Daily FNArena News

Recent data on the New Zealand economy have been weaker than expected and has analysts and traders predicting cuts in interest rates and corresponding falls in the Kiwi dollar.

Weekly musings from your editor. Surely the most asked question these days is: is this the beginning or just a fata morgana?

The Labor government’s first budget gets a Neutral rating.

Wage price index data for the March quarter came in lower than expected and economists see it as giving the Reserve Bank some breathing room in terms of interest rates.

…now that the analysts have seen the terms.

The UK Daily Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard really knows how to spoil a party.

BlueScope steel reiterated earnings guidance for FY08 but brokers remain divided about the company’s outlook for FY09, with arguments for both upside and downside earnings risk.

With rumours the tax threshold for private health insurance penalties will increase in tonight’s budget brokers have assessed the likely impact on hospital plays such as Ramsay Health Care.

NAB’s result surprised mainly on cost reduction, but bad loans remain a risk.

NAB’s Business Confidence survey showed a slide in April to its lowest level for more than seven years, though Australia’s economic growth is tipped to withstand the fall.