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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; no rate changes; banking dashboard; Holidays Act taskforce; meth contaminated homes; online sales; rates lower; NZD holds

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; no rate changes; banking dashboard; Holidays Act taskforce; meth contaminated homes; online sales; rates lower; NZD holds

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
No changes here either.

NEW TOOLS FOR SAVERS/INVESTORS
​The RBNZ launched its new Dashboard resource today. It is a fancy new facility that allows anyone to compare financial statement metrics for all New Zealand banks. It permits much easier analysis and comparison of most of the key financial measures that appear in the quarterly, half-yearly, and annual General Disclosure Statements that each bank publishes. In fact, it will replace the off-quarter versions. They also released the data that powers their Dashboard and we have used that to power our own Key Bank Metrics tool.

TRIPARTITE TASKFORCE
A taskforce that brings business, workers and Government together has been established to recommend changes to the Holidays Act 2003, says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “The Holidays Act was enshrined in law to provide for minimum entitlements to annual holidays, public holidays, sick leave and bereavement leave, and protect work life balance for workers. However, there’s been enormous change in our labour market over the past fifteen years and it’s clear we need to look at the Holidays Act with a fresh pair of eyes and ensure it is fit for modern workplaces and new working arrangements. We need law that provides certainty to both employers and employees so that employees receive their correct entitlements. The legislation needs to be straightforward and simple to implement, and deliver fair rest and entitlements for workers. With an increasing variety of work patterns and pay arrangements, the legislative requirements of the Act are proving difficult and costly for employers to apply and employees are not receiving their full entitlements. The time is now right to directly address the underlying issues with the Act. I’ve been approached by Business NZ and the Council of Trade Unions to help tackle this vexed and complex set of issues and I’m excited about the work we have ahead of us," says Iain Lees-Galloway.

MYCOPLASMA BOVIS ERADICATION
The fight against Mycoplasma bovis is escalating with 50 more staff, a new field HQ and the appointment of a science adviser, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Today 25 new Incident Control Point managers enter the field after completing training yesterday. These case managers are appointed to work one-on-one with affected farmers under movement controls. They support farmers with information and advice on the practical aspects of the controls. A further 25 will undergo training in coming weeks, greatly boosting capacity to help those farmers affected by the disease.

METH CONTAMINATED HOMES
A new report into methamphetamine smoking residue on household surfaces has found there is no evidence third-hand exposure causes adverse health effects, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford says. The report was produced by the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman. There has been a widely held perception that the presence of even low levels of meth residue in a house poses a health risk to occupants. As a result, remediation to eliminate contamination has been an extremely costly business for landlords and an upheaval for tenants being evicted at short notice. Sir Peter’s report found that remediation according to the NZS 8510: 2017 standard is appropriate only for identified former meth labs and properties where heavy meth use has been determined. Along with NZS 8510: 2017, it will contribute to any regulations that may be made under the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill (No 2), soon to have its second reading in the House.

BNZ ONLINE RETAIL SALES
Growth in online retail sales bounced back in April, with total online spending 14% higher than in April last year. It’s difficult to be definitive on the reason for the slower-than-usual growth we saw in March, but likely culprits include timing and “profiling” effects (e.g. spending at international sites in March was compared with exceptionally strong spending in March 2017). Spending at domestic sites was up 16% compared to the prior year, well ahead of the growth in spending at local bricks-and-mortar stores, which were only up 0.4% on last April. The Food, Clothing and Electrical categories experienced particularly strong results. Online spending at international merchants was up 12% compared to April last year.  Computer, Clothing and Entertainment Media categories contributed to over 60% of growth in spending at international online retailers.

TSB PROFIT BOOSTED BY SOLID ENERGY WRITE-BACK
TSB posted a $5.53 million, or 12%, increase in March year net profit to $51.873 million. The bank was helped by the $15.5 million write-back of a Solid Energy provision, following a previous full write-down of Solid Energy bonds. The bank says lending grew 14% and deposits inCreased 9.5%. TSB's cost to income ratio came in at 53.48%. There's no word yet on a permanent successor to recently departed CEO Kevin Murphy.

TURNERS' PROFIT
Turners Automotive Group Limited has delivered a strong 33% lift in net profit after tax to $23.4m as it benefits from acquisitions and its integrated offering in the automotive sector. A full year of contribution from strategic acquisitions helped to boost the result, with Turners moving to focus on organic growth and synergy benefits after a period of sustained acquisition growth. Net profit before tax was $31.1m, at the top end of earlier market guidance and represents a 26% increase on the prior year. Guidance for FY19 has been set at $34m to $36m net profit before tax (a mid-point increase of 13% on FY18).

BANKRUPT REAL ESTATE AGENT
Chairat Santipongchai, who changed his name via deed poll to Henry Harrison, was declared bankrupt in August 2013 owing creditors more than $750,000. In breach of the restrictions that apply during bankruptcy, Santipongchai established housing construction company MD Global Developments Limited, appointed his son as director and sourced credit from an associate who was unaware of his bankrupt status. "Mr Santipongchai deceptively entered into contracts with suppliers and contractors, and resorted to sourcing various lines of credit from financial institutions for his personal benefit when MD Global Developments Limited began defaulting on its financial responsibilities,” says Official Assignee (OA) Ross van der Schyff. Owing more than $150,000 when his deliberate offending was uncovered, Santipongchai also actively sought to conceal the little profit that the company had made from the OA. Santipongchai has been sentenced to 12 months home detention, coupled with 200 hours of community work.

BENCHMARK INTEREST RATES SLIGHTLY LOWER
Local swap rates are flatter today, with the short end up +1 bps and the long end down -1 bps. The UST 10yr yield has dropped -3 bps to 2.90%. The Aussie Govt 10 yr is now at 2.72% (down -2 bps). The China 10 yr is at 3.64%, flat for the day. And the NZ Govt 10 yr is up +1 bps to 2.74%. The 90 day bank bill rate is up +1 bps to 2.01%.

BITCOIN LOWER
The bitcoin price is now at US$7,111 which is down -3.3% from this time yesterday.

NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The NZD is down to 69.3 USc. We are slightly higher against the Aussie at 92.0 AUc, and also up slightly against the euro at 59.6 euro cents. That has the TWI-5 now at 72.4.

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12 Comments

Expect more bankrupt real estate agents to continue business.

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Foreign investment in Australian housing falls by 65% from 2015-16 to 2016-17. Even though that may look like a bit of a s#%tstorm, the Aussie FIRB is playing it down.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/official-data-reveals-the-collapse-i…

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Interesting that, despite that very significant drop in foreign investment, housing in Australia held its own over that period

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Is "holding its own" like "punching above its weight"?

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Like a very moist turd that’s been flung at the ceiling.

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Yeah, cos the Australian property market just looks rock solid, right? How’s it looking now?

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Volumes drop before prices. Didn't they teach you that at real estate kindergarten?

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I don't understand all you guys negativity, over 2016 to 2017 foreign investment in housing dropped a whopping 65% yet house values in OZ were flat, so yes the housing market held up remarkably well

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You are trying to make the point in a somewhat roundabout way that the fundamentals of the Aussie market must be oh so strong, whereas many other observers detect the makings of a house of cards. So err you got called on that

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You just have a backwards frame of mind. Cheaper housing is a positive thing.

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Amen to that.

If you are an FT reader this is a good article. Transpose “brexit” for “housing bubble” and it applies to us. Imagine if we could devote our national conversation and energies to boring stuff like education, productivity and selling more and better things to the world. This bubble will come and go and we will have nothing to show for it.

https://www.ft.com/content/9ec68890-6280-11e8-90c2-9563a0613e56

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What happened today? Another 200 - 400 International students arrived in Auckland.
And another 200 + immigrants arrived into Auckland.
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/research-and-statistics/statis…
Winston?
One day. Several planes.
Another 20 families left Auckland for a provincial city.

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