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Hello, I’m David Chaston with Ninety at nine, brought to you by interest.co.nz. This
is where you get everything you need to know in 90 seconds at 9 o’clock, including news
that factory activity worldwide is expanding.
International factory data released overnight has the China data at a 3 month low, but still
growing. The Eurozone data was much better, at a two and a half year high, and mainly
on the back of German strength. The data for the US was basically unchanged from November,
holding at a 20 month high.
This factory data, plus a late expectation there will in fact be no taper by the Fed
tomorrow - despite earlier predictions - has seen New York equity markets rise strongly.
The main indexes are up almost 1% in mid-day trade.
The oil price is up, but neither the gold price nor yields on UST benchmark 10 yr bonds
are going anywhere today.
Staying in the US, it looks like 2013 will end with the lowest number of bank failures
since 2007 - about 25. And that is out of about 7,200 institutions that are Federally
insured.
In Europe, ECB boss Draghi has expressed frustration with EU lawmakers over their complicated plan
to rescue failing banks. That plan involves intricate layers of 'consultation' before
any action is taken and Draghi fears it just won't work. He told parliamentarians directly
of his concerns.
Locally, data from dominant electronic transaction processor Paymark shows that Kiwis are getting
stuck in to their Christmas shopping, with spending up 7.7% over the first two weeks
of December.
That is up from the 5.5% pace we have had during most of 2013. Holiday season spending
is running at $160 million a day, $2.2 billion over the first two weeks of December.
The NZ dollar starts today at 82.6 USc, 92.2 AUc, and the TWI is at 77.8. From the beginning
of the year, the kiwi dollar is virtually unchanged against the US dollar, the Chinese
yuan, the euro and the British pound. But we have appreciated 17% against the Aussie
dollar and a remarkable 21% against the Japanese yen. It is these last two shifts that have
lifted our TWI by 6%.
I’m David Chaston, and that was 90 at nine, brought to you by interest.co.nz.