The Chinese economy has again given observers a positive surprise: In the past quarter, the world’s second largest economy posted growth of 6.9%. Industrial output and consumption appear to have been the drivers for this growth, which illustrates that the global economy remains in “expansion” mode. Zinc and iron, two metals strongly influenced by Chinese demand, are showing major gains this morning, as are shares in mining companies. The Canadian dollarhas seen little reaction to the news.
In North America, this week will be calmer in terms of news and economic indicators. However, we will be keeping an eye on the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) key rate decision on Thursday morning. It will be interesting to see whether the ECB will paint a rosier portrait of the continent’s economic situation, which would be in keeping with the tone of comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada.
Lastly, a number of U.S. companies will be announcing Q2 2017 earnings this week. Due up today: Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) and BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK).
Julien Duquette
Range of the day: 1.2500 – 1.2900