Here's my summary of the key events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news the US seems to be getting serious about its 'border adjustment tax'.
But first, the overnight dairy auction went off pretty much as signaled by the dairy derivatives market. Prices fell -3.2% in US dollars, led by a -3.7% and -3.8% fall in WMP and SMP. Cheese fell more, down -5.3% since the previous auction. This is not a great result, obviously, and takes overall prices back to levels we last saw in November last year, although to be fair, the gains since then have been meagre. About the only saving grace is that in NZ dollars today's fall was only -1.2%. It is fair to say that prices have essentially been stuck at this level now for four months.
On Wall Street there were a series of strong earnings reports from some major retailers and that helps underscore the view that the American economy is basically healthy. Wall Street has hit new record levels on that basis.
However, the early readings on both the US factory and services sectors are showing a cooling, although to be fair, from pretty healthy levels. The factory PMI dipped to 54.3 and the services index to 53.9, both two month lows.
In London, global bank HSBC's full-year profit slumped more than -60% and fell far short of forecasts as the bank took hefty write-downs from restructuring and flagged near-term issues on revenue growth.
A key analyst says global car sales should rise +1.5% in 2017 to 93.5 mln vehicles, but it claims the industry faces its most risky period since the GFC.
And one of those risks is the US border adjustment tax. China today said it 'would respond' if the US imposes it. Interestingly, some major US exporters are lining up to support the tax on imports. Of anyone, they must know they will get blow-back from other countries, surely.
And in China, a new report is urging the country to allow farmers access to mortgage debt. It claims the change would see a wave of innovation, productivity and significant output rises in China's agricultural sector.
In Europe, EU finance ministers agreed to more measures to stop international corporations from cutting their tax bills. The rules would deal with several legal loopholes that allow multinationals to avoid taxation, such as devices to shift profits and move debt to countries outside the EU where there are more generous interest deductions.
In New York, the UST 10yr yield is currently unchanged at 2.42% although it did attempt to rise above 2.46% earlier in the trading session.
Oil prices are higher again today, now just over US$54 for the US benchmark, while the Brent benchmark is just under US$57 a barrel.
The gold price is still unchanged at US$1,237/oz.
And the New Zealand dollar will also start today essentially unchanged at 71.7 USc. On the cross rates we are at 93.4 AU¢, and against the euro at 67.9 euro cents. The NZ TWI-5 index is still at 77.2.
If you want to catch up with all the changes on Friday, 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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