A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; more TD rate cuts, jobless rate rises, house values move sideways, SMP prices rise, swaps and NZD little changed

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
FE Investments reduced all their TD rates by -10 to -40 bps.

CHANGING DIRECTION
Unemployment has turned up, for the first time since 2016. The rise is small however, but overall wage inflation has seen a sizable boost, possibly due to the start of rises in the minimum wage.

BACK TO NORMAL?
QV's national average housing valuation dropped for third month in a row in July. They say average residential property values moved sideways over winter as the market hunkers down, with Auckland experiencing a return to 'normal' market conditions.

EXPANSION SLOWS
Australia's factory PMI expanded at a noticeably slower rate in July, pointing to a manufacturing slowdown across the ditch. Interestingly, China's PMI is exhibiting the same growth slowdown.

MORE WOES FOR THE NZX
The NZX50 today built on its losing trend, down -0.8% today alone. It is down -1.5% so far this week, and threatening to end its long-term upward trend. These are trends not reflected in offshore markets. Falling business confidence isn't helping; neither is a growing leakage to the ASX.

LESS DOWNWARD PRESSURE
On the dairy derivatives market, WMP prices are suggesting little movement, but SMP prices seem to be taking a good shift higher, up +5%.

NEW DIRECTOR FOR CO-OP MONEY
Credit union industry association Co-op Money NZ has appointed Richard Westlake as an independent director for three years. Westlake, who has been advising the board for the past year, has also been appointed to the board of Co-op Services NZ. Westlake has 25 years of corporate governance experience and runs Wellington-based Westlake Governance Ltd. He was previously an independent director of Kiwibank.

SWAP RATES STABLE
Local swap rates are little changed today. The UST 10yr is up by +1 bp from yesterday and now at 2.98%. The Aussie Govt 10yr is at 2.71 and up +1 bp today, the China Govt 10yr is at 3.52% down -3 bps, while the NZ Govt 10 yr is at 2.82%, up +1 bp. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.91%.

BITCOIN DROPS
The bitcoin price is now at US$7,548, down a very chunky -7% from this time yesterday.

NZD SOFT
The NZD is a little lower at 68 USc. We are also soft on the cross rates at 91.7 AUc, and the euro at 58.2 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 down a little at 71.5.

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