A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; SBS raises rates for borrowers and savers, trade deficit lower, holidays, QBE a takeover target, swaps slip, NZD stays high

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
SBS Bank ended its 4.19% one year 'special', replacing it with a 4.45% rate.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
SBS Bank raised its 9 month term deposit rate to 3.85%.

TRADE BALANCE DEFICIT
We had a -NZ$3.2 trade deficit in goods in 2016, slightly less than the -$3.5 bln in 2016. Part of that was because we ended the year with smaller deficits, principally because we are paying less for crude oil. Exports for agricultural products are weak. But remember, we do run surpluses for international trade in services, and they are growing because of tourism and education, so the impact of the current account deficit is far less than today's goods data suggests.

HOLIDAY EXPLAINER
It is an Anniversary day holiday in Auckland, Northland and Nelson today. It is also the start of Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival). In China the next week is essentially a public holiday giving everyone nine consecutive days off.

INSURER QBE ON THE BLOCK
A German newspaper is reporting that insurance giant Allianz is "in talks" to make a takeover offer for Aussie iinsurer QBE.

WHOLESALE RATES SLIP
In abridged trading today, and taking the lead from Wall Street on Friday, local swap rates fell and flattened today. They are down -2 bps for two years, down -2 bps for five years, and down -3 bps for ten years. The 90 day bank bill is unchanged however 1.98%.

NZ DOLLAR STAYS HIGH
The Kiwi dollar rose over the weekend against the greenback, has held that during today and is now at 72.7 USc level. On the cross rates, we are still high at 96.2 AUc, and at 67.7 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is now at 78.3. Check our real-time charts here.

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