Last time we heard from the Alberta government in a quarterly update on Aug. The credit-monitoring firm also noted there was a jump in credit card activity, particularly among young adults. While mortgage growth slowed sharply, the average size of those loans climbed year-over-year and sequentially to approximately $360,000. That's the national tally, based on Equifax's latest quarterly update on consumer debt levels in this country: $2.2 trillion, compared to $2.15 trillion in the second quarter. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will tell lawmakers today that the new variant poses “downside risks to employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation.” Good opportunity to point out that the Bank of Canada will get its turn to comment on COVID next Wednesday with the release of a policy decision. But as Citi Economist Veronica Clark told us in instant analysis, those numbers already feel stale given today’s concern about the Omicron variant. And Statistics Canada is estimating growth jumped 0.8 per cent in October. Economists were expecting just 3.0 per cent.

The good news for Canada: growth far outpaced expectations in the third quarter as annualized gross domestic product rose 5.4 per cent. Somehow, that appears to have been enough to make traders/algorithms forget that one of Moderna’s other executives just yesterday said a modified vaccine could be available early next year if that’s necessary … not to mention that Moderna co-Founder Noubar Afeyan told our Bloomberg Television partners his team has a “comprehensive plan” with “a lot better weapons” for precisely this type of scenario.

futures have come under pressure, with fingers being pointed at Moderna’s chief executive, who told The Financial Times he thinks there’s “going to be a material drop” in his company’s vaccine effectiveness against the Omicron variant, while also stating the world has to wait for data to accurately make that assessment. Yesterday’s relief rally has given way to another wave of unease about the new COVID-19 variant. That came alongside profit that climbed to almost $10 billion for the full fiscal year, while fourth-quarter adjusted earnings easily outpaced expectations amid gains in all of Scotia’s divisions – notably including a doubling in profit from its international unit. The bank announced plans this morning to repurchase up to 24 million of its shares and also said the quarterly dividend is going up 11 per cent to $1.00 per share.

Bank of Nova Scotia is taking full advantage of its newfound capital freedom while reporting a big profit beat to end its fiscal year.

Internet money gross beat bank