Market Brief, North America

Price action in financial markets looks remarkably muted this morning as shell-shocked investors stay sidelined against a quiet data backdrop. The dollar is inching higher amid thin trading volumes, most major pairs are within 0.2 percentage points of yesterday’s close, the benchmark ten-year Treasury yield is less than a basis point higher, and North American equity markets are setting up for a modestly-positive open. Currency traders yawned when Donald Trump issued a new round of tariff threats last night, this time promising to hit automotive imports, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors with taxes “in the neighbourhood” of 25 percent. “It’ll go very...

The dollar is advancing incrementally against its major rivals this morning after suffering extensive losses in the last two weeks on a softening in US economic data and a reversal in bets on Donald Trump’s trade plans. A disappointing payrolls report, several noisy but ultimately calming inflation prints, evidence of a slowing in consumer spending, and a less-aggressive-than-feared reciprocal tariff announcement on Thursday helped bring yields down in the last week and a half, and—despite a small advance overnight—the greenback is now down roughly three quarters of a percentage point in trade-weighted terms. Canadian headline and core inflation measures accelerated...

Input price inflation rose at faster pace than anticipated in the United States last month, but details under the hood indicated a moderation in some services categories, suggesting that the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator could slow in month-over-month terms when it is reported next week. Producer prices for final demand climbed 0.4 percent in January relative to the prior month, topping forecasts for a 0.3 percent increase, and rising 3.5 percent on a year-over-year basis, but airline fares and medical care costs declined, putting pressure on the key components that feed through into the core personal consumption expenditures index....