Category: Market Action

TXPR closed at 532.74, up 2.18% on the day, taking the price index all the way back to where it was July 31. Volume today was 3.17-million, by far the highest of the past 21 trading days.

CPD closed at 10.60, up 2.61% on the day. Volume was 111,060, fourth-highest of the past 21 trading days.

ZPR closed at 9.08, up 3.18% on the day. Volume was 449,240, highest of the past 21 trading days.

Five-year Canada yields were calm at 3.80%.

Other markets were good, but not spectacular:

U.S. stocks ended higher on Wednesday on optimism that the Federal Reserve may be done raising interest rates and that the economy is still resilient. The Canadian benchmark index was nearly unchanged, as a decline in the energy sector offset gains in some interest rate-sensitive sectors.

Economic reports Wednesday on jobless claims, durable goods, and consumer sentiment seemed to suggest the U.S. economy is easing but may stay strong enough to avoid recession. Data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week.

Tuesday’s minutes on the last Fed meeting showed a cautious approach toward monetary policy. Still, stocks have risen sharply in recent weeks on the view the Fed is done hiking rates.

The World Economic Forum doesn’t like me telling people what’s going on, because I haven’t met my quota for dispensing mind control devices this year, but people are clamouring for answers so … I suspect there’s a lot of money on the sidelines controlled by portfolio managers who realize the preferred share market is grossly undervalued, but who also know that if they don’t buy within a nickel of the absolute bottom then their penises will fall off (I don’t know what happens to the female ones). So they sit at their desks all day, worrying, discussing the latest headlines in the Wall Street Journal with their buddies, and waiting anxiously for tax-loss selling season. And every now and then, one or two of them screw up their courage and take the plunge. Hey, it’s easier than working!

And that opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it, like all other market timing commentary. ADDED AFTERWARDS: The recision of the special dividend tax treatment for financial institutions probably had a lot to do with it, too.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 6.93%, equivalent to 9.01% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates yielded 5.42% on 2023-11-17 and since then the closing price has changed from 14.50 to 14.61, an increase of 76bp in price, with a Duration (BMO doesn’t specify Modified or Macaulay – I will assume the former) of 12.03 implying a decrease of 6bp in yield to 5.36%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) has narrowed slightly (and perhaps spuriously) to 365bp from the 379bp reported November 15.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 7.04%, equivalent to 9.15% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates yielded 5.56% on 2023-11-10 and since then the closing price has changed from 14.20 to 14.40, an increase of 141bp in price, with a Duration (BMO doesn’t specify Modified or Macaulay – I will assume the former) of 12.03 implying a decrease of 12bp in yield to 5.44%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) is has narrowed slightly (and perhaps spuriously) to 370bp from the 375bp reported November 8.

TXPR closed at 517.48, up 0.92% on the day. Volume today was 1.78-million, above the median of the past 21 trading days.

CPD closed at 10.25, up 0.89% on the day. Volume was 181,970, highest of the past 21 trading days.

ZPR closed at 8.73, up 1.39% on the day. Volume was 369,420, highest of the past 21 trading days.

Five-year Canada yields were down to 3.81%.

Equities and bonds also had a good day:

Global stock markets soared and bond yields plunged on Tuesday as cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve was done raising interest rates and was on the path to cutting them next year.

The S&P 500 closed up 1.9%, its best day since April, with the rate-sensitive real estate and utilities sectors posting their biggest daily percentage gains since November 2022. The TSX gained 1.6% to a near eight-week high in a broad-based advance that also was led by the real estate and utilities sectors.

In the 12 months through October, the consumer price index climbed 3.2% after rising 3.7% in September. Economists were expecting a 3.3% gain. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy components, rose 4.0% compared with economists’ estimate of a 4.1% increase. Consumer prices were unchanged on a monthly basis, the first such reading in more than a year.
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Following the data, traders erased bets the Fed will raise borrowing costs any further and piled into bets on rate cuts starting by May. They are currently pricing in a 100% chance the Fed will hold rates next month, as per CME Group’s Fedwatch tool. U.S. rate futures priced in a more than 60% chance of a rate cut by the Fed in May next year.

Bond yields were down sharply across the curve. By late afternoon, both the U.S. two-year and 10-year bonds were down about 20 basis points, or one-fifth of a percentage point. The moves in Canadian bond yields, which take much of their direction from the U.S. treasury market, was a little less dramatic but were still large for a single day. The Canada five-year bond was yielding 3.804% by late afternoon, down 15 basis points, while the 10-year bond had retreated back to the lows of this past September.

Money markets also continue to increase bets that monetary easing is coming next year to Canada, where the economy has recently been more sluggish than in the U.S. and has been seeing similar downward trends in inflation. Implied probabilities in the swaps market on Tuesday showed just over a 50% chance of a quarter-point rate cut in the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate by April, with 75 basis points of cuts expected by the end of next year.
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Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that prices either fell or rose more slowly across a broad range of goods and services, including gas, new and used cars, hotel rooms and housing. Gas prices fell 5 per cent from September to October and are down 5.3 per cent from a year earlier. They have continued to fall into November, suggesting that cheaper energy could hold down inflation this month as well.

Moody’s has put the US on Outlook-Negative:

Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has today changed the outlook on Government of United States of America’s (US) ratings to negative from stable and affirmed the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings at Aaa.

The key driver of the outlook change to negative is Moody’s assessment that the downside risks to the US’ fiscal strength have increased and may no longer be fully offset by the sovereign’s unique credit strengths. In the context of higher interest rates, without effective fiscal policy measures to reduce government spending or increase revenues, Moody’s expects that the US’ fiscal deficits will remain very large, significantly weakening debt affordability. Continued political polarization within US Congress raises the risk that successive governments will not be able to reach consensus on a fiscal plan to slow the decline in debt affordability.

Bonds were front and centre today:

U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday, snapping the longest winning streaks for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 in two years, as Treasury yields climbed after a disappointing auction of 30-year bonds and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. But as it has every day this week, the Canadian stock market diverged in performance, with the S&P/TSX Composite Index ending with gains as commodity prices rebounded and investors cheered upbeat corporate earnings.

Powell said central bank officials “are not confident” interest rates are high enough to tame inflation, and may not get much more help from improvements in the supply of goods, services and labour.

U.S. stocks had moved slightly lower prior to Powell’s comments as yields climbed after a weak auction of US$24 billion in 30-year Treasuries with demand for the debt at 2.24 times the bonds on sale.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield by late afternoon was up 12.8 basis points at 4.636%. The Canadian 10-year government bond yield, which takes much of its direction from its U.S. counterpart, was up an even steeper 18 basis points, to 3.890%. While a large one-day move, the yield is still below a 16-year high of 4.292% reached in early October.

… and Powell was talking tough:

U.S. Federal Reserve officials “are not confident” that interest rates are yet high enough to finish the battle with inflation, and may be nearing the end of how much help they can expect in lowering price pressures from improvements in the supply of goods, services and labour, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday.

In comments more significant in flagging some of the Fed chair’s emerging views about structural economic changes following the pandemic, Powell said the Fed “is committed to achieving a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 per cent over time; We are not confident that we have achieved such a stance.”

“If it becomes appropriate to tighten policy further, we will not hesitate to do so,” Powell said in remarks prepared for delivery to an International Monetary Fund research conference, while adding that further policy moves would be conducted “carefully … allowing us to address both the risk of being misled by a few good months of data, and the risk of overtightening. We are making decisions meeting by meeting.”

The fight to restore price stability “has a long way to go,” the Fed chair said.