FMT cut its minimum mortgage lending rates today. All rates are here<\/a>. And note, you can compare mortgage offers with our new calculator that takes into account other costs and cashback incentives, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
TERM DEPOSIT\/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES MARKET CAN’T TOLERATE HIGH DAIRY PRICES MORE SELECTION, LOWER RENTS PPI TURNS ‘POSITIVE’ FOR THE FIRST TIME IN EIGHT YEARS THERE IS NO NET INFLATION ON THE FARM ANYMORE BEING NICE TAKE OUR NEW QUIZ NZX50 DIPS EMBEDDED HIGH RISING ORDERS SWAP RATES SOFT EQUITIES STOP FALLING ON SOME BOURSES OIL FIRMS CARBON PRICE STAYS DOWN ON TINY VOLUME GOLD FIRMS NZD LOWER BITCOIN STAYS LOW Select chart tabs<\/p>\n US$ Select chart tabs<\/p>\n 1 year % \n This soil moisture chart is animated here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Xceda Finance has cut rates today, many of their now below 4%. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here<\/a>, for 1-5 years, they are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The latest full\u00a0dairy auction<\/a>\u00a0results\u00a0aren’t good. Not so much because the overall result was down -3.0% in USD terms, more because that makes it seven declines in a row from early August, taking the cumulative drop to -13%. And the recent retreats seem to be getting more intense. We now have prices lower than year-ago levels. And the decline in USD is being matched by the decline in NZD now, down -2.9% in this latest event.\u00a0Clearly analysts will be dusting off their current season payout forecasts because they are risk of being downgraded. Behind the softness is a faster-than-expected rise in dairy production levels due to good weather conditions globally. That is as true for New Zealand as anywhere, where milk production is rising. The pointy end of this pressure is the butter price, and that dropped -7.6% at this latest auction. WMP was down a lesser -1.9%, SMP down only -0.6%.<\/p>\n
More rental properties available and fewer prospective tenants are forcing rents down in most parts of the country. Advertised rents on Trade Me Property have dropped<\/a> to a two-and-half-year low.<\/p>\n
For the first time in two years, producer output prices<\/a> have risen faster than producer input prices. And if we look past the effect of the pandemic and the subsequent sharp adjustments of this unusual period, the gain has been the best\u00a0 since 2017.<\/p>\n
Overall farms, and excluding livestock costs, farm expenses<\/a> were up just +0.1% in the year to September.\u00a0 Admittedly, that covers a range of costs that did move, but largely cancelling each other out. Farm electricity rose +9.a% for the year, fertiliser was up +13.5% on the same basis. But fuel and pest control costs dropped, and interest costs dropped a massive -19.8%. Overall costs for dairy farms actually fell -1.0% from a year ago, for sheep & beef units they were up +0.6%, for cropping up +1.2%, and for horticulture they were up +1.8% from a year ago.<\/p>\n
The FMA has chosen an ‘education’ strategy rather than an ‘enforcement’ strategy to deal with insider trading in the financial investment industry. It has released a best practice note<\/a> to guide industry professional on how to avoid insider trading risk, and ‘materiality’ is an aspect of what could attract regulator action. It is a tricky area for everyone (including the FMA), so you hope this guidance doesn’t just provide a cheat-sheet on how to avoid prosecution through regulatory gaming.<\/p>\n
If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to take this week’s quiz<\/a>. Join the more than 600 who did it last week. This week’s version ends on Sunday. You can bookmark this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index<\/a> is down -0.5% so far on Tuesday following global trends. That puts it also down -1.3% over the past five working days. And it is up +2.8% year-to-date. From a year ago it is now up +5.2%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is up +0.6% so far today.\u00a0Kathmandu, Napier Port, Port of Tauranga, and Spark top the gains with Stride, Serko, Tourism Holdings, and Vista leading the decliners.<\/p>\n
In Australia, payroll costs rose<\/a> pretty much as expected in the September quarter. They were up +3.4% year-on-year in Q3 2025, unchanged from the previous quarter. Public sector wages increased +3.8%, slightly above the +3.7% rise in Q2, while private sector wages grew by +3.2%, easing from +3.4% previously. (Overall, total wages and salaries<\/a> for all employees rose +5.3% for the year to September, boosted by an expanding workforce.)<\/p>\n
In Japan, September machinery orders<\/a> rose a better-than-expected +11.6% from the same month a year earlier, up an impressive +4.2% from August. (This result is not twisted by large, volatile items like for ships or\u00a0 major infrastructure machinery such as electric power plants. That would have pushed the rise even higher.) Export orders were particularly notable.<\/p>\n
Wholesale swap rates<\/a> are probably softer today. Keep an eye on our chart<\/a> below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. The 90 day bank bill rate was down -1 bp at 2.49% on Tuesday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is down -3 bps at 4.43%. The China 10 year bond rate is little-changed at 1.81%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is down -6 bps at 4.26%. The RBNZ data is now all delayed with Tuesday’s rate is down -2 bps at 4.28%. The UST 10yr yield is down -1 bp at 4.12%.<\/p>\n
The local equity market is now down -0.2% in Wednesday trade so far. The ASX200 is little-changed in afternoon trade. Tokyo has recovered +0.6% at its open. Hong Kong is up +0.1% and Shanghai is up +0.2%. Singapore is up +0.1% at its open. Wall Street ended its Tuesday trade with the S&P500 down another -0.8% and now down -3.7% over the past week.<\/p>\n
The oil price in the US has held has risen +US$1 to just on US$60.50\/bbl and the international Brent price is now just over US$64.50\/bbl.<\/p>\n
There have again been very few trades today and the price has firmed ever-so-slightly to $43.50\/NZU. The next official carbon auction is on December 3, 2025 and likely heading for another failure. See our daily chart tracker<\/a> of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In early Asian trade, gold is up +US$40\/oz from this time yesterday, now at US$4060\/oz.<\/p>\n
The Kiwi dollar is down -20 bps from this time yesterday at just on 56.4 USc. Against the Aussie we are down -30 bps at 86.8 AUc. Against the euro we are down -10 bps at 48.7 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is down -15 bps at just under at 61.1.<\/p>\n
The bitcoin price is now at US$92,691 and up +1.5% from this time yesterday.\u00a0Volatility has been moderate at just on +\/- 2.3%.<\/p>\n
\n AU$
\n TWI-5
\n \u00a5en
\n \u00a5uan
\n \u20acuro
\n GBP
\n Bitcoin<\/p>\n
\n 2 years %
\n 3 years %
\n 4 years %
\n 5 years %
\n 7 years %
\n 10 years %<\/p>\n
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