Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes reported today.
DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Westpac added +10 bps to their eight month 'special' taking it to 3.60%.
POST-ELECTION CAUTION
Hard on the heals of the [somewhat dated] QV data out yesterday, we have the very current data for October from Barfoots today and that doesn't paint a rising Spring picture for Auckland housing markets. In fact, B&T's median price was down -$34,500 on a year ago as sales numbers tumbled. Those October sales volumes hit their lowest level since 2010 and were -18.5% lower than the same month a year ago. Peter Thompson says that post-election buyers are being very cautious.
POST-ELECTION EUPHORIA
That same caution is not being reflected in the new car market, one that is often said to match the property market. Not this time. Record new car sales were made in October, with 11,114 new vehicles sold (327 per day, one every 4 minutes 25 seconds ! ) Commercial vehicle sales were strong too, up +12.6%. We will get used vehicle sales data later today or Monday. That is likely to be strong too. No post-election excuses here.
SITUATION VACANT
We also sadly have to report that Alex Tarrant, our reporter in the Press Gallery in Wellington is leaving us today. He is crossing over to the "dark side" ;) taking a senior role in the Minister of Finance's office. We wish him well and hope he enjoys it as much as we have having him working with us. We will miss him. His final piece for us will appear on Monday. We will be recruiting for a replacement.
ICEBREAKER SOLD
Jeremy Moon has sold Icebreaker to an American company. No indication of price however.
MISSING EXPECTATIONS
In Australia, data out today for retail sales was flat, and well below the gains the market was expecting. Also disappointing in Australia was their services sector data. As a consequence, the AUD is falling.
PUSHING AML DUTIES ON TO REALTORS, DEVELOPERS
China is taking actual steps to prevent money laundering in real estate. New Zealand needs to do the same. Caixin is reporting that the People’s Bank of China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development signaled in September they will increase scrutiny over money laundering practices in the real estate sector. They said property developers, agents and banks have an obligation to perform due diligence on potential buyers, including the source of their funding and their intentions. (My emphasis.)
WHOLESALE RATES FLATTEN
Swap rates are moving back down a little further today. The two year is unchanged, the five year is also down -2 bps and the ten year is down -3 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.94%. Markets are now waiting on next week's RBNZ MPS signals, but longer rates are being shifted by offshore influences.
NZ DOLLAR HOLDS RECENT GAINS, BITCOIN EVEN HIGHER
The NZ dollar has held yesterdays gains and still at 69.2 USc. On the cross rates we are at 90 AUc and at 59.3 euro cents. The TWI-5 is at 72.4. The bitcoin price is higher again, now at US$7,033 and up another +1% on the day. But in-between its wild ride continues, hitting another new record of US$7,261 four hours ago.
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14 Comments
And someone actually managed to shut Donald Trump up. Albeit briefly;
Twitter GovernmentVerified account @TwitterGov
Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.
5:05 PM - 2 Nov 2017
Apparently it was someone in their last day working at Twitter; https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/11/02/trumps-twitter-account-was-temporarily-deactivated-due-to-human-error/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.0429d858c704
Finally, Fed permanently drains $5.9 billion via Treasuries from SOMA, as part of balance sheet reduction/normalisation exercise. View section 2
China will further open its capital markets to foreign investors, helping the nation dodge any credit crisis by lightening its $18 trillion load of corporate debt, according to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.’s top banker in the country.
With last month’s Communist Party congress over, the government will probably accelerate the sale of shares in state-owned enterprises to overseas investors, raising cash to reduce their borrowings, said Huang Xiaoguang, the chief executive officer of the bank’s China business. Further overseas bond sales by Chinese entities will allow the country to tap into new pools of capital, he said in an interview at ANZ Bank’s Shanghai office on Thursday.
There’s little chance of a financial meltdown in China because the biggest slice of the domestic debt pile is carried by SOEs, said the 58-year-old, who previously oversaw the China operations of Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. In the worst case, the government could take over SOE liabilities and sell them to distressed debt operators, said Huang.
“I doubt there’s going to be a credit crisis at the end of the day,” he said. Read more
I think that Alex's new job is a far better match for his skills and desires than as a "reporter". IMO his writings strongly aligned with one party, which is not appropriate for anyone that is considering journalism as a career.
Best of luck to him in his new position.
I get the sadness, I dont think its sad though, its what companies are for, grow them and sell them and make money. Shareholders want their money for their risk.
Im starting one up, and risked so much so I want a return. Not sure I will make money but the thought is there anyway. I would love to do the same thing.
If our country is good enough and we have the right structures in place we should create a lot more icebreakers. Create global businesses that people want to buy. At least this can go on forever, not like land which is only finite.
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