The National Bank of Canada

US consumer deleveraging extended to the second quarter of 2012 according to just released data by the New York Fed, which showed a $53 bn drop in total household debt. Mortgages, HELOC’s, and...

FACTS: On a y/y basis, the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price IndexTM rose 4.8% in July (top chart). Of the 11 metropolitan areas covered, 12-month price changes vary widely....

The profitability of Canadian corporations is deteriorating. According to just-released data from Statistics Canada, operating earnings of non-financial corporations (privately and publicly owned)...

The United States will be front and centr this week, with Chairman Bernanke’s speech this Friday. Given that most commentators are betting on some form of additional stimulus, we believe that...

Summary• At the national level, the resale housing market appears balanced on the whole. The ratio of listings to sales stood at 6.1 months this past July and has shown little variation in almost...

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is sending a message to corporate Canada: rekindle those risktaking animal spirits or send the horde of cash sitting on the balance sheet back to investors....

Europe and Asia are still decelerating and U.S. nonfarm payrolls could disappoint in coming months. Finally, the U.S. economy is likely to encounter, not a cliff, but significant fiscal drag in early...

Investor fears have subsided recently, notably with regard to the eurozone crisis. The ECB has managed to ease financial pressure on the government of Spain, but much remains to be done to equip the...

On August 1st the Fed announced no new initiatives (besides what it had already announced in the prior meeting, e.g Operation Twist extension), while making it clear that it stood ready to provide...

FACTS: Retail sales decreased 0.4% in June, following a 0.2% increase in May (revised down from +0.3%). Sales decreased in 7 of 11 retail industries. Motor vehicles and parts sales were down 0.4%, a...

Mantega declared that an international currency war has broken out, his country seems to be weathering that war quite well, with a 10% currency depreciation in real terms. The eurozone has also...

Canada – In June, manufacturing shipments fell 0.4% in nominal terms after staying flat in May (revised up from -0.4%). More important for GDP, they rose 0.1% in volume terms after climbing an...

Major News This WeekGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel returned from vacation last Monday, and she even came to Canada to meet with Prime Minister Harper. Now that many are back from vacation, European...

Financial markets are trading on the assumption that Greece will get a break on the fiscal targets previously laid out for its bailout program. We concur. As today’s Hot Chart shows, the Greek...

Foreigners reduced their holdings of Canadian bonds by $7.9 billion in June, the biggest net outflow since December 2008 when the global credit crisis was in full swing. What’s the cause of this...

FACTS: Headline CPI inflation declined to 1.3% y/y in July from 1.5% y/y in June (top chart). Core CPI inflation was also down to 1.7% y/y from 2.0% y/y a month before. On a monthly basis, headline...