North American markets are strengthening this morning amid moderately decent economic news, sending the Dow to a new bull-market high. Heavyweights such as Intel and General Electric are breaking through to highs not seen since the days following Lehman Brothers collapse, while each one of the major Canadian banks have climbed to fall-2007 levels. US existing home sales slid for a third consecutive month in February, however the number of transactions was a bit better than expected. Meanwhile the index of Canadian leading economic indicators climbed for the ninth consecutive month, making this the second-strongest advance in a half century. The TSX is up 41 pts. The Dow is up 21 pts.
The Loonie is slightly higher this morning after slipping the last three days, up 8 bps to US$.9833. Bond yields drifted lower to 2.77% for the 5-year Canada and 3.44% for the ten. Gold is up $3.80 to US$1103.30/oz. Oil is up 15 cents to US$81.75/barrel.
