Encouraging first meeting between Trudeau and Trump!
It was a successful first meeting for Justin Trudeau, with a friendly tone between our Prime Minister and President Donald Trump during their joint press conference yesterday afternoon. President Trump appeared to indicate that trade provisions between the two countries will only be tweaked, noting that Canada-U.S. relations were positive, helping our dollar rack up another day of gains. Since February 8, the Canadian dollar has been the top-performing G10 currency against the greenback, rising close to 1%.
Investors’ focus will now shift to the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed), as Janet Yellen appears before Congress this morning starting at 10 a.m. Comments hinting at rate hikes coming faster than markets anticipate could accentuate the interest rate differential, which remains close to the high reached in January 2016.
We’ll also be keeping an eye on comments from several other Fed officials, including Lacker (8:50), Kaplan (1 p.m.) and Lockhart (1 p.m.). A great deal of volatility is therefore to be expected on currency markets.
