Here's my summary of the key events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news the oil price is down -4% today.
But first in the US, as both presidential candidates campaign against it, the White House is negotiating with Republicans in Congress to ratify the largest regional trade agreement ever, the Trans Pacific Partnership. No vote will happen before the election, but cross-party negotiations are starting to get it approved just after the vote and before a new President takes office in January. This is a very American solution to a tricky problem and while the odds may seem long, it is instructive that this is a key priority of a popular President. Clearly, the Republican congressional leadership and the President see it as a realistic possibility.
South of the border, Mexican economic output fell -0.2% in the June quarter from March, its first decline in three years as a sluggish industrial sector offset continued gains in services. Falling oil output has been one of the main drags on their economy. However, their economy was +2.5% higher than the same quarter a year ago.
They are not the only ones being hurt by the lower oil price. The state oil company in Malaysia has seen it profitability evaporate.
In Australia, their big banks are feeling margin pressure, mainly because most of their mortgages are on a floating rate basis and the funding for that differs markedly from the way their New Zealand subsidiaries fund their mortgage book. The Aussie banks response has been to pull back on the generous set of institutionalised discounts that have become embedded in their systems. These are now being wound back. On this side of the ditch, the embracing by borrowers of fixed rate terms insulates us somewhat from these types of 'make-the-customer-pay' strategies.
Aussie banks base their mortgage funding on the BBSW (bank bill swap rate, a bit like our 90 day bank bill rate). The BBSW was the mechanism that they are being accused of illegally manipulating. And despite their denials, a Judge in the court case being brought against them has scolded the banks for their attempts to avoid trial. It is not only ASIC who is suing them over this issue. Home loans in Australia are worth about AU$1.4 tln; there is a lot at stake in this effort to clean up banker behaviour and any loss in the case could hit banks hard.
In New York, the UST 10yr yield is lower at 1.54% today.
The US benchmark oil price is lower as well, falling nearly $2/bbl to just under US$47/barrel and the Brent benchmark is just over US$49/barrel.
The gold price is down too, to US$1,338/oz.
But the Kiwi dollar will start today unchanged from this time yesterday at 72.7 US¢, at 94.4 AU¢, and at 64.2 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is at 75.5.
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 ».
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22 Comments
What will become of our rivers?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201813134…
Noooo.... Don't bring Campbell back to the wasteland of TV news. He's just blossomed since he went to the National Programme and got his mojo back.
Campbell in National Radio 5.00 to 6.30 is brilliant. Get it on screen as a Freeview channel. A wonderful blend of radio with streaming pictures, local and useful, and absolutely aces the telly any day. They even have other reporters doing real news.
Not very impressed by Campbell. After painting a picture of Ecoli coming from the Tukituki we then here from Fenton that this is not possible and that the Ecoli is from some other source - which Campbell accepts. Then Campbell tries to paint a picture of it coming from the cows in the area in a general sense. Given that the bore is usually free of ecoli that seems as though this is impossible or the bore of course would be polluted all the time - the cows don't suddenly appear and disappear. A more likely explanation is that a local source of ecoli is to blame and the only local souse is the severage plant close by. Please everyone use your brains and even better wait on a formal investigation..
Tests came back and it's bovine, it's also still an active contamination situation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=150346…
Tests came back as Bovine
a) Connor English today expressing an opinion that contamination of
bores was from water flowing down the bore and could be prevented by
better seals
b) > 4,000 (1 in 3) people in Havelock North have had gastro issues
including 1 death
c) the 3 Havelock North bores are within 1,200 metres of the Tukituki -
obviously their source of groundwater
and
d) the infection source has been genomicly identified as likely from
cattle/sheep and not chickens/human
Country boy, I think you are deliberate trying to distort the debate away from the issue of water quality and obfuscate the debate. A bore in Haumoana has just tested positive with a first test. This is Bovine contamination, tests came back positive Bovine.
Just to emphasise the scale of the problem, this is ecoil but the rivers have very high nitrate levels. When Nitrate contamination hits the bores the only option is to shut down the bore, they cannot clean up nitrate contamination.
this is the state of our rivers.
(From 2009-2013)
Seven sites measured (Waipawa at SH50, Makaretu at SH50, Tukituki at SH50, Papanui Stream, Waipawa at SH2, Porangahau Stream and Mangatarata Stream) did not meet the minimum acceptable state for full immersion activities, which means they are fit only for secondary contact, or wadeable.
Six sites showed significant deteriorating trends in E. coli numbers: the Mangaonuku Stream (21% annual average increase), Tukituki River 50m U/S oxi pond (61% annual average increase), Tukituki at SH2 (46% annual average increase), Tukituki River at Tapairu Rd (40% annual increase), Waipawa at SH2 (50% annual increase) and the Waipawa U/S Tukituki River (49% annual increase).
foreign buyers and fraud at the heart of Vancouver's property bubble....been known since the 1990s
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2005794/can…
@RP Vancouver , Auckland , Sydney , Melbourne , London ........... all the same story , illicit funds salted out of China ( where there are exchange control restrictions FYI ) and elsewhere in Asia, fueling an already overheated market .
Auckland is especially attractive for the high yields , no barriers to entry, no residency requirements , no buying costs and zero tax on sale
Re the water in Hawkes Bay , HEADS MUST ROLL
One needs to ask the obvious question of our august body of overpaid bureaucrats who pass themselves off as local authority management .........
What the hell were you doing when you should have been doing water sample quality tests ?
And that's not a rhetorical question BTW
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11699382
Govt has officially gone mad.
School-age students will be able to enrol in an accredited online learning provider instead of attending school, under new Government legislation.
The radical change will see any registered school, tertiary provider such as a polytechnic or an approved body corporate be able to apply to be a "community of online learning" (COOL).
Any student of compulsory schooling age will be able to enrol in a COOL - and that provider will determine whether students will need to physically attend for all or some of the school day.
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