A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; Auckland takes a breather, good surplus, more job ads, food prices stable, confidence lifts, paying promptly, swaps fall, NZD soft

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today. (If you are looking for doom & gloom today, perhaps you had better stop reading now.)

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes here today.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Nor are there any TD or savings account changes to report.

GOOD NEWS I
REINZ data for September was out today showing median prices up +6.3% nationwide. That is higher than the +5.8% in August. House prices are down in Auckland however, but up in the rest of the country. Auckland's housing market is taking a breather but the rest of the country is buoyant.

GOOD NEWS II
The Government has posted a NZ$1.8 bln surplus for the year to June, up from the NZ$0.4 bln in 2015. Still, the surplus is only a tiny +0.7% of GDP. Bill English says rising surpluses give them options for debt repayment and tax cuts. I wanted to see renewed contributions to the NZSF as an option too.

GOOD NEWS III
Today's job ads survey from ANZ is actually quite impressive in the detail. Job ads rose +0.3% in the September month – the eighth consecutive monthly lift – to be 1+3.5% higher than a year ago. Auckland job ads are +14.8% higher than a year ago, and Wellington job ads are up +13.8% y-on-y after a rapid acceleration. The slowdown in the rebuild effort continues to weigh on the Canterbury labour market, with job ads -7.8% lower than a year ago. Less urbanised regions continue to experience very strong growth in labour demand. Annual job ad growth in the Waikato is +27.1% as the region bounces back from sharp falls in job ads a year ago. Hawke’s Bay job ads are up +17.6%, Manawatu +17.3%, and Otago +19.1% year-on-year.

GOOD NEWS IV
Food prices were unchanged in September, according to Statistics NZ. To be precise, they are up +0.1% from the same month a year ago. Growth without inflation, what's not to like? (and yet the RBNZ seems intent on using crisis tools to fix a non-existent problem - CPI inflation - while making a real one worse; asset price inflation).

GOOD NEWS V
Consumer confidence lifted again in October to its highest level since mid-2015, according to the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan survey. People are feeling more confident about the future, particularly for the broader economy, while opinions on the right-here-and-now eased a touch. House price expectations eased off last month’s highs.

GOOD NEWS VI
Today's tender for the Goverments inflation-linked bonds saw a higher yield than the previous issue. The yield has climbed to 1.9%, the highest in six months, compared with 1.67% in the previous tender; Westpac sees inflation as having bottomed and with inflation at 1%, the resulting yield (1% plus 1.9% = 2.9% pa) is starting to look attractive compared with what nominal bonds offer.

GOOD NEWS VII
According to Dun & Bradstreet data out today, New Zealand invoice payment times have fallen to their lowest point in over a decade, with businesses taking 34.9 days on average to pay their invoices during Q3 2016. The latest payment figure marks a slight improvement on the previous quarter's 35.5-day average, and shows New Zealand companies pay their bills almost 10 days faster than their Australian counterparts. The result continues a recent trend of record-low payment times, which have remained below the 40-day mark since Q4 2014.

GOOD NEWS VIII
The Chairman and CEO of banking giant Wells Fargo has 'retired', pushed out by leading one of the most disgraceful retail bank marketing programs ever (or at as far as I know). He is going with US$137 mln, but some of that is available for clawback pending investigations. If you haven't watched it before, this clip of a public dressing down is worth the effort. Him going and the management cleanout is the 'good news' part. Him walking away with US$137 mln isn't actually part of my headline.

AWARD WINNING
Auckland mortgage broker Global Finance has picked up ASB's 'broker of the year' award for the 3rd consecutive time, hot on the heals of winning a Deloitte Fast50 award, and another one from ANZ (for the fourth time). Global Finance has a strong base in the Auckland Indian community.

WHOLESALE RATES FALL
The rises of the past few days have all been unwound today. Swap rates across the board are lower by -2 and -3 bps. The 90-day bank bill is down another -1 bp today to 2.14%. However, there is a rising tone to NZGBs yields, with yields up +2 bps for most terms.

NZ DOLLAR EDGES LOWER
There is a soft tinge to the Kiwi dollar, but probably more to do with USD strength than Kiwi weakness. The NZD/USD is now at 70.4 USc. On the cross rates, it is trading at 93.5 AUc, and is at 64 euro cents. The TWI-5 is 74.6. Check our real-time charts here.

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