TD Economics
The Weekly Bottom Line
www.td.com/economics
May 6, 2011
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK United States • Fears of a slowing U.S. recovery and rising worldwide inflation hurt market sentiment early this week, triggering a flight from risk sell off that sent commodity prices and equities tumbling down sharply. • Today, a positive surprise in U.S. employment numbers veered equity markets in the opposite direction; at the time of writing both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 were up 0.9% on the day, and WTI crude oil had recouped 1.1%. • Significant upward revisions to February and March figures contributed to bring the 3-month moving average to 233K new jobs per month, which suggests an incipient firming in hiring conditions. Canada • The Federal Conservative Party finally secured a majority government in Monday’s election. They plan to pass the budget they tabled back in March. This was a non-event for markets, as the budget details have already been baked into the economic outlook. • Commodities took a major hit this week, with the WTI price of oil moving below $100 per barrel. • While the Canadian dollar fell in lockstep with the price of oil, stronger-than-expected employment reports in the U.S. and Canada provided some support to the loonie, keeping it at a still lofty $1.04 U.S. by week’s end. The Canadian economy added a sizeable 58,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate edged down to 7.6%.
THIS WEEK IN THE MARKETS Current*
Week Ago
52-Week 52-Week High Low
Stock Market Indexes S&P 500 1,352 1,364 1,364 1,023 S&P/TSX Comp. 13,550 13,945 14,271 11,093 DAX 7,477 7,514 7,528 5,670 FTSE 100 5,951 6,070 6,091 4,806 Nikkei 9,859 9,850 10,858 8,605 Fixed Income Yields U.S. 10-yr Treasury 3.22 3.29 3.74 2.38 Canada 10-yr Bond 3.24 3.21 3.60 2.69 Germany 10-yr Bund 3.20 3.24 3.49 2.12 UK 10-yr Gilt 3.40 3.43 3.92 2.83 Japan 10-yr Bond 1.15 1.21 1.36 0.85 Foreign Exchange Cross Rates C$ (USD per CAD) 1.04 1.06 1.06 0.93 Euro (USD per EUR) 1.45 1.48 1.48 1.19 Pound (USD per GBP) 1.64 1.67 1.67 1.43 Yen (JPY per USD) 80.6 81.2 93.3 78.9 Commodity Spot Prices** Crude Oil ($US/bbl) 99.7 113.9 113.9 66.0 Natural Gas ($US/MMBtu) 4.51 4.50 5.17 3.18 Copper ($US/met. tonne) 8793.8 9296.0 10179.5 6067.8 Gold ($US/troy oz.) 1492.0 1563.7 1563.7 1161.6 *as of 10:00 am on Friday, **Oil-WTI, Cushing, Nat. Gas-Henry Hub, LA (Thursday close price), Copper-LME Grade A, Gold-London Gold Bullion; Source: Bloomberg
WEEKLY GAINS vs U.S. DOLLAR % Japanese yen
1.06
Mexican peso
-1
Swiss franc
-1.06 -1.84
British pound Brazilian real
-2
N. Zealand dollar
-2.07
Canadian dollar
-2.11 -2.21
Australian dollar
-2.64
Euro -4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
Source: Bloomberg
GLOBAL OFFICIAL POLICY RATE TARGETS Current Target 0 - 0.25% Federal Reserve (Fed Funds Rate) 1.00% Bank of Canada (Overnight Rate) 1.25% European Central Bank (Refi Rate) 0.50% Bank of England (Repo Rate) 0.00% Bank of Japan (Overnight Rate) Source: Central Banks, Haver Analytics