Trump’s surprise decision to slap metals tariffs on Brazil is a blow to President Jair Bolsonaro’s aim of forging closer ties with Washington and could push Latin America’s No. 1 economy closer to Trump’s top trade foe - China.
Americans took advantage of lower mortgage rates and purchased more homes in October, though sales were held back by a shortage of available properties.
According to new data from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development and Commerce Department, total housing starts increased 3.8 percent in October 2019 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.31 million units.
The Monetary Policy Committee has decided to keep the Official Cash Rate (OCR) at 1.0 percent.
Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 0.75 per cent.
FED decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate to 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 percent
The Bank of Canada today maintained its target for the overnight rate at 1 ¾ percent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 2 percent and the deposit rate is 1 ½ percent.
Single-family homes and condos sold for a median price of $270,000 in the third quarter, up 2.9 percent from the previous quarter and up 8.3 percent from a year ago -- reaching a new high.
The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.50% respectively.
Going forward, scale will likely matter even more as banks head into an arms race on technology