A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; minor TD trimmings, ACC goes hard at tax increases, online retail up, Tatua shines, new insurance data, swaps and NZD soft

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes today.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
The NZ Firefighters Credit Union has trimmed some selected term deposit rates.

ANZ LAUNCHES GOOGLE PAY
ANZ NZ Visa credit and debit card customers with compatible android smartphones can now use Google Pay to make contactless payments. Google Pay replaces ANZ’s goMoney Wallet, ANZ’s current Android mobile wallet, which will be phased out from October.

NEVER ENDING FUEL TAX INCREASES
ACC is proposing a +12.1% hike in the average motor vehicle levy for road users, including a +1.9c per litre increase for petrol.

ON LINE RETAIL STILL OUT-PERFORMING
New Zealand’s total online retail spending in August was +8% higher than in August last year. Spending at local online sites was up +9% on the same basis. This is +4% higher growth rate than for spending at traditional stores. Food was again a strong category, with a solid showing from Grocery stores offsetting a softening in online sales in the “Other Specialised Food” category. Online spending at international merchants was up +7%. But some of that is because the NZD continues to track softer than a year ago making overseas goods more expensive for Kiwi’s.

A SUCCESSFUL COOPERATIVE
The Tatua Co-operative Dairy Company today reported its 2017/18 financial results, and declared a cash payout of $8.10/kgMS to farmer suppliers/shareholders after retaining $0.56. Sales were $357 mln in the year to July. Profits were $105 mln after tax and the retention is probably about $8 mln. Their gearing is $37%. The cash payout is up from the prior year of $7.10. There are 114 supplying farms to Tatua. The comparisons with Fonterra (payout = $6.69 and zero retentions) and Westland ($6.07 after a 5c retention) are stark.

LESS CONFIDENT
Farmer confidence is sliding, mainly on the back of poor results for the two large dairy cooperatives.

UP OR DOWN
The RBNZ reviewed the OCR today and it will remain at 1.75% 'through 2019 and into 2020'. It is being kept at an 'expansionary level for a considerable period', with the RBNZ Governor sticking to his line that the next move could be 'up or down'. This happened after the US Fed hiked its official rate again, opening up a +50 bps gap between them. The US Fed is likely to hike one more time in 2018.

INSURANCE DATA
New data about the insurance industry was published today by the RBNZ showing net premium growth to June up only +2.1% pa, which is far lower than the previous year's growth of more than +14%. The industry also reported healthy investment income growth.

TURNERS RAISES NEW FUNDS
Turners Automotive Group (previously Dorchester Finance) has raised $25 mln as secured subordinated fixed rate bonds. more than 80% is from new investors. These bonds are for three years and pay 5.5%, similar to the rates offered by some finance companies.

NOT STARS
The latest Times Higher Education university rankings is a big comedown for New Zealand universities. Auckland and Otago are in their 200-250 group, the AUT and Canterbury are in their 250-300 group, Victoria and Waikato are in the 400-500 group, and Lincoln and Massey are in the 500-600 group. No-one is starring. Apart from the obvious bias of putting the two top UK universities at the top (this is the only one of these types of rankings that does that), the big movers are the top Chinese universities. American universities hold most of the top spots.

SWAP RATES DOWN
Swap rates are down -2 bps for terms 2-5 years, and down -3 bps for longer terms. The UST 10yr is softer at just under 3.06%, a -4 bps drop, with the UST 2-10 curve down under +24 bps. The Aussie Govt 10yr is at 2.71% (also down -4 bps), the China Govt 10yr is at 3.67% (down -3 bps), while the NZ Govt 10 yr is at 2.68%, and down -4 bps as well. The 90 day bank bill rate is down -1 bp at 1.90%.

BITCOIN STABLE
The bitcoin price is a little firmer at US$6,492, a gain of +1.6% on the day.

NZD MARGINALLY SOFTER
The NZD is marginally softer at 66.5 USc after working its way though the US Fed and RBNZ rate reviews. On the cross rates we are little changed at 91.6 AUc, and 56.6 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 at 70.1.

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