Thursday was a mostly positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.4% and Toronto up 0.1%.
Gainers included CN Rail up 1.6%, Constellation Software up 1.7%, Starbucks up 1.7% and Alimentation Couche-Tard up 1.3% to a new all-time high.
Stocks going the other way included Toll Brothers down 2.0% and AutoCanada down 2.75%.
When it comes to the Consumer Price Index, many people are skeptical of the often low number reported by Statistics Canada. They use a “basket” of goods, which, since it is an average tends not to match the actual basket and therefore the actual inflation experiences by any particular person. Also, I think people tend to notice price increases a lot more than they notice price declines.
Statistics Canada has a new CPI Data Visualization Tool. This is a very neat and slick tool. On the left it show you graphically, the weight of all the items in the basket (and by hovering you can see the weight numerically). On the right it shows the percentage CPI in total and for each item in the basket as you hover over it. It also gives this by province. Another part of the tool allows you to see the inflation rate going back as far as 1914 for each item in the basket. This tool is well worth checking out. It’s very informative!