Here's our summary of news from over the weekend.
The Green Party has signalled it's keen to get back to its grassroots, electing Marama Davidson as its female co-leader. The South Auckland-based lawmaker took 110 of the 144 votes cast in the contest, leaving Julie Anne Genter, a minister outside cabinet, with only 34. Davidson was considered the frontrunner throughout the race to fill the position previously held by Metiria Turei.
While Genter is perceived to be an urban liberal like Shaw, Davidson represents the more activist side of the party. She says not having a ministerial portfolio will enable her to connect with party members to avoid it losing its support-base as other minor parties have when in government. Davidson's election calls into question the likelihood of the Greens forging a relationship with National.
An underwhelming non-farm payrolls report shows the US job market grew less than expected in March. 103,000 jobs were added to the market, a drop from the 326,000 added in February. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.1% for the sixth month in a row, while the labour force participation rate was pretty much unchanged at 62.9%.
Nonetheless, delivering a speech before the release of these figures, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell painted a much more positive picture of the economy. Having raised interest rates earlier in the week, he talked up the strength of the US's post-GFC economic recovery.
Powell did not however discuss the market volatility caused by US/China trade war talk. Asked about this after delivering his speech, he said it was “too early to say” how tariffs might affect growth and inflation.
Markets were anything but soothed by Powell's comments, losing some of the gains they made in the second half of last week. Meanwhile the tit-for-tat between the US and China has continued. The US has also announced more sanctions against Russia.
Staying in the US, its consumer credit growth is falling away fast. Increasing by only 3.3% in the year to February, this is a substantial drop from the 4.9% growth experienced in the year to January and 6.0% in the year to December.
A vote of confidence for cryptocurrencies - having slagged them in January, George Soros is now planning to trade crypto. Bloomberg reports Soros Fund Management is eyeing the crypto market, but hasn't made a move yet.
In New York, the UST 10yr yield has dropped off since this time on Friday to 2.78%.
The US crude benchmark has fallen to US$62/bbl, while the Brent benchmark is down to US$67/bbl.
Gold is up to US$1,332/oz.
The New Zealand dollar has stayed fairly stable over the weekend. It's at 72.7 USc, 94.8 AUc and 59.4 euro cents. The TWI-5 is down to 74.1.
The price of bitcoin has increased, but remains in a slump at US$6,994.
This chart is animated here. For previous users, the animation process has been updated and works better now.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.