Here's our wrap of what's happened overnight, with breaking news this morning that Jacinda Ardern has arrived at Auckland Hospital to have her baby. Winston Peters is now Acting Prime Minister. Ardern is expected to resume her role in six weeks' time.
Markets have stabilised following a late rally in Asia and lack of new market sensitive data. ANZ economists maintain the US Commerce Secretary saying Trump’s aim is free trade, not trade war, has brought about some calm. However, China remains concerned and has said it would take strong countermeasures against US tariffs.
President Donald Trump has committed to signing an executive order to end the separation of immigrant families at the US-Mexico border. However the move doesn't end the US's “zero tolerance” policy that sees illegal immigrants prosecuted. Trump's turnaround follows widespread pressure, including from heads of state in Canada, Britain, Iran, but not New Zealand.
Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, has made some strong comments on how the US could be a victim of its own policies. Speaking at a gathering of central banks, he said, "Changes in trade policy could cause us to have to question the outlook. For the first time we are heaing [from business leaders] about decisions to postpone investment, postpone hiring, postpone making decisions."
Meanwhile European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said there was "no ground to be optimistic", and the effects of trade wars on monetary policy were yet to be seen.
Existing home sales in the US fell for the second month in a row in May. Sales were 3% lower than what the were in May 2017; with sales falling on this year-on-year basis for the third month in a row. The median house price hit an all-time high of US$264,800 - an increase of 5% from May 2017. While the number of houses available for sale increased in May, this figure was still 6% lower than a year ago.
The UST 10yr yield has risen by 3bps overnight to 2.92%.
Gold is down a few dollars to US$1,272/oz.
The price of US crude oil is up slightly to US$67/bbl, while the Brent benchmark is down a little to US$74/bbl.
The New Zealand dollar is weaker today at 68.6 USc, 93.1 AUc, and 59.2 euro cents. The TWI-5 is down 4bps to 72.2.
The price of Bitcoin has risen a bit overnight to US$6,745.
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32 Comments
Refugees run the risk of damaging the job prospects of low-skilled young men in Germany, Austria and Sweden as more people compete for jobs, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned.
In parts of Germany refugees make up more than 15pc of the unemployed, putting pressure on vulnerable parts of the existing workforce. These new job seekers pose the greatest competition to young men with few qualifications, who are already most likely to struggle.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/06/20/surge-refugees-hits-you…
Yet we have been repeatedly told that immigration is all good. Who knew?
Let's not forget the famous picture of the dead Syrian child on a beach which was used as propaganda to justify bringing over millions of adult thugs from a completely different part of the world. The truth is a bit more complicated of course. That kid died because his parents paid $6000 to smuggle him over to Europe. The numerous middle east conflicts are all about resources and pipelines not about 'weapons of mass' destruction. Thanks to the elites in the whitehouse the slave trade has returned to Libya.
It's worse than just open borders. They're actually paying people welfare to invade their own countries.
Shifting people around the world won't solve the core problems, especially when Africans have extremely high birth rates. It just spreads it around permanently; we all know these economic migrants will reproduce and stay in Germany just like the Turks did.
..hard to know what to believe these days. FYI see Homeland Security Policy as written ....Myth V fact.
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2018/06/18/myth-vs-fact-dhs-zero-tolerance-pol…
We face a similar problem here in NZ but not because of refugees, instead “skilled” migrants and international students give our unemployed youth the run for their money. We bring more food trade and retail workers on student and work visas than builders, engineers and IT specialists combined.
Some people think we could offer help to larger numbers of genuine, UNHCR-assessed refugees, and some people think we make it overly difficult for employers to recruit well-qualified people into positions where they are needed. Some people have pointed out that economic benefits are possible from well managed immigration.
None of these is remotely equivalent to claiming that immigration is "all good". None of this comes anywhere near advocating opening New Zealand's border to unlimited access by anybody from anywhere, regardless of their skills, background or motivation. Nobody is advocating that New Zealand takes the same approach as they have in Europe.
The UK’s housing market shed a billion pounds of its value in 2017 and flats fell out of favour among buyers, official figures have shown.
For the first time since 2011 the total value of the UK’s housing market dropped. In the year to December 2017 the market lost £1.2bn in value, falling to a total of £259bn.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/06/20/uk-housing-market-loses…
Er, not wanting to be, er, well, alarmist, as such , but isn't the Aussie market supposedly worth a $trillion these days (ie twice that of the UK)?
Is something screwed up there with the Telegraph - UK housing is worth more than £6tn according to other sources.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/29/value-of-uks-housing-stoc…
Good news:
Drinking the equivalent of one or two drinks a day can ‘clear brain waste’ and make us sharper, according to scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. Scientists there found light drinking can reduce brain inflammation and increase the function of the glymphatic system, which is responsible for removing waste products from the brain.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/nutrition/six-surprising-hea…
If only the voters were left to make that choice, however fecundity seems to be an obsession with some, witness the focus over the lack of it in H1's case and opposite with Bill English. I wish the couple well with a safe delivery of a healthy child. Past that I just care about whoever is in power doing the job they are paid to do.
WP seems to be the man pulling the strings for as long as this government has been in power.
Increase in police headcount, more money available for regional development, a billion put aside for embassies (WP is foreign minister), government resumes NZSF funding and many more announcements from WP’s wish list.
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