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.

If you make a living in mortgages, your life is basically one long juggling act with prospecting, client service and admin work all demanding to be the priority.

To many, the daily minutiae of economics feel like noise they can do without. We get it. But here's why that assumption should be revisited, why following the macro beat is critical to mortgage revenue generation.

Reverberations from Wednesday's policy rate changes remain surprisingly muted, and the reason is simple: the macro road ahead is foggy, and central banks' headlines don't work. Policymakers have become slaves to data releases—even more so than usual. That could leave rates somewhat adrift until next Friday's (September 26's) core PCE and Canadian GDP.

Floating mortgage rates got a haircut on Wednesday, but fixed-rate funding costs went the other direction. That's not unusual in the latter stages of rate cut cycles, especially when core inflation treats policy targets as optional.

Welp, people might not be able to afford steak at the grocery store anymore, but at least floating borrowing costs dropped.

So now that the overwhelmingly anticipated 25-beep cut arrived on cue, what does the BoC have planned for an encore?

Here's some visibility on that, plus nine key nuggets from today's announcement.
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