After dealing with decades-high inflation, Canadian consumers are beginning to see the effects of the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest rate hike policy. Statistics Canada announced that the annual inflation rate cooled to 2.7% in April, down from 2.9% in March. The lower inflation rate comes on the heels of slower growth in food prices, […]
Category Archives: Blog
14
May
May
When the economy is booming, it’s not uncommon, or always newsworthy, if the stock market hits a new record high. In fact, there are times when the S&P 500 seems to hit a new record high every few weeks. But in this economic climate, one plagued by stubbornly high inflation, interest rates at decade highs, […]
07
May
May
Persistently high interest rates are taking a big bite out of the Canadian economy. In February, Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew just 0.2% on a month-over-month basis. That’s lower than the 0.3% economists were expecting and well below Statistics Canada’s own advanced estimate of 0.4%. On an annual basis, Canadian GDP grew 0.8%, well […]
02
May
May
While most investors probably look to the major U.S. exchanges for the biggest annual gains, the TSX could still outpace U.S. stocks in 2024. However, that wasn’t what most analysts were expecting. After all, the S&P 500 rallied an impressive 22% in 2023 compared to the 5.8% growth on the TSX. That was then. It’s […]
23
Apr
Apr
According to Statistics Canada, the country’s inflation rate inched up to 2.9% in March, juiced by higher gasoline prices. That’s up from 2.8% in February but still close to its 2% target. The March results were also in line with what Bay Street analysts were expecting. While the consumer price index (CPI) rose slightly, measures […]
16
Apr
Apr
Over the last two years, the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Federal Reserve have taken drastic steps to cool inflation. While unprecedented interest rate hikes have taken a toll on the Canadian economy, the U.S. economy is booming. We can see this playing out with the divergence between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. […]
12
Apr
Apr
It looks like the Bank of Canada will get what it wanted, a soft economic landing, in which growth has slowed considerably but avoided a recession. In less than two years, the Bank of Canada raised interest rates 10 times, from near zero to 5%. In June 2022, Canadian inflation hit its highest level in […]
26
Mar
Mar
Canada’s inflation rate continues to surprise to the downside. After unexpectedly cooling to 2.9% in January, economists expected the headline inflation rate to rise to 3.1% in February. That didn’t happen. Instead, Canada’s inflation rate cooled to 2.8%. Mortgage and rent interest costs were the biggest driver of the inflation rate. After a 4% decline […]
19
Mar
Mar
Statistics Canada reported that the Canadian economy increased by 1% in the fourth quarter. This followed a decline of 0.5% in the third quarter. The fourth quarter increase in gross domestic product (GDP) means that the Canadian economy avoided a recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction. How Is the Canadian Economy […]
12
Mar
Mar
With a market capitalization of $3.5 trillion and 3,502 listed companies, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is the largest exchange in Canada. It’s also the third largest in North America and the nineth largest in the world. Unfortunately, the TSX has been underperforming its American counterparts by a wide margin over the last decade. The […]
