A review of things you need to know before you go home Tuesday; harder to sell homes in Auckland; mixed rental yield results; ANZ profits rise; Murray Goulburn to ax operations; SUVs dominate new vehicle sales; Chinese growth moderates; rates and NZD rise

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to borrowing rates today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
The Co-operative Bank has trimmed -5 bps off its 9 month term deposit rate. The new rate is 3.55%.

HARDER TO SELL IN AUCKLAND
The latest analysis of listing in the New Zealand real estate market from realestate.co.nz shows that the number of homes available for sale in Auckland has hit a five year high. While the Queen City has a supply surge, many other regions struggle with record low supply. At current sales rates, there is now 15.7 weeks of inventory nationally, but 18.7 weeks in Auckland, its highest since October 2012. In the Waikato it is 14.1 weeks, in the Bay of Plenty it is 13.2 weeks, Wellington is only 7.1 weeks, while Christchurch is 17.3 weeks.

MARKET OF TWO HALVES
Rental yields have risen in Auckland in the six months ending in March, when compared with the six months ending in December, as a result of falling lower quartile house prices and flat or rising rents. While up slightly, the yields in Auckland are still historically low. Conversely, large price rises in Wellington have resulted in lower rental yields for the region.

ANZ PROFITS RISE
ANZ's net profit after tax in the six months ended in March 2017 rose $106 mln to $869 mln, up 14%. The rise in profits was largely driven by the institutional business, up 108% to $198 mln. Retail and business units were up 8% and 2% respectively, while the commercial unit was down 2%.

CONFIRMED
ASB has appointed Rachel Whitelaw as general manager of ASB Securities. She has been acting in the role since January.

TOUGH MEDICINE
In Australia, their largest dairy company, Murray Goulburn, has taken an ax to its operations following a u-turn from a disastrous strategy. It will trim 360 employees and close three of its plants. It will also wipe the debt slate for hundreds of farmers locked into gruelling repayments after it slashed farm gate prices last year and sent the industry into a spiral. These changes come hard on the heels of court action by the country's competition authority which accused it of “unconscionable conduct’’ and misleading its suppliers.

SUVs RULE
Data out for new car sales today shows there were 6,996 sold, the highest for an April in 28 years (in 1989, tax and regulation changes spiked that market.) However, 61.5% of those April 2017 car sales were SUVs. It is the dominant class these days. There is also no holding back commercial vehicle sales; April volumes were an all-time record 3,639 for that month.

CHINESE GROWTH MODERATES
The latest Caixin PMI, which measures business activity in small to medium businesses, fell to 50.3 in April from 51.2 in March, its lowest level in seven months. While all indicators that make up the index were down and Chinese growth has moderated after a very strong start to the year, the numbers still suggest that growth remains solid. The fall in the Caixin PMI was greater than the official PMI and results from both reports suggest that smaller firms are under more pressure than larger ones.

WHOLESALE RATES RISE
Swap rates have stopped falling today and turned up. Rates for two years are up +2 bps, for five years up +3 bps and for ten years are up +4 bps. The 90 day bank bill has gone the other way however, down -1 bp to 1.98%.

NZ DOLLAR RISES TOO
From this time yesterday the Kiwi dollar is marginally higher and now at 69.2 USc. Against the AUD, we are basically unchanged at 91.8 AUc. Against the EUR we are up to 63.4 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now at 73.8 and above yesterday's lows of 73.5.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.