The Bank of Canada moved to the sidelines yesterday but it's after an initial kneejerk lower in the loonie, it's perked up. That's in part because the market sees the shift at the BOC as a sign of things to come in the rest of the world. In turn, that will boost global growth and boomerang back into demand for Canadian commodity exports.
That thinking has helped to underpin oil prices today with WTI up $1.08 to $81.21. Crude will need to get over above the weekly high of $82.77 or the Dec high of $83.19 to get some real upside momentum. It's been volatile today on a report that the Russia product export ban to the EU could be converted to a price cap.
The signs for the loonie though are good with USD/CAD falling through the January low. However since then it's rebounded as the risk mood varies.
A big risk to Canada this year is housing but CIBC had a nice report out yesterday emphasizing the overwhelming amount of immigrants heading to Canada and how that will support housing.
