The National Bank of Canada

In Canada, last Wednesday’s release of the Teranet National Bank index was up 0.4% in January and 4.5% for the year. This is an encouraging sign as the residential real estate sector is an...

Stock markets decided to shrug off the poor January U.S. Retail Sales numbers released yesterday. Although sales dropped by 0.4%, compared to the analysts’ consensus of 0%, the S&P 500 still...

The ECB just announced that it is keeping its key rate unchanged at 0.25%, a decision justified by gradually improving economic conditions. However, ECB President Mario Draghi remains concerned about...

The FOMC’s decision to wind down its QE program by the end of the year is lifting the greenback not only because it’s signalling to investors an end to the Fed’s currency...

The rough start to 2014 for emerging market equities and currencies continues this morning. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is down 1.6% at this time, bringing its year-to-date slump to -6.8%. The...

With the exception of the yuan, whose near-term targets have been adjusted up a bit to reflect recentstrength, we’ve left our currency forecasts unchanged from last month. We continue to expect...

Canada – The consumer price index was flat in November, causing the year-on-year inflation rate to rise just two ticks to 0.9% (from 0.7%). In seasonally adjusted terms, CPI rose 0.2%, as five...

Thursday was much calmer on financial markets than the previous day, when the Fed made headlines around the world. Nevertheless, some economic indicators of note were released yesterday south of the...

We were expecting some major news yesterday and we were not disappointed! The Fed announced that it would start tapering its bond purchases starting in January. It will decrease its Treasury and...

Last Tuesday in the U.S., the Republicans and the Democrats agreed on a federal budget for the next two years. Several concessions were made by each side, with the Republicans agreeing to increases in...

Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement on the federal budget yesterday, which will help avoid a government shutdown like the one experienced this fall for the next two years. Concessions were...

Canada – The Canadian Labour Force Survey showed 22K net new jobs being created in November, topping consensus expectations which were at 12K. The job gains, coupled with an unchanged...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day in the red for a fifth consecutive day yesterday. Once again, encouraging growth perspectives in the U.S., specifically with respect to employment and...

All of a sudden, Canada can’t do anything right. At least that’s what some investors seem to believe given the speed at which sentiment has turned against the loonie. The deal struck by...

Major News this WeekThe release of Canadian GDP data for the 3rd quarter of 2013 came as a surprise, showing a 2.7% jump, or 0.2% over economists’ projections. This encouraging economic news did...

Canada – Real GDP grew 2.7% annualized in the third quarter of 2013, two ticks higher than consensus expectations which were at just 2.5%. However, the prior quarter was downgraded one tick to...