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).

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today. All rates are here. And note, you can compare mortgage offers with our new calculator that takes into account other costs and cashback incentives, here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
None here either All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

BETTER NOW BUT OVERSTATED EARLIER
The latest monthly filled jobs data shows a rise – but Statistics NZ has revised down figures for the previous two months and these now show no gain for those months.

FEWER NEW HOMES
There are around 350 fewer new homes being built in Auckland each month compared to a year ago. Residential building completions in Auckland are down more than -20% compared to last year’s peak; but the slump continues to flatten.

NEW VISA AVAILABLE
Applications opened today for the Parent Boost Visitor Visa, which will allow parents of New Zealand citizens and residents to come and visit their children for up to five years.

ANOTHER BIG CORPORATE BOND OFFER
Auckland International Airport has launched a retail bond offer of up to NZ$200 mln in five-and-a-half-year fixed-rate bonds. They will be rated A- by S&P and quoted on the NZX Debt Market. The bookbuild is underway.

NZX50 TURNS HIGHER
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index was up +0.8% net in its Monday session so far, after a slowish start. It is now up +0.6% over the past five working days. But it is up +1.1% year-to-date. From a year ago it is now up +6.4%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is up +0.9% today so far. The gainers are led by Infratil, Oceania, Heartland, and Scales, but Meridian, Port of Tauranga, and Tourism Holdings lead the decliners.

BIG TRADING
More than $81 bln in NZ Government bonds were traded last week, and that was an all-time high. For perspective, the weekly turnover was $35.5 bln in the same week a year ago.

NOT BANKABLE
Sheep and beef farms may deliver a successful lifestyle but it is a real struggle to make them stack up as a normal bankable business. The land price ‘has to crash both in real and nominal terms’, says Keith Woodford. Even a -50% crash may not be enough, he calculates. (and this from Pita Alexander.)

TIME TRAVEL
Daylight savings time has started in New Zealand of course, but not yet in Australia. So we are now 3 hours ahead of eastern Australia. But Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia do not observe daylight saving time, making it a patchwork system across their country. Those state that do adopt daylight saving will ‘spring forward’ on Saturday this week.

SOE APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED
At Kiwi Group Capital, ex-Westpac boss David McLean has been reappointed as Chair for a one-year term commencing 1 November 2025. (Kiwi Group Capital owns Kiwibank and NZ Home Loans.) Scott Pickering has also been appointed as a director for a three-year term beginning 1 October 2025. At NZ Post, Alastair Bell and Grant Stapleton have been appointed as directors for three-year terms starting 22 September 2025.

WHAT A GOOD LABOUR MARKET CAN DO
In Australia, a strong labour market has boosted the budget bottom line, wiping almost AU$18 bln off the deficit for the last financial year to June 2025. The March pre-election federal budget predicted a deficit of -AU$27.6 bln for the same period. The final budget outcome, due to be officially released later today, will put that figure at -AU$10 bln..

COMMON TACTICS
By directing the US Department of Justice to seek an indictment of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, Trump appears to be borrowing a tactic from the playbook of Vladimir Putin, Barbara McQuade writes in Bloomberg Opinion. The Kremlin leader doesn’t try to convince the Russian people that he is honest, she writes. Instead he works to persuade them that everyone else is corrupt. If voters believe that all public officials are crooks, then they will overlook the crooked leader who professes to share their values, McQuade says. Trump has publicly derided Comey for years despite what at least one famous political analyst says was Comey’s key role in Trump winning the White House in the first place. Comey became a focal point of the Republican president’s ire as a result of investigations into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia (claims of which were never substantiated). Nevertheless, multiple intelligence agencies determined that it was likely Putin tried to sway US elections in Trump’s favour. Critics of the current Trump administration say he has now weaponised the Department of Justice to pursue his perceived enemies, beginning a new era of American “lawfare” that Trump himself said on Friday is only just beginning.

SWAP RATES SOFTISH
Wholesale swap rates are will probably be marginally softer today for all short durations. Keep an eye on our chart below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. The 90 day bank bill rate was unchanged at 2.82% on Friday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is down -4 bps from Saturday at 4.35%. The China 10 year bond rate is unchanged at 1.88%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is down -1 bp at 4.24%. The RBNZ data is now all delayed by one business day now, and was up +1 bp, at 4.23% at the end of Friday trade. The UST 10yr yield is down -3 bps at 4.16%.

EQUITIES MOSTLY TURN BULLISH
The local equity market is now up +1.0% in Monday trade and powering into the close. However, the ASX200 is only up +0.6% in afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened down -1.0%. Hong Kong is up +0.9% at its open with Shanghai down -0.5%. Singapore is up +0.1% at its open. Wall Street futures are signaling the S&P500 will open +1.0% ahead of its Friday close. If that transpires, it will be a new all-time high..

OIL HOLDS
The oil price in the US is essentially unchanged from this morning at just over US$65/bbl and the international Brent price is still just over US$69.50/bbl.

CARBON PRICE HOLDS
Prices remain range-bound on low volumes and low volatility. Today’s tiny trades are at $57.10/NZU. The next official carbon auction is on December 3, 2025 and likely heading for another failure. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD FIRMS
In early Asian trade, gold is up to US$3776/oz, up +US$17 from this morning.

NZD ON HOLD
The Kiwi dollar is up +10 bps from this morning’s open, now at 57.8 USc. Against the Aussie we are down -10 bps at 88.1 AUc. Against the euro we unchanged at 49.3 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now just under 65.2 and little-changed, not only from this morning’s open, but from Friday as well.

BITCOIN FIRMS
The bitcoin price is now at US$111,946 and up +1.5% from this morning. Volatility has been modest,just on +/- 1.4%.

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