Here's my summary of the key events overnight that affect New Zealand with news the pressures are on for a flatter rate curve.

But first in China, new loans issued in in October came in under market expectations, indicating that official pressure to quell credit growth may be having some impact. It brought the slowest loan growth in a year. The growth in their money supply in fact was the slowest since January 1996, even though it was up +8.8%. And all this comes as more off-balance sheet loans have been dragged on-balance sheet. The push to deleverage the system is showing some signs of working; but the issue will be that this is not helpful for growth.

Chinese realestate listing service Juwai has announced that it is to run a major promotion of New Zealand residential property to its readers, saying now is the time to move before restrictions kick in. "Act now before you miss out" is their campaign headline.

In Australia, their central bank has taken aim at the lending practices of banks, criticising them for lack of support for small business lending. "It's not the absence of entrepreneurial spirit, it's the absence of entrepreneurial finance that's been the main factor holding that part of the economy back," they said. And it seems to be more than just lack of support; banks seem to penalise the small in favour of the large. In fact they show that interest rates charged small enterprises are double those of large ones.

In New York, the UST 10yr yield is unchanged today at 2.40%. But their 2-10 spread is now its flattest in ten years. In fact the whole US yield curve is flattening. Demand is rising for 'duration' while supply is rising for short term issues, causing a squeeze. It is a trend that seems unlikely to go away soon.

The price of crude oil is also little changed at just under US$57 / barrel, while the Brent benchmark is just under US$63.50. However Opec says it sees higher demand for crude oil in 2018.

The price of gold is also unchanged at US$1,272 oz.

The bitcoin price recovered overnight and is up more than +US$500 from where we left it at 4pm yesterday, up to US$6,438. Still, it is a long way lower from its price on November 8 when it reached US$7,722.

The Kiwi dollar has extended its slightly softer note. We are at just under 69 US¢. And on the cross rates we are at 90.5 AU¢, and against the euro at 59.2 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 index at 72.3.

If you want to catch up with all the changes yesterday, we have an update here.

The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».