A review of things you need to know before you go home Monday; Christian Savings cuts rates, Treasury and Fonterra make key appointments, Gull swallowed up, Aussies selling at a loss, swap rates and NZD stable

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Christian Savings (formerly Baptist Savings), a $150 mln specialist institution, has today taken -5 bps off a number of its rates, except its nine month TD rate which has been reduced to 3.30% from 3.50%.

LOOKING ABROAD
Ex-UK public servant, and now our Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf, has picked a Queensland government official to be a Deputy Treasury Secretary. Jon Grayson is currently the Director-General, Department of the Premier and Cabinet with the Queensland Government. He previously had an investment banking career, and was CEO of an ASX listed infrastructure fund. He will head up the work of the DMO, the Export Credit Office, and the "Crown Balance sheet" [sic].

SENDING IN THE FIXER?
Fonterra has appointed Paul Washer to a set of roles that suggests he being groomed for higher honours. Firstly, Washer will become acting CFO until February 2018. He is currently "Director of Financial Planning and Performance". Then in early 2018 he will ship out to be "Vice President, Commercial for Greater China", where he will be keeping a close eye on a very large investment (about 100,000 cows in China) that has yet to contribute any earnings.

MAKING THE EFFORT PAY
And Fonterra is using the Government to try and prise open access for more trade in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Columbia. These four have a combined economy of over NZ$5 tln per year, and we trade with them at the rate of NZ$1.1 bln per year. But they do have very high tariffs, especially for dairy. so the TPPA relationships are about to be energised to see whether some of the negotiated TPPA benefits can be realised directly.

REGULATOR BLOCK ENDS RELATIONSHIP
It is now all over for the proposed partnership between Vodafone and Sky TV. The Commerce Commission opposition won't be appealed. The OIO had seen no issues, mainly because both are already overseas-controlled.

GULL SOLD TO CALTEX
Caltex Australia has received regulatory approval to buy Gull New Zealand in an approximately $340 mln deal as part of its plan to increase its retail business. Now that hurdle is resolved, it will own the Gull network here from early July.

SELLING AT A LOSS
And then there is this little gem from across the ditch: "Across the country, 9.6% of dwellings sold for less than their previous purchase price over the first quarter of 2017. The proportion of dwellings selling for less than the previous purchase price was higher than the 8.8% over the final quarter of 2016." When you get 10% of dwellings being sold at a loss from the purchase price, you know that the issue is becoming shakier - because over there the those houses were bought incurring stamp duty, so the cash losses will be greater that that. If there are Kiwis involved, selling up to come home will leave them with less than they had hoped when they get here. The Aussie issue is more acute for 'units' than 'houses'.

WHOLESALE RATES MARGINALLY HIGHER
Almost all terms have seen a tiny rise of +1 bps, returning to levels we had on Thursday. The 90 day bank bill rate is also up +1 bp taking this rate to 1.96%.

NZ DOLLAR FIRMS
The NZD is again marginally firmer than at this time on Friday at 72.8 USc. On the cross rates, against the Aussie we are holding at 96.1 AUc, as we are against the euro 65 euro cents. That all takes the TWI-5 to 77.2. But bitcoin is weaker, down -5.8% to US$2,619.

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