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Statistics Canada surprised the markets when it announced that the country’s inflation rate rose unexpectedly in April to 4.4%. After cooling in March to 4.3%, economists were expecting the inflation rate to continue decelerating to 4.1%. This represents the first increasing in inflation since June 2022, when Canada’s inflation rate hit a more than 40-year […]

The Canadian dollar is taking a hit against the U.S. dollar, after positing its biggest decline since March. The Canadian dollar, which is trading at $1.33 compared to the U.S. greenback is down 0.8% over the last few trading days and has lost 3.7% of its value over the last year. The Canadian dollar is […]

The U.S. Federal Reserve continued its inflation fighting ways on May 3 after it lifted its key lending rate by 25 basis points from a target range of 5.00% to 5.25%. This represents the 10th straight interest rate hike and the highest level since the autumn of 2007. Since it started raising interest rates in […]

First quarter earnings season has begun and the outlook for Canadian stocks is muted, with analysts lowering their first quarter earnings estimates more than average for S&P/TSX Composite companies. First quarter estimated earnings, on a per share basis, decreased by 8.9% from December 31 to March 31. This decline is far larger than the five-year […]

Statistics Canada announced that Canada’s inflation rate fell to 4.3% in March from 5.2% in February—the slowest pace since August 2021. Any deceleration in inflation is welcome, but the 4.3% rate is still more than double the Bank of Canada’s two percent target. On a month-over-month basis, the consumer price index (CPI) was up 0.5% […]

Did The Bank of Canada Raise Interest Rates? Once every quarter the Bank of Canada updates its policy and provides an economic outlook. Historically, most Canadian’s don’t pay a lot of attention to these announcements. But ever since inflation soared to 40-year highs last summer, investors and Canadians alike have been paying close attention to […]

Some analysts don’t provide guidance on energy stocks because the outlook for oil and gas can be hard to gauge. But some unexpected news just gave Canadian energy stocks an unexpected boost. Oil prices surged on Monday, April 3 after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies (OPEC+) shocked the market by […]

The year started out strong for the stock market. In January alone, the TSX and S&P 500 both rallied more than 6.5%. But over the past month, stocks have taken a hit, with the failure of Silicon Valley Bank injecting fear into growing concerns about additional bank runs. That said, turmoil in the banking industry […]

The U.S. Federal Reserve announced March 22 that it was raising its key lending rate by a quarter point, continuing its aggressive rate hike policy in an effort to tame stubbornly high inflation. The Fed did this in spite of the turmoil roiling Wall Street following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and failure of […]

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and shutdown of Signature Bank of New York have sparked global fears of a widespread financial meltdown. Both banks catered to the tech industry. Silicon Valley was important to venture capital firms while Signature was a key financial institution to the cryptocurrency industry. While Silicon Valley Bank is relatively […]