Insights

In April, the Bank of Canada announced that it would launch both a $50-billion Provincial Bond Purchase Program and a $10-billion Corporate Bond Purchase Program. The former began operations on May 7th and the latter on May 26th.

The FTSE Canada Universe Bond Index returned negative 1.1% on the month. Yields were once again moving higher with 5-30 year rates up 20+ basis points on the month.

In late 2015, the Liberal Party was elected with a plan to nearly double federal infrastructure investments over the following decade. “Every dollar we spend on public infrastructure grows our economy, creates jobs, and strengthens our cities and towns,” said Justin Trudeau during his 2015 election campaign.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, credit spreads have widened to levels not seen since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), as investors are bracing for a severe recession – potentially the worst one since the Great Depression, at least in the view of the International Monetary Fund.

With the phase 1 agreement officially on paper, the Chinese Yuan has returned to the level it was before the trade war hit its culmination point in August – on January 15th, the PBOC set the currency at 6.8845 USD/CNY (0.14525 CNY/USD), its strongest since the end of July last year. Yet the U.S. 10-year […]