A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; no rate changes, SuperCity's super result, cheap funding, fair dealing, moderate growth, no ammunition, swaps and NZD stable

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
None here either.

SUPERCITY RESULT
Auckland Council released its financial statements today for the year to June 2018, but as yet unaudited. That shows it had rates revenues rising +4.0%, "fees and user charges" rose +5.7%, both contributing to a total revenue gain of +10.0% to $4.5 bln. Cost control was tight with payroll costs only up +1.5% as part of all operating expenditure rising just +2.5%. That containment swelled their operating surplus to $660 mln, up from $340 mln in the previous year. But total borrowings rose +6.4% to $8.8 bln as it goes hard 'investing' in fixed rail infrastructure. Auckland Council is rates AA Stable.

CHEAP CORPORATE FUNDING
Spark Finance is raising up to $125 mln in a bond issue with a term of just over 5 years. It is offering about +1% over the five year swap rate, all to be determined on Friday, September 7, 2018. If it happened today, the rate being offered would have been between 3.38% to 3.48%. These bonds are likely to be rates A- Stable. Bank term deposits offer better than this.

FAIR DEALING TESTED
The Commerce Commission is chipping away at what it claims are 'unfair' terms in some consumer contracts. The latest is with Home Direct and its use of expiring vouchers. Only the Commerce Commission can ask a court to make a declaration on whether a term is unfair. If a court decides a term is unfair a business cannot enforce it. If a business continues to use an unfair term, it is liable for prosecution by the Commission. The Commission has so far undertaken three reviews into unfair contract terms in the telecommunications, energy retail and gym sectors. Some major public transport providers also made changes to the standard terms of use for their re-usable pre-paid travel card, following a Commission review.

MODERATE GROWTH FORECAST
Economic consultancy NZIER is expecting economic growth of just under 3% over the coming years, but it says there are still a few clouds on New Zealand’s economic horizon.

NO AMMUNITION, NO CRED
Another month, and more hands-off our exchange rate from the RBNZ. It is now almost three years since anything like that was tried (and it was unsuccessful back then). The RBNZ has only $10 bln in currency fighting capacity, which represents less than two days of NZD currency market activity. Just about any mid-sized trader could call their bluff before the RBNZ had to fold.

SWAP RATES UNCHANGED
Wholesale swap rates are unchanged today except the ten year is up +1 bp. The UST 10yr has gained +2 bps and is now at 2.88%. The UST 2-10 curve is now just over +21 bps. The Aussie Govt 10yr is at 2.58% (down -1 bp), the China Govt 10yr is at 3.64% (down -2 bps), while the NZ Govt 10 yr is now at 2.64%, up +1 bp. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.91%.

BITCOIN UP AGAIN
The bitcoin price is higher again today at US$7,049, a gain of +2.0%.

NZD STABLE
The NZD is little changed at 67.1 USc. On the cross rates we are at 91.4 AUc, and 57.4 euro cents. That does leave the TWI-5 a little firmer at 70.7.

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