are now on tomorrow morning's dairy auction. Futures market signals are pointing to a second consecutive rise, probably of 2 to 3%. We will know in about 12 hours. A few hours later we will get the Q4-2015 current account balance. It is expected to show a stable -3.3% deficit to GDP.

BOND PRICED
Genesis Energy have today priced their $100 mln ($75mln + $25mln in over-subscriptions) 6yr bond issue which matures on 18 March, 2022 at 4.14%. This coupon rate reflects a margin of 1.45% over the underlying swap rate of 2.69%. Genesis carries a BBB+ rating by Standard and Poor's

SMEs FEELING DAIRY DOWNTURN
A survey by Colmar Brunton commissioned by MYOB, suggests more than one-in-five NZ small and medium sized enterprises are feeling the effects of falling dairy prices.The survey found 21% of the about 1,000 SMEs surveyed said revenue was negatively affected by the dairy price. Additionally, 25% of SMEs said general consumer confidence has been directly hit. MYOB says across the country, this means 100,000 businesses employing more than one million people are facing falling revenue because of the dairy downturn.

NZ AN OUTLIER
The NZX50 is up +0.5% today, but markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo are all lower in mid-day trading.

WHOLESALE RATES LOWER
Swap rates slipped today by -1 and -2 bps. NZ swap rates are here and they are at or near their all-time lows. The 90-day bank bill rate is unchanged at 2.38%.

NZ DOLLAR LOWER
Markets bid down the NZ dollar today. It is now at 66.5 USc, at 88.9 AUc and 59.8 euro cents. The TWI-5 is down to 70.4. Check our real-time charts here.

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Daily exchange rates

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Source: RBNZ
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End of day UTC
Source: CoinDesk

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8 Comments

I was so annoyed with ANZ's crass drop in borrowing rates compared to savings rates .I have closed one savings account with them and shifted the funds in another account to a not so greedy bank. Come on people put your money where your mouth is.

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Good for you, futile, but good...

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Ah the futures.
What will basis do?
http://www.nzxfutures.com/dairy/contract_specifications/wmp
And thinking of volumes matter
http://www.nzxfutures.com/dairy/events/summary?locale=en

No wonder it does what it does, it is what it is

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The GDT auction didn't go so well. Futures wrong.

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Yep, tail couldn't wag the dog this event
https://www.globaldairytrade.info/en/product-results/
All down bar BMP.

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Another dose of John-Key's "resilience" coming up

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The US-based Milk Producers Council said at the weekend that "strength in the milk powder market has been fleeting - recovery is always six months away".
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/dairy-prices-hit-seven-month-low-dashing-…

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