I notice that the Banker’s Acceptances have dropped (implying future rate increases) over the past week. Current quotations are as follows:

Look at the December contract – implied pricing of 1.39%. On September 8th, this was 1.14%.

Three-month corporate paper is currently trading at 1.14%, which implies that we could be seeing one more rate hike (of 0.25%) before year’s end. The next Bank of Canada scheduled rate announcements are October 19 and December 7.

At 9am (eastern time) on September 8th, the Bank of Canada will make an announcement regarding the overnight target interest rate, which is currently 0.75%. The 3-month Bankers’ Acceptance futures market currently has the following quotations:

A September and December contract at around 98.85-98.9 is projecting that there is a higher than average chance of a 0.25% rate increase this upcoming meeting, and then no further rate increases for the rest of 2010.

The market is likely going to be correct with this – I anticipate a statement that will state that domestic growth in Canada is quite good, but there remains significant risks outside the country that might affect Canada’s domestic economy.  A 1% short term rate, historically, is still very stimulative.

3-month corporate paper is yielding 0.98% on September 7th and 3-month T-Bills are yielding 0.78%.

In the last decade, the previous low bank rates were 2.25% in early 2002 and in the middle of 2004.

The main impact of the sum of these interest rate increase decisions is that the yield curve will be slightly less steep – traditionally banks make money by borrowing short and lending long.  So when rates were at 0.25%, they could borrow money at that rate, and then lend it out (the ultimate risk-free loan would be to the Government of Canada, which has a 10-year bond yield currently of 2.95%).  You would then skim the difference (2.7%) as profit, which is nearly risk-free.

By increasing interest rates, spreads shrink somewhat.  Assuming the Bank of Canada does raise rates to 1%, the spread will shrink to 1.95% for 10-year money which is still profitable, but not quite as profitable as it was at lower rates.

People with sensitivity to short-term rates (e.g. variable rate mortgages, margin balances in margin accounts) will feel the impact of this increase most directly.

Looking at Banker’s Acceptance Futures, we have the following rates:

It looks like that there will be a higher than 50/50 probability that the Bank of Canada will raise their overnight target rate by 0.25% in their September meeting, but after that, future rates in the 2011 calendar year are projected to go up by 0.25% to 0.5%.

The drop in increase expectations has likely contributed to depreciation of the Canadian currency – currently at 94 cents US to a Canadian dollar, while this was high as 98 cents earlier in August, and at parity back in April.  During the depths of the economic crisis, the Canadian dollar reached 78 cents multiple times throughout the October 2008 to March 2009 period.

Since the last 0.25% rate increase on July 20, the bankers’ acceptance futures have been quite calm. We have the following quotations:

This still hints that the short term rate will rise 0.25% by the September 8 or October 20 meeting, and the short term rate will end the year at 1.00% with a possibility of 1.25%. For the year 2011, rates are expected to inch higher by about 0.5 to 0.75%.

It should also be noted that at present, 3-month corporate paper is yielding 0.89%. This was approximately 0.4% half a year ago.

Finally, since 5-year bond rates have dropped considerably over the same time period (which is counter-intuitive to the economics 101 texts that state that longer-term bond yields will rise with an increase in interest rates), 5-year fixed term mortgages should also drop – the best one I can see so far is 3.87%.

On July 20, the Bank of Canada is very likely to increase the overnight target interest rate from 0.50% to 0.75%; this has already been baked into the marketplace. The Prime Rate is likely to correspondingly increase from 2.5% to 2.75%.

In terms of what lies ahead in the future, we look at the only financial product in Canada that one can use to predict such rate changes, the 3-month Bankers’ Acceptance Futures:

What we see is a 3-month future rate of 1.12% in September; and by years’ end we have a 1.29% rate.

There are four more meetings left in 2010; July 20, September 8, October 19 and December 7.  Right now, the market is speculating that there will be 0.25% increases in two of these meetings, leading to a year-end target rate of 1.00%.  It is possible that after September 8, that the Bank of Canada will leave short term rates unchanged for the duration of the year.

In 2011, the market believes that the short term rate will increase by about 0.75% above this; to 1.75%, still a very low rate by historical standards.

Presumably after its July20 statement it will change the language which will sufficiently guide the marketplace to adjust its prices.

Of note is the impact on mortgage rates; only variable-rate mortgages will be going up as a result of these short-term rate increases.  The reason is because longer-term rates are set by the marketplace, and these have gone down over the past quarter.  A 5-year government bond yields 2.49% currently; this was as high as 3.2% back in April.

The June 3-month banker’s acceptance futures are trading at 0.89% at present.

This suggests that the short-term interest rates (the target overnight rate) will likely raise 0.5% to 0.75%. However, the banker’s acceptances generally are a quarter point over the prevailing target rate, which suggests the market is pricing an approximate 40% chance that the Bank of Canada will only raise 0.25%.

One month T-bills are at 0.23%, 3-month T-Bills are at 0.47%.

My justification for a 0.5% raise is simple – they want to make a statement.

I rarely have strong feelings about currency trading, but my guess is that the Canadian dollar will spike briefly on the announcement and then will go through a decline.

Most of the media thinks that the Bank of Canada rate increases will result in currency appreciation, but they will get the opposite results – low interest rates causes a lot of currency holding through carry trading. Since traders are on the margin side, a higher rate will result in currency outflows. It is likely the US dollar will be the one to rise relative to the Canadian dollar, so I’d get your cross-border shopping in sooner than later. You can also do “cross-border shopping” by buying US equities. The markets suggest that the US federal reserve will start raising rates around the beginning of 2011.

The Bank of Canada released its monetary policy announcement today, and it contained the following paragraph:

In response to the sharp, synchronous global recession, the Bank lowered its target rate rapidly over the course of 2008 and early 2009 to its lowest possible level. With its conditional commitment introduced in April 2009, the Bank also provided exceptional guidance on the likely path of its target rate. This unconventional policy provided considerable additional stimulus during a period of very weak economic conditions and major downside risks to the global and Canadian economies. With recent improvements in the economic outlook, the need for such extraordinary policy is now passing, and it is appropriate to begin to lessen the degree of monetary stimulus. The extent and timing will depend on the outlook for economic activity and inflation, and will be consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target.

This means that at the next Bank of Canada meeting on June 1, they are likely to raise interest rates. The futures say it will likely be a 0.75% hike up to 1% in June, and then the rate increases will be 0.25%. My new projected schedule of rate increases will be as follows:

June 1, 2010 (+0.75% to 1.00%)
July 20, 2010 (+0.25% to 1.25%)
September 8, 2010 (+0.25% to 1.50%)
October 19, 2010 (+0.25% to 1.75%)
December 7, 2010 (+0.25% to 2.00%)