Kia ora,

Welcome to Wednesday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.

I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.

Today we lead with news long term bond yields are on the move higher, notably in Japan and the US.

First however, the overnight dairy auction delivered a modest gain, up +1.5% in USD terms, but up +0.4% in NZD terms as the US dollar is weakening. However, most of this rise is the same as recorded in last week's Pulse event. But it does cement a second consecutive rise in the full auction after nine consecutive declines. So +7.8% of rises after the -22.5% of falls. Also notable is the much less buyer interest from China, counterbalanced by stronger interest from most other regions.

In the US, markets have returned after a chaotic weekend politically to a weak ADP weekly jobs report, recording just +8000 jobs gains and well within the margin of error. January is starting out tough in their labour market. But at least it wasn't a decline.

The US Supreme Court issued three decisions overnight but did not decide the closely watched dispute over the legality of the Trump tariff-taxes. they gave no indication when they will. Also delayed is Trump's 'imminent decision' on his Fed boss nomination. Apparently all his candidates have issues.

Also weak is the USD. It is now under 7 CNY to the USD and its lowest since 2023.

In China, household borrowing is weak and household savings is strong, up +10% in 2025. That says a lot about the stress Chinese households are feeling going into 2026. Per capita bank deposits have now risen to over ¥118,000 (NZ$29,000). And we should probably note that Chinese smartphone shipments fell in 2025, the second year in a row this has occurred.

In Taiwan they reported export orders in December exceeding US$76 bln, far and away a new record high and +43% higher than year ago levels. The Taiwan miracle continues. For all of 2025 these export orders rose +26%.

In Malaysia, they reported good December exports too, up more than +10% from the same month a year ago to just over US$37 bln and maintaining a strong trade surplus.

In Germany, producer price deflation picked up slightly to -2.5% in December from a year ago to cap a 2025 year where it averaged -1.2%.

But overall German investor economic sentiment picked up notably in January, and that was also enough to propel overall EU investor sentiment into positive territory in this wide survey.

It is also probably worth noting that the Microsoft boss said overnight (at the WEF) the AI bubble could falter unless adoption of the technology picks up.

The UST 10yr yield is now just on 4.28%, up +1 bp from this time yesterday and now its highest since September. The UST 30 year bond is now at 4.90% and its highest in almost ten years. The Japanese 10 year bond yield is up another sharp +7 bps at 2.35% and we make that its highest in 28 years. Its 40 year bond is now over 4.25% and its highest since our records began in 2007. 

The price of gold will start today at US$4750/oz, and up another +US$78 from yesterday and a new record. Silver is is actually marginally lower at US$94/oz and off its record high.

American oil prices are up a bit more than +50 USc from yesterday at just over US$60/bbl, while the international Brent price is just under US$65/bbl.

The Kiwi dollar is up another +50 bps from yesterday, now at just under 58.5 USc. Against the Aussie we are up +40 bps at 86.7 AUc. Against the euro we are holding at just on 49.8 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today just over 62.5, and up +50 bps from yesterday and its highest since early October.

The bitcoin price starts today at US$89,708 and down -3.8% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been modest at just on +/- 1.8%.

You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.

Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we’ll do this again tomorrow.