PrefBlog

The bank rate is unchanged:

The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent.

Global growth prospects have weakened since the Bank’s April Monetary Policy Report (MPR). While the economic expansion in the United States continues at a gradual but somewhat slower pace, developments in Europe point to a renewed contraction. In China and other emerging economies, the deceleration in growth has been greater than anticipated, reflecting past policy tightening and weaker external demand. This slowdown in global activity has led to a sizeable reduction in commodity prices, although they remain elevated. The combination of increasing global excess capacity over the projection horizon and reduced commodity prices is expected to moderate global inflationary pressures. Global financial conditions have also deteriorated since April, with periods of considerable volatility. The Bank’s base case projection assumes that the European crisis will continue to be contained, although this assumption is subject to downside risks.

It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums down 10bp, FixedResets gaining 13bp and DeemedRetractibles up 11bp. Volatility was almost non-existent. While there were a few issues with very good volumes (with a very high correlation to the recent TXPR rebalancing), overall volume was light.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.