Every day ROB Insight delivers exclusive analysis on breaking business news and market-moving events. Streetwise offers news and analysis on Bay Street and the world of finance.
Here are our editors' picks of some of the best reads available to Globe Unlimited subscribers this week.
Housing boom's echo
CREA reported this week that national housing sales rose 2.8 per cent in August from a month earlier, and a whopping 11.1 per cent from a year ago. So the market's still on a tear, after all? Not so fast, says ROB Insight's David Parkinson. CREA says sales were driven by buyers, facing rising interest rates, who rushed to close deals before their preapproved mortgages expire.
Appetite for agribusiness growing
Commodities giant Glencore Xstrata unloaded its pasta business to cereal maker Post as it slims down (sorry) to focus on the grain business at newly acquired Viterra. It's just the latest deal, writes Jacqueline Nelson in Streetwise, to crop up (apologies again) in an industry seeing a flurry of activity fed by (okay, I'll stop) global population growth and rising land values.
No post-taper doom for bonds
The way some pundits would have it, the eventual unwinding of monetary stimulus by the Fed will turn the bond market upside-down. But as Scott Barlow points out in ROB Insight, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is already 124 basis points higher since Ben Bernanke first floated the idea even though there's been little change in the economic climate. In other words, big players in the market have already been discounting tapering.
Telco tower power
U.S. telecom companies are slapping the "for sale" signs on their cellular tower portfolios in a hot market where buyers are willing to fork out big dollars for the assets. North of the border, however, Canada's Big Three players have no interest in selling, writes Boyd Erman in Streetwise, as owning is seen as a competitive advantage in the sector.
A national regulator – sort of
Canada's fractured system of securities regulation may finally get the patch-up it so desperately needs, writes David Parkinson in ROB Insight. Ottawa has unveiled a new "co-operative" regulatory body and "invited" the provinces and territories to join. Only B.C. and Ontario have signed up so far, but by not attempting to compel any jurisdiction and giving a partial veto to the bigger players, the feds hope the idea will fly.