The National Bank of Canada

Last Wednesday the Bank of Canada maintained its key interest rate at 1%. This came as no surprise, since the rate has not budged since September 2010. At the same time the Bank lowered its growth...

At their last meeting, Bank of Canada officials lowered their growth forecasts, draining strength from the loonie. This is good news for many of our clients, who were awaiting a good opportunity to...

After the disappointing U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls for September released on Tuesday, Initial Jobless Claims reached 350,000 this week, after analysts had forecasted 340,000. At present, markets appear to...

As expected, the Bank of Canada decided to hold its key rate steady at 1%. The rather accommodating tone of its press release confirms its intention to maintain its current monetary policy for some...

U.S. employment figures showed a total of 148,000 new jobs in September, well below the forecasted 180,000. Softening the blow somewhat, we also learned that August jobs figures were revised upward to...

U.S. Existing Home Sales and Canadian Wholesale Sales did not have any effect on the USD/CAD pairing yesterday, as it continued to trade within a 15-point range. We are hoping for more action from...

Canada – The consumer price index was up 0.2% in September (consensus was expecting +0.1%), causing the year-on-year inflation rate to remain unchanged at 1.1%. In seasonally adjusted terms, CPI...

Canada’s Consumer Price Index for September was released on Friday. The monthly growth rate was slightly higher than expected: 0.2%, compared to a forecast of 0.1%. On an annual basis, inflation...

After four long years of negotiations, Prime Minister Harper and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso are preparing to sign an agreement in principle that should lead to a free...

The bipartisan agreement was passed by the Senate yesterday and finally signed by President Obama just before the October 17 deadline. The federal government will therefore return to business as usual...

The agreement that was to come out of the Senate and be approved by the House was unable to garner sufficient support yesterday, meaning we're back to the drawing board for what's shaping up to be a...

Canada – Employment rose 12K in September according to the Labour Force survey. Despite the relatively small gains in employment, the unemployment rate managed to drop two ticks to 6.9%, the...

Talks between Democrats and Republicans concerning the budget standoff officially got underway yesterday. House Republicans proposed a plan to increase the debt ceiling, which President Obama neither...

Latest news indicates that Democrat leaders in the Senate and house Republicans would be inclined to raise the debt ceiling to $16.7 trillion. Several strategic meetings are scheduled for today. House...

Housing Starts figures for September were higher than expected, a 5.3% increase vs. August data. However, this news was not enough to counter the effect of the dark political cloud south of the...

The G-20 announced yesterday that it had identified recent market turmoil brought on by statements of changes to central banks' quantitative easing policies as a key risk to the global financial...