More pressure to raise rates

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Thursday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>Today we lead with news two more central banks signaled they will be raising rates in 2022.</p><p>But first in the US, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm" target="_blank"><strong>October job openings rose</strong></a> far more than expected, up by 431,000 from a month earlier to just over 11 mln. September was revised up. Hires were little changed at 6.5 mln and the quit rate stayed high at 2.8% (or 4.2 mln) from a record 3% (4.4 mln) in the prior month.</p><p>Today's <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2021/R_20211208_2.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>UST 10yr bond auction</strong></a> saw the Fed pull back sharply too (just like we reported on the UST 3 year auction yesterday). Despite that it was very well supported with the median yield rising to 1.45% from 1.37% at <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2021/R_20211109_1.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>the prior event</strong></a> a month ago.</p><p><a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/current/default.htm" target="_blank"><strong>Fed data on consumer credit</strong></a> came in unexpectedly weak for October (and September data was revised down).</p><p>US November vehicle sales, the world's second largest market after China, came in little-changed in November at 12.9 mln (annual rate).</p><p><a href="https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2021/12/fad-press-release-2021-12-08/" target="_blank"><strong>The Bank of Canada held</strong></a> its policy rate at 0.25% in its overnight review but sees quickly improving economic conditions domestically, and still expects to raise rates starting in the middle of 2022.</p><p>Japan <a href="https://www.esri.cao.go.jp/en/sna/data/sokuhou/files/2021/qe213_2/pdf/gaiyou2132_e.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>reported</s