Market Overview
- US Bank Holiday – Presidents Day Monday made for a quiet start to trading.
- PBOC leaves the MLF – (Medium Term Lending Facility) unchanged at 2.5%. A third of all analysts had predicted a small cut.
- The UK House Price Index has risen 0.9% m/m in February, the first rise in 6 months.
- Ex President Donald Trump has lost a civil fraud case in NY. He has been accused of inflating the price of his assets to obtain higher more favourable lending. He will need to get his cheque book out to the tune of 364 million. He is also barred from running any business in the state for 3 years.
- The Labour market in NZ is easing along with inflation coming down, this will be enough for the RBNZ to consider not hiking rates when the central bank meets on the 28th of February.
- ASB says we may see the RBNZ hike next week with a November cut.
- The US Dollar (USD) has been the strongest currency this month while the weakest currency has been the Japanese Yen (JPY).