The Canadian dollar continues to trade near thirty year highs as building permits rocketed to a record 21 percent. The CAD experienced a further push from commodities with oil trading at the $72-a-barrel level.
Hollinger Inc. filed a law suite against CIBC, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, and a former bank chief executive looking for over $65 million. Hollinger claimed the group of banks knew about Conrad Black’s misconduct at Hollinger, but withheld the information to protect their banks? interests.
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/07/05/hollinger.html
[I]Source: CBC[/I]
The Canadian auto industry is on track to sell 1.7 million vehicles by year end, the highest since 2002. Craig Wright, chief economist at RBC Financial Group, predicted the high volume of sales can be attributed to an accelerating economy.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=c6da11ab-9f26-4696-be58-abb69c703865&k=20323[I]Source: Financial Post[/I]
Canadian building permits soared to almost four times what analysts had expected. Analysts had predicted an increase of 5.5 percent, but the final numbers emerged with an increase topping 21 percent.
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
[I]Source: Bloomberg[/I]
[B]Currency Markets: CAD
[/B]The Canadian dollar continues to trade near thirty year highs as building permits rocketed to a record 21 percent. The CAD experienced a further push from commodities with oil trading at the $72-a-barrel level. With an above-target inflation rate, strong economic indicators continue to impact the Bank of Canada?s hawkish position, and the markets are now expecting the central bank to hike to 4.50 percent next Tuesday. The Canadian dollar was most recently quoted at 1.0570.
[B]Equity Markets: S&P/TSX Index[/B]
The S&P/TSX index dipped today, dragged lower by the Canadian financial sector. The Bank of Nova Scotia fell 39 cents to C$51.436 on a pending lawsuit from Hollinger Inc. and insurance company Manulife Financial dropped 45 cents to C$39.56. S&P/TSX losses were limited, however, as Canadian gas and oil companies rose on climbing oil prices with Petro-Canada and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. gaining 44 cents and 35 cents, respectively. The S&P/TSX composite index was last quoted down 73.95 points at 13,986.44.
[B]Fixed Income Markets: 10-Year Canadian Government Bonds[/B]
As strong economic data was released, investors were encouraged to move their money out of risk free securities, sending the Canadian government 10-year bond lower. Furthermore, the positive data caused yields to spike on speculation that the BoC will raise interest rates. Bankers? acceptance forward rates continued to price in two rate increases by the end of the year. The Canadian government 10-year bond was most recently quoted at 95.423.
