SIA Wealth Morning Minutes will not be issued tomorrow, it will return on Wednesday March 12th.
Amid ongoing uncertainty over the potential impact of tariffs and trade wars on the global economy investor sentiment continues to shift from enthusiasm to caution. Bitcoin, a proxy for investor confidence, is down 3.9% and trading in the low $80,000s this morning. US index futures are down 1.1% to 1.5% to start the week. Over in Europe, the FTSE is down 0.6% and the Dax is down 1.4%.
China announced over the weekend that it will be launching retaliatory tariffs against some Canadian agricultural products, adding a new front in the growing global trade war. China’s consumer prices have gone into deflation (-0.7% vs previous +0.5%) and their producer prices remain in decline (-2.2% vs previous -2.3%). Hong Kong lost 1.8% and Shanghai sank 0.2% on the news.
Former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney won the Liberal Party leadership race over the weekend. The Bank of Canada meets on Wednesday and is expected to cut its benchmark rate by another 0.25% to 2.75%. The Fed meets to decide on interest rates and to issue FOMC member forecasts next week.
Natural gas has jumped 5.3% despite the approaching end to home heating season. Crude Oil is up 0.6%, while Copper is down 0.5%. Currencies are quiet so far with Gold down 0.2%.
There are no major economic reports today or tomorrow. In the US, consumer prices are due Wednesday followed by producer prices on Thursday. It’s a quiet week for earnings. The only notable companies reporting is Oracle this evening and Adobe on Wednesday.