Here's a special holiday update of some key events and data you may want to know about today.
Firstly, American home resales volumes rose much faster than anticipated in November, reaching their highest level in nearly 10 years, probably because buyers rushed into the market to lock in low interest rates in anticipation of further increases in borrowing costs. It was the third consecutive monthly volume gain. The median price is now NZ$340,000, up +6.8% in US dollar terms in a year and the 57th consecutive month of price gain. Mortgage applications gained as well.
Maybe one reason American homes are getting larger is that almost 40% of young Americans were living with their parents, siblings or other relatives in 2015, the largest percentage in 75 years according to a new analysis of their census data.
The Chinese government is claiming "discrimination" in New Zealand's investigation into galvanized steel imports from China.
Persistent heavy smog in North East China is causing massive flight delays in and around the Chinese capital, snarling traffic and even pushing up vegetable prices. More than 350 flights have had to be cancelled.
And staying with a Chinese theme, speculators – including 5,000 Chinese hedge funds trading in commodities - are expected to use commodities as an inflation hedge as well as hunting for greater returns, in 2017. They are expected to pile in to contracts with a bullish supply and demand story. A herd rush is in prospect.
In Italy, their parliament has approved a government plan for a €20 bln bailout of the country's banks. The Italian Treasury will probably have to rescue Italy's third largest lender, Monte dei Paschi, by the end of next week because a private capital raising seems to have failed. The rescue fund will be used to prop up other banks as well.
Here at home, the number of online job advertisements grew by +12.2% over the year to November, according to the latest MBIE Jobs Online report. Job ads rose in six out of eight industry groups over the month. The biggest increases were in construction and engineering and healthcare and medical. The only fall was in the IT industry.
In New York, the UST 10yr yield has slipped overnight to 2.55%.
The US benchmark oil price has slipped at little to US$52.50 a barrel, while the Brent benchmark is stable at US$54.50. The slippage is due to a surprising rise in American crude oil inventories.
The gold price is unchanged at US$1,130/oz.
The New Zealand dollar has fallen against a seriously strengthening greenback and is now at just 69 USc. On the cross rates it is stable at 95.3 AU¢, and 66.2 euro cents. The TWI-5 is down to 75.8.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk over the holiday period is by following our Economic Calendar here »
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