Summary: New Zealand is waking up in the ‘red’ covid traffic light setting to a rash of festival cancellations that have effectively ended the summer festival season overnight. In global and local markets this week, investors are bracing for the Fed’s next rates decision and New Zealand’s latest inflation data, both on Thursday morning our time.
Red means no The announcement yesterday that NZ would move to the ‘red’ covid restrictions setting at midnight last night unleashed a rash of festival cancellations for events over the rest of January and February, with the potential for more cancellations for events in March seen likely as well.
Cancellations galore A range of festivals and events were cancelled because of the move to ‘red’ overnight, including Splore, Auckland Pride Festival, Karangahape Rd’s Other Ways, Fashion Week, Christchurch’s Great Kiwi Beer Festival, Dunedin’s Masters Games and Dunedin’s Craft Beer Festival, Festival One at Karapiro, Tauranga’s One Love festival, Wellington’s Lunar New Year Festival and Wellington’s Gindulgence Festival. (RNZ, ODT, Stuff, Stuff, Stuff);
More to come Other events up in the air for late February and March include, Wellington’s Homegrown and Cubadupa festivals, Christchurch’s South Island Wine and Food Festival, the Coast to Coast race, the Hokitika Wildfoods festival and Six60’s stadium tour. (RNZ, ODT, Stuff, Stuff)
Ukrainian tension The US warned Russia overnight of severe sanctions if it tried to install a pro-Moscow regime in the Ukraine (Reuters).
Winter is coming China imposed more lockdowns in Beijing yesterday to stop the spread of omicron on the eve of the Winter Olympics (Reuters).
All eyes on Fed The US Federal Reserve is due to release its next interest rate decision on Thursday morning at 8am our time. Few are expecting it to hike this month, but everyone now expects the first of four 25 basis point hikes this year to start in March, and to see more detail on its plans to unwind its massive balance sheet. The Fed sets the base for global interest rates and its plans to withdraw stimulus could cause more big ructions on global markets.
6.0%? On Thursday we’ll get inflation data for Aotearoa-NZ in the December quarter at 10.45 am. Economists think annual CPI inflation could hit 6.0% in the December quarter. That would ramp up the pressure on the Reserve Bank to hike again, possibly as much as 50 basis points, when it next decides on monetary policy on Feb 23.
RMA pain The Port of Tauranga is set to run out of container space by 2024/25 if a resource consent for an expansion that's stuck in the Environment Court is not granted soon. (NZ Herald-$$$’s Andrea Fox).
Fresh on BusinessDesk this morning
Pattrick Smellie delves into the move to ‘red’ in his weekly column.
Jenny Ruth challenges the government’s widespread use of Facebook and Twitter for official information distribution in her weekly column.
Michael Andrew writes in depth about why there should be no shame in a business failure.
