Canadian growth rolled a few feet forward in July before sputtering to a halt in August. Bay Street remains divided over what the Bank of Canada should do at October's rate meeting: call a tow truck with another 25 bps jump-start, or wait and see what high octane spending is in the November 4 budget.

Yields came back to life on Thursday as stronger-than-expected U.S. data and more central bank chatter raised chances that the Fed could skip a cut in October.

Wednesday barely left its fingerprints on Canadian yields. It was another day of negligible bond movement as markets:
(A) await Friday's GDP and Core PCE, and
(B) continue chewing on the Fed’s half-hearted indications of rate cuts.

He’s the mortgage broker who makes competitors sweat, X trolls whimper, and mortgage shoppers applaud. Known affectionately as the “angry mortgage broker,” though really more of a passionately blunt Canadian treasure, he’s built a following by telling it exactly like it is—no sugar-coating, no velvet gloves, just hard truths served piping hot. Today's episode of Stress Test This features the one man who can make debt ratios go viral: Ron Butler.

There wasn't much data to chew on Tuesday, but two wet-blanket speeches left yields slightly lower.

The BoC's Macklem said Canadian trade is under attack and requires counter-measures (i.e., diversifying trade partners sooner rather than later).

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Powell noted that inflation’s staying power calls for a cautious rate policy.

If you want to bet on the Canadian mortgage brokers industry, you'll soon have a new way to do it.

RFA Capital Holdings recently announced a merger with Artis REIT that will create a new publicly traded company called RFA Financial.

The retooled firm’s revenue model will revolve around brokers and be centred on RFA Bank, which is a top-10 lender in the broker market.

"We're focused solely on the broker channel and not deviating from that," RFA's CEO Ben Rodney told MLN in an exclusive interview.

Rodney was kind enough to walk us through why this partnership is logical and why Canada’s mortgage world may soon take notice.

The bond market kicked off the week with all the action of a library on Christmas Day. Canadian yields are essentially waiting for data that matters, and Friday is that day. We get both Canadian GDP and U.S. core PCE inflation, at least one of which should move the market.

In the meantime, traders spent Monday weighing conflicting Fed-speak and filing it under, "Not sure it matters."

Last week's double rate cuts left North American 5-year yields unwilling to price in any further easing. Canada's 5-year managed a heroic slide of just 2 basis points, compared to the week before the cuts.