U.S. markets are slightly up this morning after a positive jobs report in which the unemployment rate remained at 4.9%. Markets would likely be higher except the worry now is that the FED will have more leeway to raise interest rates.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported merchandise trade figures for January. Exports of consumer goods were a massive 59% higher than January of 2015. The sharply lower Canadian dollar is having a major impact on trade. Also notable, even shocking, is the fact that exports of consumer goods were moderately higher than exports of energy products and exports of motor vehicles and parts were significantly higher than exports of energy products. (However, that may misleading because consumer goods and motor vehicles may reflect a lot of foreign content whereas energy does not.