- TSX -58.73 to 13,401.48
- DOW -23.54 to 11,755.44 A successful Spanish bond auction provided some reassurance about Europe’s debt crisis, following Portugal’s successful bond auction Wednesday. Italy also successfully raised the money it was looking for in the bond markets.
- Dollar -.24c to 101.09c USD amid lower commodity prices and data that showed Canada's trade deficit shrank dramatically in November.
- Oil -$.46 to $91.40 USD per barrel as oil started moving on a limited basis through the Trans-Alaskan pipeline Wednesday.
- Gold +$1.20 to $1387 per ounce
Canadian 5 yr bond yields markets +.01bps to 2.54. The spread (based on the MERIX 5 yr published rate of 3.99%) is mid comfort zone at 1.45. http://www.tmxmoney.com/HttpController?GetPage=BondsAndRates&Language=en
Statistics Canada reported Thursday that Canada’s trade deficit with the rest of the world narrowed to $81 million in November from $1.5 billion in October
The Bank of England announced it would keep its base interest rate at a record low of 0.5 per cent and again ruled out any further investment in economic stimulus.
And the European Central Bank left its main interest rate unchanged at one per cent Thursday for the 20th consecutive month.
Data on Thursday also showed weekly initial jobless claims in the United States jumped to their highest level since October last week. Additionally, U.S. lenders repossessed 1 million homes last year. Over 5 million borrowers are at least 2 months behind on their mortgage payments.
