Notes from the Desk – FOMC Meeting – Dialing It Back   As expected the Federal Reserve (Fed) held rates steady and opted to continue quantitative tightening as scheduled. The good news.   The Fed dropped references to further rate hikes, and Chairman Powell explicitly stated that the Fed Funds rate was at its peak. […]

 Notes From the Desk:  BoC Day – Dropping Some Hints.   As expected, the Bank of Canada (BoC) held its target overnight rate at 5% and continued the process of quantitative tightening. But as is often the case with these meetings, the devil is in the details, and they did drop some hints that rate […]

Notes From the Desk – Canadian Inflation – A Fly In The Ointment   While the headline inflation number for December met expectations, the acceleration in the core measures should raise concerns at the Bank of Canada (BoC). By the Numbers. YoY headline CPI met expectations at 3.4%. Both core measures came in 0.2% higher […]

Notes From the Desk – North American Employment Data   The shine is coming off the bond market as employment remains more resilient than expected. By the Numbers. US 216k jobs created vs 176k expected. -71k net revision to previous two months. Unemployment rate remains at 3.7% vs 3.8% expected. YoY wage growth 4.1% vs […]

Notes From the Desk – FOMC Meeting – Release the Hounds   As expected, the FOMC kept the policy rate unchanged at 5.25-5.5%.  The far more interesting items were buried in their press release and conference.   The dot-plot thickens.   No further hikes are indicated. A rate cut was added to 2024 for a […]