The first quarter was not pretty for new-vehicle sales in the US. Deliveries fell 3.2% from Q1 last year, to 3.99 million vehicles. Unless a miracle happens – and miracles are rare in the auto industry – 2019 is going to be the third down-year in a row for the industry, and the fourth down year for GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, and some others, whose peak sales volume occurred in 2015.

At this pace, 2019 deliveries will fall below…Click here for full article.

OTTAWA – Higher oil prices helped shrink the country’s merchandise trade deficit in January from its record high set at the end of last year as exports rose for the first time since July.

Statistics Canada said Wednesday the trade deficit amounted to $4.2 billion in January compared with a record deficit of $4.8 billion for December, which was revised from its initial reading of $4.6 billion.

Economists had expected a deficit of $3.5 billion for January, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Josh Nye, a senior economist at Royal Bank, said the trade report provided…Click here for full article.

US corporate debt, excluding debt by banks – so “nonfinancial” corporate debt – has surged in recent years by all measures and to such an extent that it was featured prominently in the Fed’s Financial Stability Report, in terms of what might trigger the next financial crisis. The Fed is counting total nonfinancial business debts, which include the debts of businesses that are not incorporated. It found about $17 trillion…Click here for full article.