Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).
The Cooperative Bank trimmed most of its fixed rates today to stay competitive. In fact its 6 month rate was market leading at 5.25%. Westpac the matched ANZ and Kiwibank at 5.29% for a six month rate with a late move, changing two other rates, one down, one up. .
Rabobank and the Cooperative Bank each trimmed rates, and now very few banks have 4%+ rates on offer. Xceda cut rates too late yesterday. Late today, Westpac trimmed most TD rate offers out to nine months levaing longer rates unchanged. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are , for 1-5 years, they are .
Electronic card data for May retail activity shows that even after excluding the impact of falling petrol prices, core retail sales fell again; 'spending has effectively been tracking sideways despite falls in petrol prices'
Some local authorities are about to release their 2025/26 rates bills. If you live in one of them you will not want to know that StatsNZ released data today that rates and 'regulatory income' (fees, to you and me) rose +11.9% in the March 2025 quarter from the same quarter a year ago. You have to go back to 2007 to find a faster rise. But the latest one is unique in that for the past seven quarters, that annual rate of increase has exceeded 10% for seven quarters. There has never been an historic period of such extended upward pressure from rates. Previous jumps have been one-offs, followed by restraint.
The Commerce Commission has criminal charges in the Auckland District Court against an unregistered and uncertified lender, Ilaisaane Malupo, trading as Nane Easy Loan Finance Services NZ (Nane Loans). The Commission alleges Ms Malupo provided personal loans illegally to members of the Tongan community in South Auckland from March 2024. Alongside the lack of certification, the Commission alleges Ms Malupo’s terms included high interest rates of up to 15% charged on a weekly basis, which would double if borrowers failed to repay the loans within 28 days; and late payment fees of up to $10 per day.
As at 3pm, is marginally softer so far today. It is down -0.2% from yesterday, but unchanged for the past week. It is down -3.7% since the start of the year although up +7.2% from this time last year. There were gains for Kathmandu, The Warehouse, Heartland and Channel Infrastructure but Ryman, Tourism Holdings, Hallensteins and Fletcher Building were among the biggest decliners.
Treasury tendered $475 mln in three maturities today, one of which was for inflation-indexed bonds, attracting . Yields rose about +10 bps from the prior equivalent tenders two weeks ago.
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will be no surprise to most readers, and although New Zealand isn't included, it is likely that we would record even more negative opinions than Australians. No wonder Dutton lost in a landslide.
In the US, the full board of the US Fulbright Scholarship program has resigned en masse today after Whitehouse officials inserted themselves to punish or reward applicants irrespective of the merits of their applications. The Fulbright Scholarship programs will now probably die. (Separately, but kind of related, AUKUS is also likely to die quickly too from Whitehouse intervention. The US is becoming more than just 'unreliable', it is turning directly incoherent and hostile.)
In Australia, the for June shows inflation expectations there rising to 5.0%, the highest level since July 2023 and up sharply from the 4.1% in May.
are likely a touch lower today. Keep an eye on below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. Notice it isn't falling. The 90 day bank bill rate was down -1 bp at 3.31% on Wednesday. The Australian 10 year bond yield is down -5 bps at 4.22%. The China 10 year bond rate is down -1 bp at 1.68%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is down -2 bps at 4.61% but was unchanged at 4.61% in the earlier RBNZ fix today. The UST 10yr yield is now down -6 bps to 4.40%.
The NZX50 is little-changed again, down -0.2% so far today, and the ASX200 is up +0.2% in afternoon trade. Tokyo is down -0.7% in early Thursday trade. Hong Kong is down -0.4% at its open while Shanghai is up +0.1%. Singapore has opened up +0.2%. Wall Street ended its Wednesday trade with the S&P500 down -0.3% largely because the London talks resolved very little. After it closed, Trump came up with some recycled tariff threats. The futures market suggests this means the downward drift will continue tomorrow.
The oil price is down almost +US$3 at just under US$68/bbl in the US, and just over US$69/bbl for the international Brent price.
The carbon price is holding at NZ$56.76/NZU on a few more trades. The next official carbon auction is on Wednesday, June 18, with a $68 floor price. So it will fail. See our of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of .
In early Asian trade, gold is up +US$36/oz from yesterday at US$3373/oz.
The Kiwi dollar is down -10 bps from yesterday at 60.2 USc. Against the Aussie we are little-changed at just under 92.8 AUc. Against the euro we are down -50 bps at 52.3 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now at 68.1 and down -20 bps..
The bitcoin price is now at US$108,516 and down -1.1% from where we were this time yesterday. Volatility has been low at just under +/-1%.
This soil moisture chart is animated here.
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