Here's my summary of the key events from overnight that affect New Zealand, with news of some governments who are flexing their regulatory muscles.
But first, American jobless claims pipped up last week, although are still at a low level and consistent with steady job gains.
And north of the border in Canada, retail sales there have come in well above expectations with a strong showing in most provinces and for most items. The one exception was for cars.
South of the border, Mexico, which is a G20 country, has raised its benchmark interest rate for the seventh consecutive time and it now sits at 7%. Inflation is a persistent problem in Mexico and it is running at twice the rate their central bank is targeting.
In China, their Banking Regulatory Commission is conducting a sweeping review of the borrowings of some of the country’s top overseas deal makers, in one of the most forceful attempts yet to get a grip on runaway debt. It has reportedly instructed lenders to conduct internal assessments of their credit-risk exposure to a number of very large acquisitive companies. That includes HNA. And overnight shares in these companies, including HNA, fell sharply. HNA has links to New Zealand because it has agreed to acquire UDC.
In Australia, their Federal Government's imposition of a AU$6.2 bln special tax on large banks is being followed up by an announcement in South Australia of a AU$370 mln state tax aimed at the same institutions. This follows a new ATO initiative to go after some very large resources companies for alleged income shifting. The South Australian move however might just be the straw that turns the tide against these measures as it looks like what the targeted companies are alleging - a simple and 'easy' tax grab to plug tax policy failings at the public level. And almost unnoticed in their budget is a new +4% additional stamp duty that will apply to residential property purchased by "foreign buyers and temporary residents". That will take their stamp duty to 9.5% for properties worth more than AU$500,000. If you are a Kiwi living there and not a citizen, are you a 'temporary resident'? Are you 'foreign' if you are not a resident of South Australia?
In New York, the UST 10yr yield is unchanged today at 2.15%.
The price of oil has bounced up a little today today and is now over US$42.50 a barrel, while the Brent benchmark is now just over US$45.
And the price of gold is la little higher as well, up +US$4 and now at US$1,246/oz.
But the Kiwi dollar is a little higher too at 72.6 USc. On the cross rates we are higher at 96.3 AU¢, and 65.1 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is now back up at 77.1 which is where it was on Monday morning.
If you want to catch up with all the changes yesterday, 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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