A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; BNZ raises a home loan rate; house price trend still up; PMI's expand; swap rates down; NZD up

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
BNZ has raised its two year fixed 'Classic' home loan rate by +6 bps to 4.55%.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes to report here.

HOUSE PRICES STALLED IN AUCKLAND, UP ELSEWHERE
The median Auckland house price has fallen -$5,000 from a year ago to $850,000. In fact, a median price of $850,000 has been about average since August 2016 for the Queen City. Over the last month, the fall was a more dramatic -$30,000. Meanwhile the median price across the country is up +$10,000 to $550,000 over the year, and the general trend higher that began in 2011 is still in place. Volumes sold were pretty much line-ball compared with April 2017.

FOOD COSTS MORE BUT FRESH LESS
Overall food prices rose a little faster in April, up +2.4% over the year. The average rise over the past five years is only +0.9%, the average over the past two years is +1.3%, to this latest increase stands out. Driving it were most categories but the costs of fruit and vegetables actually declined compared with April 2017. Chicken prices also fell.

STILL OK ON THE FACTORY FLOOR
Given current poor business confidence it was surprising to get a good rise in the factory PMI data today. But it might not be quite what it seems; seasonal adjustment boosted it much more than actual scores. Still, almost all components are still quite expansionary, with the only notable weakness being reported in Canterbury where things are barely expanding, according to this survey.

MONEY IN MUCK?
The NZ Super Fund is investing US$65 mln in an American company that provides "comprehensive waste stream solutions that enable companies and governments to reduce expenses, increase recycling, and find economic value in their waste." This company, Rubicon, is also developing an exoskeleton for its workers who do heavy manual work.

ANOTHER QUANGO
The Government needs help with its One Billion Tree planting program, so it has set up a Forestry Advisory Group. But there are doubts about the timing of the plan and whether there are long term markets for a new wall of wood. Current incentives encourage fast felling to gain emissions scheme credits, and there will be a very long time in between before the One Billion Trees come of age (during which the ETS will be a cost to the country).

TWO YEARS SINCE
In case you were wondering, we are in neither a El Niño or a La Niña weather pattern at present and have't bee so for two years now. But one, either way, is probably coming at some point.

UPDATED
And for those who use our KiwiSaver resources to track investment gains using our regular savings methodology, we have updated the results fro each fund to April 2018.

DOWN, DOWN
In Australia, housing finance fell with a thud in April, or -4.4% overall. However, finance for housing investment was down a startling -9% indicating their housing market cooling is only just getting started.

BENCHMARK INTEREST RATES DOWN
Local swap rates fell again today. The 2 year is down -2 bps, the five year is down -4 bps bps, and the ten year is down another -4 bps. The UST 10yr yield is also down -2 bps at 2.97%. The Aussie Govt 10 yr is now at 2.79% (up +1 bp). The China 10 yr is at 3.71%, down -1 bp. The NZ Govt 10 yr is down -5 bps at 2.75%. Notice how much lower we are from Australia - unusual. The 90 day bank bill rate is down -1 bp at 2.06%.

BITCOIN DOWN
The bitcoin price has now slipped below US$9,000 and is at US$8.910 which is down -4% today.

NZ DOLLAR FIRMS
The NZD has firmed today and is now at 69.7 US. We are a little lower against the Aussie at 92.4 AUc, and unchanged at 58.4 euro cents. That has the TWI-5 at 72.2.

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