A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; many rate changes, accommodation shadow, high petrol prices, Aussie confidence fall, swaps inch up, NZD low

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
In case you missed it late yesterday, both ANZ and TSB reduced fixed homne loan rates today. See details here.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
ANZ signaled that they will be cutting their Serious Saver interest rate by -10 bps to 2.10% 2.00% potential, from October 1, 2018. And TSB has covered itself on lower mortgage rates by dropping term deposit rates -5 to -20 bps for terms of 2 years and longer

TREADING WATER
Total guest nights were relatively unchanged in July 2018, up just +0.1% from July 2017. A +2.4% increase in the number of nights Kiwis spent in accommodation only just offset a -3.4% fall in international nights. And that is because we are in shadow of the 2017 Lions Tour, and will be in this data until after the August release when the straggling tourists finally departed.

RECORD HIGH, RECORD TRANSFERS
Petrol prices in Auckland have now zoomed higher. MBIE data shows that Auckland prices, after discounts, now average $2.292/L. That is the highest price ever, and now involves $1.039/L in taxes (45% of the retail price including taxes, or 83% of the price before taxes). On average these same prices for the rest of New Zealand for U91 are $2.160/L with taxes of $0.906/L. Given that a total of 1.277 bln litres of petrol is sold in Auckland per year, plus another 0.844 bln litres of diesel for road transport, that means the total tax collected on Auckland fuel is $2.2 bln, of which $244 mln per year will swell Auckland Council budgets. There is no way taking almost a quarter of a billion extra out of business and household budgets won't be noticed as flow-through in the $100+ bln Auckland economy.

FITCH AFFIRMS HEARTLAND'S CREDIT RATING
Credit rating agency Fitch says Heartland Bank's planned corporate restructure shouldn't have a material impact on the bank's credit profile. Fitch has affirmed Heartland at BBB with a stable outlook. The restructure will leave Heartland's Australian reverse mortgage business free from the capital rules of regulators on both sides of the Tasman.

SKY HIGH YIELDS
When we check the benchmark government bonds rates, our resource also covers many more countries. But one sticks out spectacularly - the Venezuela 2 year interest rate is 92,571.35% !!. But equally interesting is their 5 year at 79.529%, their 15 year at 12.581 and their 20 year at 9.635%. This is the financial market signaling that it doesn't think the current government will last much longer. (The last reading for Venezuelan inflation was 100,000%.) By comparison, Argentina bonds are yielding 26.21% for one year, the 2 yr is 30.3%, the 5 year is 20.4% and the 10 yr is 18.3%. Completely different league to Venezuela.

SAFE BACKUP?
Grant Roberston is off to Canberra tomorrow with his Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage hat on. He will need to tread carefully there because Australia seems to be in the middle of a fully-fledged American-style domestic culture war (fueled by Murdoch radio, print and TV) (And one of their culture warriors has lost a defamation case today in Brisbane, although to be fair this wasn't for a culture case.) At least Robertson will be able to retreat into the Finance minister's role if things get too hot.

BARELY POSITIVE
And staying in Australia, consumer confidence fell sharply in September as political instability in federal politics and hikes in mortgage rates by most of the big banks soured the public mood. The index fell -3.0% from August when it had already dropped -2.3%. Worryingly, the index is now at just 100.5 and barely positive (optimists = pessimists at 100).

MULTINATIONAL TAX ADVANTAGE
More in Australia, their competition authority has approved the sale and consolidation of their gas pipeline business, which will now be owned by giant Hong Kong CK Infrastructure company. It may be based in Hong Kong, but is a formally registered Cayman Islands company - another infrastructure business set up to avoid paying any taxes. It also owns the Wellington electricity lines company (incorporated in the Bahamas).

SWAP RATES UNCHANGED
Swap rates are up +1 bp across the whole curve today. The UST 10yr is at 2.97% after a +3 bps rise overnight. The UST 2-10 curve is holding at +23 bps. The Aussie Govt 10yr is at 2.59% (unchanged), the China Govt 10yr is at 3.71% (up another +2 bp), while the NZ Govt 10 yr is at 2.62%, also up another +2 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.89%.

BITCOIN LITTLE CHANGED
The bitcoin price is at US$6,253 and down -1.5% from this time yesterday. And we should also note that after the NY close, gold has tracked lower, now down to US$1,192 in Aussie trading.

NZD SOFT AND LOW
The NZD is softer at 65.1 USc. On the cross rates we are holding at 91.7 AUc, and softer at 56.2 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 at 69.1 and still near is recent lows.

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