The National Bank of Canada

Canada – The consumer price index rose 0.4% in May, allowing the year-on-year inflation rate to decline to 1.5% from 1.7%. In seasonally adjusted terms, CPI rose 0.2% as 6 subcomponents...

From panic to tragedyBrexit continues to dominate headlines and panic took hold of financial markets Thursday. Investors sought shelter in the U.S. dollar and yen while stock markets and crude oil...

Fed and Bank of Japan hold steadyCiting a possibly flagging job market, the U.S. Federal Reserve, as expected, opted to keep its key rate unchanged while leaving the door open to potential increases...

Fed DayDespite Brexit continuing to dominate headlines, the economic news published yesterday were encouraging for the U.S. economy. As confirmed by the 0.5% increase in retail sales, American...

Uncertainty persistsMarkets dipped slightly to start the week, as uncertainty persists surrounding Brexit and investors wait for the outcome of the Federal Reserve meeting tomorrow.The USD trend will...

WTI crude oil finally reached the important technical level of USD 50/barrel this week and was trading even above USD 51.50/barrel mid-week, closing the week close to 49.00 USD, up almost 1%. Brent...

Uncertainty on marketsMarkets are not fans of uncertainty and the upcoming Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom is dishing it out in spades. The most recent survey by a British newspaper shows a...

The continued march of crude oil above $51 kept the loonie strong throughout the trading day yesterday. We’ve gotten used to sharp movements in the USD/CAD pair over the past few months, but we...

Crude oil north of $50Despite the lack of major economic news yesterday, our dollar rose again, due mainly to Friday’s disappointing U.S. job data and especially crude oil prices rising above...

Crude Oil continues to hover around 50 USD/bbl., with Brent ending the week at 49.75 USD/bbl. and WTI at 48.75 USD/bbl. Brent traded over $50 on multiple occasions, but could not manage to hold on to...

Even before Fed chair Janet Yellen’s eagerly awaited speech at lunchtime yesterday, the CAD had already climbed substantially against the USD. Ms. Yellen stated that the most recent U.S. job...

Based on its latest meeting minutes and recent speeches by its Governors, the Fed seems keen to raise interest rates this summer. Its concerns about low interest rates for too long threatening the...

June rate hike off the table?There was a major surprise on Friday morning when U.S. job figures showed only 38,000 positions created instead of the 165,000 expected, the worst showing since 2010....

Canada – Real GDP expanded at an annualized pace of 2.4% in the first quarter of 2016 (chart), shy of consensus expectations. This bad news was made worse by downward revisions to all quarters...

OPEC meeting in ViennaSpeculations as to a potential agreement to freeze oil production in OPEC-member countries started up again this week before today’s meeting in Vienna. Note that last...

Canadian Q1 2016 GDP revealed that the nation’s economy grew at an annualized 2.4%, slightly below analysts’ forecast of 2.8%. What are the key facts about this reading?Positive: Foreign...