The Bank of Canada surprised markets last week when it adopted a more hawkish tone regarding future interest-rate rises. In today’s post I outline the Bank’s case for raising its policy rate sooner than expected and I explain why I don’t think variable-rate borrowers should panic when their courage is tested.

This impressive growth in new Canadian jobs last month was an encouraging sign that the surge in our first-quarter GDP has stimulated momentum in our broader economy. Interestingly, and somewhat confoundingly, that momentum still hasn’t fueled any meaningful increase in our average wage growth - so while willing Canadians are working, they aren’t seeing an increase in their purchasing power. Here are five key highlights from our latest employment data (for May), along with my take on the implications for Canadian mortgage rates.

The latest U.S. employment data disappointed but despite this, the Fed continues to prepare financial markets for another policy-rate increase in June, and the futures market is currently assigning a 94% probability that this will occur. While that might seem counter-intuitive for a Fed that has until recently focused its monetary policy on improving the health of the U.S. labour market, I think the Fed’s upcoming decision will mark a change in approach and in today’s post I explain why.

The Bank of Canada (BoC) held its policy rate steady last week, as was universally expected, and it also issued a statement that outlined its current view of how both domestic and foreign forces are impacting our economic momentum. The Bank knows that its words are carefully parsed, and in today’s post I’ll highlight the key phrases that it used in its latest statement and offer my take on the implications for our mortgage rates.

It’s time to take another look at a mortgage question that is as old as the hills: Should you go with a fixed or variable mortgage rate? In today’s post I outline the key points for and against each option and offer my take on which one is likely to save you money over the next five years.

We received the latest Canadian and U.S. employment data last week. The Canadian economy added only 3,200 new jobs last month, which was below the 10,000 new jobs that the consensus had been expecting. While the latest headline number disappointed, the long-term trends for our job growth are still robust (we have averaged 22,000 new jobs over the past twelve months).