Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials Home News Posthaste: The global bond blowup is starting to hit home — literally Gains in housing affordability are melting away as mortgage rates rise Canada has not been spared the surge in bond yields. Photo by Peter J Thompson/National Post Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.
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Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Sign In or Create an Account or The global bond meltdown that has dominated the headlines in recent weeks is finally hitting home in Canada, literally. This past week, the selloff pushed a key U.S.
Treasury yield to the cusp of 5 per cent, which analysts say is an important psychological level for markets. This recent surge in bond yields has been driven by the rise of oil prices in the Iran war, leading investors to anticipate higher monetary policy than expected. Concerns about the United States’ fiscal health are also contributing.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise last week to send a US$5,000 cheque to every American if the Republicans win the mid-term elections just fuelled worries about the country’s growing debt. Breaking business news, incisive views, must-reads and market signals.
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Please try again National Bank of Canada economists Daren King and Kyle Dahms said Canada has not been spared the surge in yields. The Canadian 5-year rate rose by 16 basis points last week to a two-year high of 3.65 per cent. The problem for Canadians is that this bond yield serves a benchmark for 5-year fixed mortgage rates and last week these too started to rise.
“We’ve seen increases anywhere from like 20 basis points to almost 100 basis points with some lenders,” Clinton Wilkins of Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team told Canadian Mortgage Trends . “The pricing seems to be all over the place.” The rise in mortgage rates will erode the improvement in affordability in Canada’s housing market in recent years, say economists. National Bank of Canada estimates that its Affordability Index that measures mortgage payments as a percentage of income will stay flat in the third quarter before rising 1.1 percentage points in the fourth, the first deterioration in affordability in three years.
As for higher borrowing rates, Canadians may just have to get used to it. Vikram Rai, senior economist at Toronto Dominion Bank, argues that bond yields are likely to stay higher for longer. Heavy government and corporate borrowing, reduced demand from traditional bond buyers and higher term premium are structural pressures that are not going away anytime soon, he said.
The U.S. Federal Reserve decides on interest rates Wednesday and markets odds of a hike are above 85 per cent. So what’s this mean for the Bank of Canada?
According to markets, there is a 50/50 chance of a hike at the bank’s next meeting in October and more than 100 bps of hikes by the end of 2027, said BMO Capital Markets chief economist Douglas Porter. Much will depend on how high and for how long energy prices go, and what happens in the trade dispute between Canada and the United States. “Even this space would readily admit that any bad news on the first item (oil), or good news on the second (trade) will tip the bank into hiking,” he said in a note Friday.
With that in mind, keep an eye on Canada’s inflation numbers out today. Sign up here to get Posthaste delivered straight to your inbox. Canadian household wealth eclipsed the $19 trillion mark for the first time in the second quarter, “a blow-away quarter” driven by the rally in stock markets.
Canadian households added $550 billion to their collective wealth, a 2.9 per cent jump from the quarter before, according to Statistics Canada’s latest national balance sheet, released Friday. Household financial assets, which include stocks, underwent their strongest quarterly gain since the fourth quarter of 2020. Non-financial assets, which include residential real estate, edged upwards by just 0.5 per cent compared with the previous quarter.
Canada Investment Summit begins in Toronto. The two-day gathering for global investors aims to attract $1 trillion in investment in Canada over the next five years. Today’s Data: Canada’s inflation numbers for August and factory sales for July An Ontario woman is about to receive a $500,000 gift from her parents and wonders if she should use the windfall to pay off her $450,000 mortgage.
FP Answers explains how this decision is often made around the math. Pay off your mortgage if the mortgage rate is higher than your future expected investment returns, and if lower, then invest. But there is more to it than that.
Read on to find out more. Interested in energy? The subscriber-only FP West: Energy Insider newsletter brings you exclusive reporting and in-depth analysis on one of the country’s most important sectors.
Are you worried about having enough for retirement? Do you need to adjust your portfolio? Are you starting out or making a change and wondering how to build wealth?
Are you trying to make ends meet? Drop us a line at wealth@postmedia.com with your contact info and the gist of your problem and we’ll find some experts to help you out while writing a Family Finance story about it (we’ll keep your name out of it, of course). Want to learn more about mortgages?
Mortgage strategist Robert McLister’s Financial Post column can help navigate the complex sector, from the latest trends to financing opportunities you won’t want to miss. Plus check his mortgage rate page for Canada’s lowest national mortgage rates, updated daily. Visit the Financial Post’s YouTube channel for interviews with Canada’s leading experts in business, economics, housing, the energy sector and more.
Today’s Posthaste was written by Pamela Heaven with additional reporting from Financial Post staff and Bloomberg. Have a story idea, pitch, embargoed report, or a suggestion for this newsletter? Email us at posthaste@postmedia.com .
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Source: Financial Post
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