The Daily Chase: Retail sales jump as Black Friday kicks off

Here are five things you need to know this morning.

About that slowdown: We just got a read of retail sales in Canada that certainly does not paint a picture of a restrained consumer. Retail sales for the month of September advanced 0.6 per cent. Economists were expecting no growth at all. However, much of this was driven by autos. The advance reading for October is even more eye-popping. Sales rose 0.8 per cent, which is the biggest jump since April. Weirdly, e-commerce sales were actually down in the month of September. Perhaps this foreshadows a better-than-expected holiday spending season. Nevertheless, this looks like a robust dataset and interesting considering this week we had Bank Of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem declare that excess demand in the economy was gone and rates are likely restrictive enough to get inflation back down to two per cent. We will test his thesis against today’s data with our guests today. 

Half-day: U.S. markets are back in action but only for half a day, so expect trading to be light on both sides of the border. Another central bank has also confirmed it is on pause. ECB President Christine Lagarde said the ECB is now at a point where it can pause, after a final reading of Germany’s economic growth in the third quarter confirmed a contraction. But as central banks around the world hold rates in place, investors are literally flocking to equities. Bank of America points out that global stock fund inflows in the past few weeks has topped US$40 billion, the most in almost two years.

Glass half empty: Shares of Nvidia are lower in the pre-market, continuing its weakness following a blockbuster set of quarterly results Tuesday afternoon. Recall, the company warned that China sales would decline. Today there is a report by Reuters that Nvidia is telling its Chinese customers they are delaying the launch of their new AI chip until next year. The stock is on track for losses three sessions in a row, but keep in mind, that is still but a blip on a rally of more than 230 per cent so far this year.