Here's our summary of key events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news momentum is leaking away from world economic growth.
Firstly, in early afternoon trade, the S&P500 index on Wall Street was down another -1.4% (although it has clawed some of that back a little later to be down -0.3%). This follows European markets which were generally down -1.5% who in turn followed Tokyo which closed down -2.1%. Hong Kong was down -1.2% and Shanghai was down -0.8% yesterday. Australia closed down the most at -2.3% while the NZX was down -1.2%. It is a sea of red in equity markets and today's Wall Street drop suggests it is not over yet. So far, the S&P500 is down -4% from the start of 2018.
The US's biting trade policies are behind the overall move lower, but the imminent failure of a key vote on Brexit in the London parliament isn't helping either.
In Canada, even though building permits issued dropped slightly in October, new housing construction rose much more than expected.
In India, their central bank governor has quit over bald political interference in the management of monetary policy. The Indian currency weakened more than -1.5% on the move as financial markets worried about the impact of loose inflation targeting, something India struggles with anyway.
In China, they have set a new record for rice production, this time with a yield of more than 17 tonnes per hectare.
The OECD says that momentum is leaking away in the growth in all its main member countries. But New Zealand stands out going against this trend. And only India among major non-OECD countries comes close to our momentum track. And the departing IMF chief economist has also warned that "the air is coming out of the balloon" of growth, especially in the US. But he was careful to say he is not predicting a recession yet.
In Australia, a new report by competition regulator the ACCC has found "concerns" regarding the market power held by Google and Facebook, including their impact on Australian businesses and, in particular, on the ability of media businesses to monetise their content. The report also outlines concerns regarding the extent to which consumers’ data is collected and used to enable targeted advertising. This report will be influential internationally, and the two firms targeted are expected to push back hard.
And staying in Australia, a cut in interest rates could not be ruled out, a senior central banker said late yesterday, but he emphasised that the next move was still likely to be a rise given expectations for a gradual acceleration in inflation.
The UST 10yr yield will start today at 2.85%. Their 2-10 curve is just at +14 bps. The Aussie Govt 10yr is at 2.48% (and up +4 bps since this time yesterday), the China Govt 10yr is at 3.31% and down -1 bp, while the NZ Govt 10 yr is at 2.47%, and also down -1 bps.
Gold has slipped -US$4 today to US$1,244/oz.
US oil prices have revered and slipped today to be just under US$52/bbl. The Brent benchmark is now just on US$61/bbl.
The Kiwi dollar is starting today firmer again at 68.8 USc. On the cross rates we are almost +½c higher at 95.7 AUc, and also firmer at 60.5 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 up at 73.5. We should also note we are at 54.7 UKp which is the highest against this distressed currency since September a year ago.
Bitcoin is lower today at US$3,420 which is a -5.0% drop since this time yesterday. This rate is charted in the exchange rate set below.
This chart is animated here.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».
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