{"id":27531,"date":"2015-01-20T23:10:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T04:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=27531"},"modified":"2015-01-20T23:10:07","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T04:10:07","slug":"january-20-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=27531","title":{"rendered":"January 20, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

The loonie got hammered today<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s dollar weakened to the lowest in more than five years on speculation the central bank may signal it\u2019s more likely to lower interest rates than raise them when it releases a growth outlook tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The currency sank as much as 1.5 percent, the most since Jan. 2, before the Bank of Canada updates quarterly inflation and growth projections to factor in the crude-oil slump.
…<\/b>
The loonie, as the currency is nicknamed for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, depreciated 1.4 percent to C$1.2113 per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. in Toronto. It touched C$1.2115, the weakest level since April 2009.
…<\/b>
One Canadian dollar purchases 82.71 U.S. cents.<\/p>\n

Yields on 30-year government bonds touched a record low of 2.04 percent, before trading at 2.05 percent.<\/p>\n

Crude oil, Canada\u2019s biggest export, traded below $50 a barrel in New York, from $107.73 in June. The central bank\u2019s October forecast of growth of 2.4 percent this year was underpinned by an assumption U.S. benchmark crude would trade at an average of $85 a barrel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts down 5bp, FixedResets off 4bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 7bp … BORRRR-RING! However, the Performance Highlights table, while shorter than it has generally been for the past few weeks, still manages to produce an entertaining list with FixedResets highlighted for volatility. Volume was below average.<\/p>\n

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I\u2019ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets\u2019 Implied Volatilities. This doesn\u2019t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.<\/p>\n

Remember that all rich \/cheap assessments are:<\/p>\n