Canada February Employment Produces Worst of Two Worlds

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 15, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) The retrenchment for employment in Canada’s mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction is well underway. Presumably, oil and gas are the primary drivers of the decline. The latest employment report … Read more

The Fed Aligns With Other Central Banks On Explaining Oil’s Decline and Its Economic Impact

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on Feb 25, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) As every other major central bank has done, the Federal Reserve has taken a crack at estimating the economic impact of the collapse in oil prices. In its semi-annual report to … Read more

A Strong Headline Labor Force Survey Fails to Boost the Canadian Dollar

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on Feb 8, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) Canada has produced several strong economic reports over the past several months. For example, even with a 8.8% month-over-month drop in employment in the natural resources sector, January produced a net … Read more

Canada Is Relying On A Weaker Currency To Cushion Its Economy Until Oil’s Longer-Term Bull Returns

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on Jan 14, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) “The recent movements in oil prices have been dramatic, but they are not random. Once we sort through the different economic forces at play, we see that underlying the recent drop … Read more

A New Year’s Re-Evaluation of the Drivers for Bullishness On the Canadian Dollar

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on Jan 2, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) On December 23rd, Statistics Canada reported another strong showing for Canada’s GDP. This time it was manufacturing that produced the unexpectedly strong result. Real GDP increased 0.3% in October. {snip} Given … Read more

Bank of Canada Gets More Bearish Ahead of More News of Employment Stagnation

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on June 8, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) On June 4th, the Bank of Canada hit the “repeat button” by maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1%. The rest of the statement was not a repeat: it … Read more

The Canadian Dollar And Oil: An Imperfect Partnership

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 21, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) A year ago, the Canadian dollar (FXC) hit my then annual 1.08 target for the USD/CAD currency pair. I next contemplated setting a much more aggressive year-long target of 1.16. In … Read more

The Canadian Dollar Overshadowed by A Strong U.S. Jobs Report

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 8, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) Canada experienced two extremely strong monthly jobs reports going into the report for November, 2014. Both positive reports were generally overlooked by currency markets. This time around, Canada’s job report did … Read more

A Strong Canadian GDP Report Ignored: A Contrarian Opportunity in the Making

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on November 20, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) Once again, traders overlooked another strong economic report from Canada. This time the strong report came in the form of GDP growth. The distracting event was a tremendous plunge in oil … Read more

A Second Extremely Strong Month for Canadian Jobs Chases Away My Bearish Bias

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on November 9, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) Suddenly, prospects for the Canadian dollar (FXC) are presumably improving with unemployment making a dramatic turnaround over the last two months. September’s good news was drowned out by October’s sharp sell-off … Read more