19 Quotes by Paul Ferley

It's suggesting this structural change playing out in the U.S. economy seems to still be continuing.

The numbers still suggest growth in the third quarter of about 3 percent, so the economy continues to expand at fairly close to long-term average rate,

So at the moment, markets generally assume the Fed will continue to tighten. That expectation is generally resulting in the U.S. dollar strengthening, though the Canadian dollar seems to be holding its own.

The labor market is getting too tight, so the Bank of Canada may have to raise the rate more aggressively to keep inflation from taking hold. Higher interest rates get investors to buy the Canadian dollar.

The Canadian dollar is holding fairly steady. Looking ahead, we're not getting too much economic news until next week.

Canada seems to be getting support from strengthening commodity prices.

But in the current environment, interest rates are not rising to punitive levels; rather, the current tightening is meant to keep growth at a sustainable pace.

Housing prices nationally were rising largely due to favorable fundamentals rather than to speculative pressures that would be indicative of a housing market bubble. However, the situation seems to have changed recently. Affordability has deteriorated significantly in the second and third quarters of 2005 as housing price increases have spiked higher. As a result, affordability is quickly closing the gap relative to this measure's long-run historical average.

The currency is pretty steady, with markets remaining fairly thin with little economic data. We're awaiting deeper markets, plus the release of employment reports for both Canada and the U.S. next week.