Rates are up substantially this morning following comments from a voting member of the Federal Reserve that the economy may be strong enough to allow the Fed to begin raising rates soon. Additionally, data out of the US this morning indicates that Personal Spending in February grew 0.7% (exp. 0.5%), adding to the selloff, on the notion that “Americans are more willing to open their wallets”. The fact that spending grew faster than Personal Income, and that the growth in spending is driven in large part due to rising energy prices appear to not bother the market.
Over the next couple of days, releases include:
- US: S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, Consumer Confidence (Tue), ADP Employment Report (Wed)
- Canada: Industrial Product Price Index (Wed)
Tags: Federal Reserve, economy, US, Personal Spending, Apartment, lending, financing, CMHC, Mortgages Canada, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax
The bond market is selling off yet again and I can’t say it is a data-driven process. Rather, it seems that yesterday’s extension of the oft-ridiculed Bush Tax Cuts by the Obama government is the pre-eminent topic this morning and has markets hoping that it will help revive the economy. There is some talk of further Chinese tightening which has contributed to a slight pullback in many commodities but it doesn’t seem to be having an impact on the bond market.
The only hard data of note this morning is Canadian Housing Starts for November which, at 187.2k, beat expectations by 14k and increased over October by almost 20k.