John Macfarlane

2 weeks ago | boatingnz.co.nz | John Macfarlane

Robert Brooke’s story should begin with his father, Jack Brooke OBE (1907–1992). A member of the Territorials during WWII, Jack was seconded to the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) and spent it in Wellington, mainly designing systems to make .303 ammunition more reliable. He was awarded an OBE for this work in 1948. After the war, the family relocated back to Auckland to Narrow Neck on Auckland’s North Shore.

2 weeks ago | ca.finance.yahoo.com | John Macfarlane

Toronto-Dominion Bank’s (TD.TO)(TD) better than expected second-quarter earnings, which have prompted a number of analysts to hike their price targets, could point to “better than forecast” earnings for the other major Canadian banks, one analyst says. TD’s adjusted second-quarter earnings of CAD$1.97 per share, announced Thursday, beat consensus estimates of $1.76.

2 weeks ago | ca.finance.yahoo.com | John Macfarlane

Even a small shift in Canada’s enormous pension funds’ investment focus towards domestic assets could lead to “big gains” in the domestic market, a new report from Desjardins Economic Studies says. Most of the funds’ roughly $3.6 trillion in investments are currently in foreign assets, Desjardins foreign exchange strategist Mirza Shaheryar Baig writes, but there is an appetite for change both within government and the institutions.

2 weeks ago | ca.finance.yahoo.com | John Macfarlane

Home prices in Canada fell more sharply in April, extending a months-long trend fuelled by ongoing trade war uncertainty, data from the National Bank of Canada show. The Teranet-National Bank House Price Index fell 1.5 per cent in April and has come down 2.4 per cent since December. In a note on the data, National Bank economist Daren King says the trend is likely to continue.

2 weeks ago | ca.finance.yahoo.com | John Macfarlane

Canada’s inflation rate fell in April, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) pulling back to 1.7 per cent annually from 2.3 per cent the month before, according to Statistics Canada data released Tuesday. Lower energy costs, with the removal of the carbon tax in many provinces and falling crude oil prices, were a main driver. Core measures of inflation, however, rose in April, leading economists to scale back expectations for a Bank of Canada (BoC) interest rate cut at its next meeting on June 4.