Notes From the Desk – FOMC Meeting – Laying The Groundwork   As expected, the FOMC held both rates and the pace of balance sheet reduction steady but left little doubt that September is a ‘live’ meeting where the first rate cut could be delivered.   The Dovish Bits:   The Committee recognized the improvement […]

Notes From the Desk: The Bank of Canada Rate Announcement The Bank of Canada (BoC) cut rates by 25 bps this morning to 4.5%. While this was expected, the BoC surprised the markets with a more dovish outlook. The Banks Confidence. The Bank is becoming more confident that inflation is heading to 2%, as considerable […]

Notes From The Desk: Canadian CPI – The Cut Is On   A sigh of relief could be heard this morning coming from the Bank of Canada.  Today’s CPI numbers provided evidence that last month’s data was a blip on the radar and that the trend in inflation remains downward.   By the numbers:   […]

Notes From the Desk – US June CPI – Break Out the Punch Bowl   Let’s get the party started!  Today’s weaker-than-expected June CPI data should give the Federal Reserve (Fed) the confidence to begin cutting rates later this year.     By the numbers:   YoY Headline inflation 3% (3.1% expected) YoY Core inflation […]

Notes From the Desk: Today’s Employment Data – Bolstering the Case for Lower Rates   June’s employment data has bolstered the case for lower rates.   By the numbers:   US   June employment 206k (190k expected).  The slightly higher number is offset by the 111k downward revision to the previous two months data. Unemployment […]