US consumer spending and sentiment rise; new home sales up, used home sales down; Wall Street races higher; NZ offers UK trade negotiation skills; UST 10yr yield at 1.47%; oil up, gold up; NZ$1 = 71.1 US¢, TWI-5 = 74.7

Here's my summary of the key events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news New Zealand has a new services export opportunity.

But first, for a second straight month, American consumer spending rose in May on increased demand for cars and other goods. This data comes of course before the Brexit turmoil so the impact of that on US consumer intentions is yet to be revealed, if any. The latest consumer sentiment survey seemed to suggest the Brexit impact in North America will be minimal. But then again, combined with the uncertainty of the US presidential campaign, some see a wider impact yet to be reflected in the sentiment data.

One thing is clear however, American house buyers are focusing their purchases on a new-build home, rather than existing homes. Sales for the latter actually fell in May.

Wall Street is strongly higher today, up more than +1.5% in mid afternoon trading. This follows very strong gains in the three main European equity markets.

In London, a British newspaper is reporting that New Zealand has offered the UK the use of its trade negotiators. Given our recent success at negotiating a range of large trade deals, it looks like we may have a new world-scale service export. Apparently the UK has very few staff skilled in the area, having devolved all that expertise to Brussels.

In Beijing, an official of the International Energy Agency told China that their air pollution is killing more than 1 million people per year and that is expected to rise to 1.4 million in 2040 even with their planned "improvements". In addition he told then that it is reducing life expectancy by more than two years on average. Things are little better in India, the IEA claims

In New York, the benchmark UST 10yr yield has held overnight and is still at 1.47% in late trading. Credit risk premiums are making quite a noticeable recovery today in late trading. In fact, they are now lower than they were two weeks ago, and back to March levels in the US and Europe. The Australasian credit spreads are actually moving back towards their lowest levels of the year.

The US benchmark oil price is up again today by almost US$2, now just under US$50/barrel and the Brent benchmark is just over US$50/barrel.

The gold price is also higher, up US$9 to US$1,323/oz.

And completing the trifecta, the NZ dollar has risen overnight by as much as 1c and is now at 71.1 US¢, at 95.7 AU¢, and at 64 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is at 74.7.

If you want to catch up with all the local changes yesterday, we have an update here.

The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».