The National Bank of Canada

This morning, European stock markets and S&P 500 futures are down by close to 1%, due mainly to the failure to reach an agreement in Washington over the weekend. The U.S. government has been shut...

The stalemate continues in Washington, with no progress made in talks between Democrats and Republicans. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Labor has postponed the release of jobs figures scheduled...

The Fed’s surprising decision to stand pat on monetary policy, despite having signalled to markets that it was about to taper its asset purchase program, changes the FX outlook quite a bit, at...

International financial markets were mostly down yesterday, the second day of the U.S. government shutdown. In an interview with CNBC yesterday, President Obama stated that investors should be worried...

Contrary to what many observers would have thought, the partial shutdown of the U.S. government so far has had only a limited impact. U.S. stock markets made substantial gains yesterday, but the...

Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on the budget for fiscal 2014 last night: several federal agencies are therefore closed this morning. The last U.S. government shutdown dates...

Canada – Retail sales rose 0.6% in July, reversing the prior month’s decline. The increase was one tick better than expected by consensus. Sales were up in 8 of the 11 sub-sectors. Auto...

Major News this WeekCurrency markets were relatively quiet last week, particularly for the Canadian dollar. For the USD/CAD pair, the difference between the week’s peak and trough was only 70...

With the 2014 fiscal year set to begin tomorrow, Congress has yet to approve a U.S. federal budget. Democrats and Republicans must reach an agreement before midnight tonight or numerous federal...

In recent days, it appears that tensions between the West and the Middle East have eased somewhat. After this week's United Nations meeting, the U.S. and Iran sat down together for the first time in...

The S&P 500 index closed yesterday’s session in the red for a fifth day in a row, amid rumours of a U.S. Government shutdown. The Senate will probably hold their vote this weekend, followed...

Barely a year ago, the topic of whether to raise the U.S. debt ceiling was front and centre in the news. Fast forward 12 months and Republicans and Democrats are once again at loggerheads over the...

Yesterday was a relatively calm day for North American currencies and particularly for the USD/CAD pairing, which traded within a 25-point range. The S&P 500 index closed the day in the red for...

Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve surprised financial market pundits all around the world. While a median result of analysts expected Ben Bernanke to announce that the Fed would reduce bond...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was returned to power over the weekend, winning her third consecutive federal election. Her position on the European sovereign debt crisis, record of economic growth...

Stock markets rose sharply yesterday, after the Fed announced that it would hold off on any changes to its current quantitative easing program. U.S. bond markets will therefore continue to receive an...