Crown reshuffle? The government has confirmed it is looking again at the ownership structure of Kiwi Group Holdings, which owns Kiwibank and is in turn owned by Crown-owned entities NZ Post, NZ Super Fund and ACC. The NZ Herald reported this morning Grant Robertson’s office had confirmed officials were currently considering “the best ways for the Crown to express its ownership interest” and that it was understood the review was triggered by one of the owners putting its stake up for sale after a five-year lockup clause expired in October last year. Goldman Sachs was also understood to be conducting a review for Kiwi Group Holdings, the newspaper reported.

Inflation spikes Figures out overnight showed annual US CPI inflation rose to a 40-year high of 7.5% in January, which was higher than market expectations of around 7.3%. That has again ramped up the pressure on the US Federal Reserve to hike by a full 50 basis points on March 16 (see the CME FedWatch chart of market expectations) and a further six 25 basis point hikes through the rest of this year (Reuters).

Stocks fall as yields rise The widely-followed US 10 year Treasury yield rose as much as nine basis points to over 2% for the first time since early 2019, which will push up longer-term interest rates globally because it acts as a base for global interest rates. US stocks were down as much as 1% in late trade on the news. 

Big CCCFA tweaks ruled out Commerce minister David Clark has rejected National housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis’s proposal to carve banks out of the CCCFA regulations aimed at loan sharks. Clark is quoted as saying the banks themselves preferred smaller tweaks sooner in this Stuff article.

Heads up Giant Canadian funds manager Brookfield Asset Management, which owns Vodafone NZ with Infratil, announced overnight it planned to spin off its asset management arm into a separate listed firm worth up to US$75 billion. (MarketWatch)

Sign o’ the times Crypto-currency exchange Binance plans to take a US$200 million stake in the Forbes business magazine and website business as part of a SPAC ‘blank cheque’ reverse listing. (Reuters)

Border blockages Ford and Toyota announced overnight they were closing or slowing car production lines in its factories on both sides of the Canadian-American border after two weeks of blockades of bridges and border crossings by anti-mandate truckers. (Reuters)

Crypto for diamond swap A black diamond thought to be over one million years old sold overnight for US$4.3m to an unidentified buyer who paid in crypto-currency. (BBC) 

Fresh on BusinessDesk this morning

Oliver Lewis reports Treasury warned the government privately against hiring Greg Miller as KiwiRail chair because it feared Miller, who subsequently became CEO, would be "highly destabilising".

Victoria Young writes the stock market regulator may finally have ‘grown a pair’ with its prosecution of insider-trading charges over Pushpay share trading.

Jenny Ruth reports Vulcan Steel is desperate to get hold of RATs to keep operating in the coming omicron wave.

Paul McBeth writes his weekly column about the green shoots seen in the current earnings season.