A review of things you need to know before you go home Wednesday; mortgage rate changes; unemployment and wages data; hidden fees; risky apps; bitcoin splits, local rates and NZD lower

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The Cooperative Bank has reduced its 4 year and 5 year rates for owner occupied and standard loans by -10 bps.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

UNEMPLOYMENT
The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since December 2008, reading at 4.8%. Female unemployment was lower in the June quarter, with 10,000 fewer women unemployed, in contrast to men, of which there were 7,000 more unemployed. Employment was also lower at the end of the June quarter, falling to 66.7%, after six consecutive quarters of employment rises. On a y-o-y basis, employment was up +3.1%, much lower than the 4.1% economists were expecting. 20,000 more people reached the working age, taking the working age population to over 3.8 mln.

WAGES
The Labour Cost Index increased by +1.7% on a y-o-y basis and the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) showed weekly before tax wages rising by +2.3% in the year ended 30-June-2017. Public sector wage growth was +3.6%, resulting in a public sector pay premium of 33.5%, down from 35.7% in the March quarter. The average weekly earnings in the public sector were $1462.42, including overtime, and in the private sector were $1095.08. Overall the average weekly earnings were $1,168.05, which is $30.15 on an hourly basis.

HIDDEN FEES
Consumer NZ chief Sue Chetwin says that shoppers could be paying $68 million each year in hidden fees disguised as "booking" or "service" fees that aren't disclosed upfront. She is calling for all-inclusive pricing rules to be added to the Fair Trading Act. 10,000 consumers have signed the online petition for this to happen.

OVER 1,200 KIWIS SUPPORTED
The $3K to Work grant that supports people relocate to take up employment has seen 1,203 people receive $3.6 mln to help them move off benefits. Over 90% of the recipients, mostly single men aged 20-29, remained in employment and off benefits for longer than 91 days. Around 25% of the recipients were employed in construction and over 180 people took up roles in farming, forestry and fisheries.

RISKY APPS
Apple and Google have dropped over 330 apps from their app stores after intervention from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC). 63% were offered by binary option issuers and facilitated trading, 25% were from various signal providers and the rest were controlled by introducing brokers or were apps designed to influence people to trade binary options. The apps were dropped as they were unlicensed trading providers and some apps made misleading comments about profits that can be earned from trading. Watch out for any such apps that may still be offered in New Zealand.

LANDLORDS RELUCTANT
The Sustainability Trust says that some landlords are extremely reluctant to insulate investment properties, despite there being subsidies available for landlords with at-risk tenants. Under new legislation, ceiling and underfloor insulation will need to be retrofitted in social housing by July this year, and in all other rental homes by July 2019. Just 4,300 landlords have taken up insulation subsidies, despite a target of 20,000 houses by next June.

BITCOIN SPLITS
Bitcoin's underlying software has split to form a new virtual currency called "Bitcoin Cash", but the virtual currency got off to slow start due to lacklustre support for its network. The split was headed by a small group of Bitcoin miners from China, who were unhappy with the scheduled changes to the Bitcoin technology.

WHOLESALE RATES FALL
Local rates curve is lower and flatter with the 2 year rate falling -4 bps and the 10 year rate falling -6 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate is up +1 bps to 1.96%.

NZ DOLLAR LOWER
The NZD is down almost one cent from this time yesterday, falling to 74.3 USc, not helped by the weaker than expected employment data. On the cross rates we are also lower at 93.4 AUc and at 62.9 euro cents. The TWI-5 is at 76.7. The bitcoin price is at US$2,743.

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