The National Bank of Canada

With only three months left in 2012, it would be surprising if the U.S. labour market outlook improved fast enough to satisfy the FOMC. So the odds are that the asset-purchase program will extend into...

Last week was relatively calm in North America, but the same cannot be said of Europe. The people of Greece and Spain spent most of last week expressing their discontent with the current situations in...

After a difficult spell for riskier assets last week–e.g., the S&P500 lost 1.2%–it appears that we are beginning this week on the right foot. European equities have rallied by a bit...

Central bankers, the world’s best hope at a time of political inertia, have delivered in a big way. By agreeing to buy unlimited amounts of short-term sovereign bonds, the European Central Bank...

FACTS: Real GDP rose 0.2% in July, after increasing 0.1% in June (revised down from 0.2%). The goods sector was up 0.2%, after remaining unchanged the month before. Among good producing sectors,...

After extremely disappointing U.S. GDP and Durable Goods Orders figures released yesterday, Canadian GDP numbers for July will be front and centre this morning. Annualized growth is expected to slow...

Good news stateside yesterday morning: The Consumer Confidence Index jumped 9 points to 70.3 in September. The score exceeded even the most optimistic analysts' expectations, which bodes well given...

Many central banks have recently injected funds into their respective economies in an attempt to stimulate stagnating recoveries. Naturally, these capital inflows have devaluated their respective...

CanadaIn August, the consumer price index rose 0.2%. In seasonally adjusted terms, it was up 0.4%, with six of the eight broad categories seeing increases. Higher prices for shelter (+0.2%), food...

Global industrial production (IP), which was flat in the second quarter of 2012 (the worst performance since the 2009 global recession), seems to have picked up speed in July based on latest CPB data....

• After its 27.5% increase since the June 28 low, oil prices are down 7.3% compared to last Friday's closing price. Businesses that were waiting for the best time to implement a hedging strategy...

FACTS: On a y/y basis, the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price IndexTM rose 4.1% in August (top chart). Over the 11 metropolitan areas covered, 12-month price changes vary...

Canada – In July, the merchandise trade deficit did worse than expected by consensus (-C$1.5 billion), widening to -C$2.335 billion from a downwardly revised -C$1.9 billion the month before...

We were treated to some rather busy trading sessions last week. There was no shortage of economic news for investors to dissect. The two main news were the decision of the German constitutional court...

Most of the good news from the Fed and the ECB had already been anticipated by investors and this has led to profit taking on most asset classes. This setback stemmed from difficulties experienced by...

Today, the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) reported that home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in the first 14 days of September were down 15% compared to the same period in 2011. New listings...