Here's our summary of key events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news US inflation has come in lower than estimates suggested.
Wall Street is up (+0.5%) on the back of low inflation figures which suggest the Fed will be dovish about future interest rate hikes. Overnight the EU markets were flat and they followed Asian markets which were up by more than +1% yesterday.
The US CPI rose 1.5% in the 12 months to February, the smallest gain since September 2016, largely driven by lower petrol prices. This is a major miss as markets were expected a rise of 2.2%.
Meanwhile the US-China trade talks are getting more uncertain with US saying they want to be able to retain the right to impose punitive tarriffs and a deal is not certain.
The US-China rivalry has also taken a new turn with the American's challenging the use of Huawei gear in undersea cable networks.
While the number of people leaving Hong Kong looks set to rise as China tightens its grip, with more than half of the people under 30 saying they are thinking about leaving the territory.
In Europe at a meeting of EU ministers they have shelved plans to introduce a digital tax on global giants like Google and Facebook, but they have said they may try again in 2020.
And staying in Europe, Volkswagen has announced plans to cut jobs as it speeds up the production of less labour-intensive electric cars. The German car maker says it will also review the different brands it owns including Audi, Skoda and Porsche.
While in the UK Teresa May's Brexit dramas continue - yesterday she thought she had a new deal with the EU, but today even her own Attorney General is refusing to back it.
In Australia, more evidence of a lending slowdown. Lending commitments to households for owner-occupied buying and alteration projects are down -3.3% in the year to January. But much worse, this data is down more than -15% for January 2019 alone compared with the same month in 2018, indicating the falloff is growing.
The Australian federal government has ditched a key recommendation from the banking royal commission to scrap trail commissions for new loans arranged by mortgage brokers after pressure from the industry and smaller lenders.
The UST 10yr yield is softer today by -4 bps and is now at 2.60%. Their 2-10 curve remains at +16 bps while their negative 1-5 curve is at -10 bps. The Aussie Govt 10yr is down -1 bp to 2.01%, the China Govt 10yr is also down by -1 bp to 3.16%, while the NZ Govt 10 yr is up +1 bp to 2.12%.
Gold is firmer, up to US$1,297 and a +US$5 rise since this time yesterday.
US oil prices are now just under US$57/bbl while the Brent benchmark is just over US$66.50/bbl. That's a small rise overnight.
The Kiwi dollar is at 68.7 USc and almost +½c firmer. On the cross rates we have firmed against the Aussie and now at 96.9 AUc and a new two and a half year high. Against the euro we are holding at 60.8 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 at 73.4.
Bitcoin is little-changed at US$3,862. This rate is charted in the exchange rate set below.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».
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