Australian interest rates

A little relief today in funding costs for Australian banks with markets oddly deciding that the day the global commodity bear market rally went belly up was the right one to ease up on CBA CDS as it fell seven points to 114bps.

From our Bill at Westpac: The minutes of the March monetary policy meeting of the Board of the RBA provided no real surprises.

The Australian bank funding cost rocket is still refusing to cool off.

The Australia bank funding cost rocket is back after just one day’s relief.

From the WSJ: For some investors, the Fed’s caution might bring to mind the late 1990s.

Reserve Bank Governor of New Zealand Graeme Wheeler earns $600k per annum.

It’s the fly in the ointment that just won’t go away.

From a now rampant Kouk: Could the next move in interest rates be up and could it happen relatively soon?

From Deutsche some good news for savers before the RBA snuffs it out again: Average term deposit spreads for the majors (on “best rates” within the broadly defined short term and medium term categories) improved slightly during the last month.

Amid the now wild bear market rally in everything commodities, one price is proving to be surprisingly resilient to the downside.

From Robert Mead of PIMCO: While travelling this week to Newport Beach for PIMCO’s upcoming Cyclical Forum, I was pleasantly surprised to see “The Big Short” was one of the movie options on the plane.

From the AFR: Short positions in the banks have skyrocketed over the past 12-months – and are now worth more than $8 billion.

From Banking Day: According to comparison site Mozo, 13 lenders increased their owner occupier variable rates last month and five reduced them.

Cross-posted from Martin North.

From Moody’s today comes an update on securitisation delinquencies. Auto asset-backed securities (ABS) are deteriorating in a rising trend: That trend looks likely to trouble GFC highs pretty soon.

From our Bill: As expected, the RBA Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 2.0%.

The RBA has held interest rates and done nothing to help the dollar: At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 2.0 per cent.

The bond market just broke with yields plunging across the curve after a combination of nasty data punches: The short end is now pricing more than one rate cut while the long end is in free fall towards all time lows.

From The Australian: While Deputy Governor Philip Lowe appears to be the shoo-in appointment for most economists and central bank watchers, the government could still look beyond the bank or even the shores of Australia for its short list of candidates.

From Macquarie comes some good news for savers (except the RBA will snuff it out): Given tightening in the wholesale funding markets we expected to see a step-up in deposit competition.

The RP Data leading indexes for the week are out and show a moderate slowdown in activity year over year.

Always one to drag the chain on dovish policy, the Shadow RBA is falling behind the rates curve today along with Captain Glenn: More of the Same: RBA Should Hold Rate After last month’s rout, global stock markets bounced back but financial markets remain edgy.