Author: Sherry Cooper

March saw employment gains of 41,000 (+0.2%), the strongest reading in five months, with Alberta (of all places) enjoying the largest improvement. This lowered the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points to 7.1%. So it is not surprising to see job weakness in April report. Indeed, employment was virtually unchanged last month (-2,100 or 0.0%)…

Crude oil prices are poised for their biggest monthly gain in seven years, hitting a new high for 2016, and as day follows night, the Canadian dollar is up sharply–just shy of 80 cents U.S. Today’s February GDP report was not as weak as expected following the blowout number in January, leaving Canada likely to…

To no one’s surprise, the Bank of Canada left its target overnight rate unchanged at 1/2 percent. The Bank, however, reduced its forecast for the global economy and for the U.S. economy as well, suggesting that the outlook for Canadian exports is less favorable than earlier forecast. (Table 1 below shows the Bank’s current global…

Following three months of little job growth, economists expected to see a modest 5,000 increase in employment in March. The jobless rate was forecast to hold steady at 7.3%, matching the highest level in over 3 years. Surprise! March came in like a lion, with employment up 41,000 (+0.2%)–the strongest reading in five months. This…

Canada Has Only One Customer for Oil…And It’s Not Buying Canadian oil is landlocked. We have only one customer–the U.S.–and that customer is now producing more oil than it needs. What’s more, the U.S. considers Canadian oil to be dirty oil and, therefore, would prefer not to import it. Hence the downfall of the Keystone…

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Today’s budget included everything I expected and nothing that I feared. The fears first—there is no change in the tax treatment of capital gains or stock options, despite continued rumours and speculation. Indeed, in a press conference in the lock-up, Minister Morneau said that stock options tax changes are off the table because they are…

A happy accident marked the beginning of a stellar career for Sherry Cooper. Then a student at Goucher College in Baltimore, she took her first economics class because she needed to fill a slot in her study schedule. That choice opened the door to Sherry’s future as a leader in the field of finance. “It…

Today’s stronger than expected fourth quarter GDP figure of 0.8% annualized growth did little to assuage concerns that the Canadian economy is growing well below potential. Many expected growth to be flat in the final quarter of last year. The growth figure released today by Statistics Canada was boosted by the biggest drop in imports…

Diverging Housing Markets Continue Data released earlier this week for January showed the stunning disparity in regional housing markets in Canada (see chart below). Vancouver remains the red-hot leader with year-over-year (y/y) price gains of 20.6% and home resales growth of an eye-popping 32.1%. In comparison, Toronto’s housing market seems almost tepid, with an annual…