The National Bank of Canada

Canada – Retail sales were flat in March after growing a downwardly revised 0.7% in February (previously 0.8%). Nonetheless, sales were up in 6 of the 11 subsectors, including autos, where sales...

Early Friday morning, we learned that eurozone unemployment had risen to 12.2% in April, a new high. There are now some 19.4 million job seekers on the Old Continent. Even more concerning, EU youth...

For the 32nd time in a row, the Bank of Canada's Governor kept the Key Interest Rate unchanged at 1.0%. It would have been surprising for Mark Carney to dramatically shift his policy before passing...

Retail Sales figures for March released last Tuesday proved to be somewhat disappointing. They stood unchanged, even though analysts had expected a 0.1% increase. The primary market movements were...

Currency markets saw renewed activity yesterday. Take for example the EUR/USD pairing, which fluctuated by some 100 points in favour of the greenback over the course of the day, only to then correct...

On Monday, Quebec-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals signed an agreement to acquire U.S. eye care specialist Bausch + Lomb for the hefty sum of $8.7 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, a major...

Canadian Retail Sales and Existing Home Sales south of the border will be of interest to investors. However, the release of the FOMC meeting minutes will have the most significant impact on markets....

Today promises to be difficult, with our screens already filled with red this morning: a correction due to recently released negative HSBC China Manufacturing PMI figures. The Nikkei is down 7.3%, the...

Despite a bumpy start to the day on Thursday, stocks rallied to regain some of their lost ground thanks to encouraging economic data from the United States. Initial Jobless Claims were in line with...

The consumer price index fell 0.2% in April. That caused the year-on-year inflation rate to drop to 0.4%, the lowest since October 2009. In seasonally adjusted terms, the CPI fell 0.4%, as five of the...

Last week we learned that inflation in Canada fell 0.2% in April. On an annual basis, it has now reached a low 0.4%. A U.S. news item that gained some traction was an announcement by the President of...

Chinese Direct Foreign Investment figures, released yesterday, proved disappointing and the Australian currency broke the long-term upward trend by falling to 0.9860. This drop extended to the New...

The USD has once again been on a tear over the past few days. This time, further to disappointing national real estate data (Teranet/National Bank Index), the Canadian dollar has also felt the...

Last Friday, data was released on Canadian employment and, to no one’s surprise, the unemployment rate held steady at 7.2% in April. Some 12,500 jobs were created during this period, a marked...

Judging by the comments of several of its members last week, the Federal Reserve appears to be preparing economic stakeholders for more "flexibility" concerning its plan to purchase some $85 billion...

Late in the trading day on Thursday, after weeks of flirting with the psychological barrier of 100 JPY to the greenback, the USD/JPY finally broke through for the first time in four years. Stock...