Stocks rallied to record highs on Thursday after China said the world’s two largest economies had agreed to remove existing trade tariffs, lifting expectations around a possible resolution to the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. Gao Feng, a ministry spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry, said that both sides had agreed to simultaneously cancel some existing tariffs on one another’s goods, according to the country’s state broadcaster. The ministry spokesperson said that both sides were closer to a so-called “phase one” trade agreement following constructive negotiations over the past two weeks.
The Canadian dollar has remained basically unchanged to this news, even as oil prices have moved higher along with equities. Tomorrow Canada’s employment numbers will be released with expectations of a 10,000 payroll increase and an unemployment rate one notch higher at 5.6 percent. Also housing starts are out, CMHC estimates the level of starts in centres with a population of less than 10,000 for each of the three months of the quarter, at the beginning of each quarter. During the last month of the quarter, a survey of these centres is conducted and the estimate revised. Expect the CAD to remain range bound till then.