Spike in crude oil prices
Crude oil prices quickly shot up more than 5% yesterday after news hit the wires about a potential agreement between Saudi Arabia and Russia to limit output levels. The Canadian dollar and certain other Commonwealth currencies (particularly the AUD and NZD) followed suit in short order. The USD/CAD pair even reached its lowest level since July 2015 yesterday. Given this context, the Bank of Canada’s key rate decision scheduled for 10:00 a.m. today will be followed all the more closely.
In the past few hours, we learned that Chinese exports rose by 11.5% in March, beating economists’ forecasts of 10%. This is reassuring news for the world’s second largest economy. This morning, two major indicators will be released south of the border at 8:30: Retail Sales for March (+0.1% vs. -0.1%) and the Producer Price Index also for March (+0.2% vs. -0.2%).
