Winning in a New Marketing Normal
The average yield of U.S. high yield bonds fell below 4%, as measured by the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Bond Index, for the first time ever last week.
February 22, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: Steepening yield curve means steepening profits for banks...
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield continued to advance last week, and climbed above 1.3% for the first time since February 2020.
February 22, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: A new low for high yield
The average yield of U.S. high yield bonds fell below 4%, as measured by the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Bond Index, for the first time ever last week.
February 16, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: Unemployment rising
After rising for seven straight months following the initial lockdowns introduced last spring, the Canadian economy lost jobs for a second consecutive month.
February 8, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: GameStop starts a controversy
It was a wild ride for many retail stocks last week, particularly GameStop Corp., which was at the centre of a battle between retail day traders and institutional short-sellers.
February 1, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: Business activity pulls back
Preliminary data for the month of January is showing a pullback in business activity across major economies around the world.
January 25, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: U.S. economy on lockdown
Gross domestic product in the U.K. contracted in November for the first time since April. The decrease was in response to new lockdown restrictions.
January 18, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: U.S. job market is stressed
While the U.S. labour market improved over the second half of 2020, new challenges to the labour market arose in December.
January 11, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: U.S. equities unbound
Optimism toward technology stocks took hold and drove the performance of the index, culminating in the S&P 500 reaching a record high in December.
January 4, 2021
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Monday morning briefing: The greenback backs down
The U.S. dollar fell to its lowest level since early 2018 versus a number of other major currencies last week.
December 21, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: 30,000 reasons to love the Dow
Canada’s economy expanded 40.5%, annualized, over the third quarter of 2020. This was a record expansion that followed a record 38.1% drop in the second quarter. While gross domestic product is within about 5% of its pre-pandemic level, making up that 5% difference might be difficult and could take some time. With COVID-19 cases rising […]
December 7, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: Industrial profits surge in China
Elon Musk recently overtook Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, for second spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Mr. Musk now trails only Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, for richest person in the world. Elon Musk is now worth approximately US$127.9 billion. Most of his net worth has been derived from Tesla Inc., which will soon be joining […]
November 30, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: Bitcoin bouncing back
Cash is apparently king in Canada. According to a report from CIBC, Canadian households and businesses have compiled a record amount of excess cash, totalling $170 billion ($90 billion for households and $80 billion for businesses). Government support, particularly CERB and CEBA, has bolstered these high levels of household and business cash. Additionally, poor economic […]
November 23, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: What’s the no-deal?
The world received some excellent news last week about a potential vaccine for COVID-19. Pfizer Inc. said its vaccine, developed alongside BioNTech SE, showed positive results from a large trial. The vaccine appeared to be more than 90% effective at preventing COVID-19. Importantly, no serious safety issues were found. Global equity markets surged higher on […]
November 16, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: Manufacturing soars
Canadian cannabis companies got some positive news last week, which helped lift share prices. The news may open up more of the U.S. market for these Canadian companies. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed his desire to legalize recreational cannabis in 2021. Furthermore, optimism rose that five more states may remove restrictions to marijuana […]
November 9, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: Sharp rebound
Technology stocks that had previously been outperformers came under pressure last week. These companies included a number of tech giants that announced relatively strong quarterly reports, but pointed to some uncertainty as a result of the pandemic. Amazon.com Inc. reported solid sales results, but said profitability could be challenged by the spread of COVID-19. Twitter […]
November 2, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: Services sector slipping
The European services sector weakened in October, according to a preliminary estimate from IHS Markit. This marked the second straight month the sector contracted.
October 26, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: Vehicle sales making a comeback
In Canada, new motor vehicle sales were 172,000 in the month of August. This marked the fourth straight month of gains following the substantial fall that occurred earlier in the COVID-19 outbreak.
October 19, 2020
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Tuesday morning briefing: Deferrals pushing down insolvencies
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, personal insolvencies have dropped markedly, largely in response to mortgage and other credit product deferrals, which have helped ease the burden on highly leveraged households.
October 13, 2020
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Monday morning briefing: Job cuts rising in the U.S.
Announced job cuts in the U.S. rose 2.6% to 119,000 jobs in September.
October 5, 2020
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