Celestica Inc. (CLS) on Thursday reported first-quarter net income of $86.2 million.
On a per-share basis, the Toronto-based company said it had net income of 74 cents. Earnings, adjusted for stock option expense and non-recurring costs, were $1.20 per share.
The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.11 per share.
The electronics manufacturing services company posted revenue of $2.65 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.55 billion.
For the current quarter ending in June, Celestica expects its per-share earnings to range from $1.17 to $1.27.
The company said it expects revenue in the range of $2.58 billion to $2.73 billion for the fiscal second quarter.
Celestica expects full-year earnings to be $5 per share, with revenue expected to be $10.85 billion.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research.
The European Central Bank made yet another 25-basis-point interest rate cut on Thursday as global tariff turmoil has created widespread uncertainty and spurred fears about the euro zone’s economic growth.
A rate cut was fully anticipated by markets, with an around 94% chance of a 25-basis-point trim being priced in ahead of the decision, according to LSEG data.
The cut takes the ECB’s deposit facility rate, its key rate, to 2.25%. At its highs in mid-2023 it had been at 4%.
Tariff developments in recent weeks are widely seen by analysts and economists as a key reason for the ECB to cut interest rates. Even though many of the initial duties imposed by the U.S., as well as retaliation measures, have been put on ice or eased, fears about how they could affect economic growth have been rife.
Investors will be watching out for any comments regarding tariffs in the ECB Governing Council’s statement and from the central bank’s President Christine Lagarde in her post-meeting press conference.
Market attention will also focus on whether the ECB tweaks its language around the restrictiveness of monetary policy, and if policymakers provide any clues around the hotly debated so-called neutral rate. That is the level at which interest rates neither stimulate nor restrict the economy, and are therefore held at.
While a rate cut was expected, “more importantly for markets will be the extent to which the central bank decides to communicate what it perceives to be the “neutral rate”, and whether monetary policy could turn accommodative – i.e. go below the neutral rate – in the next six to 12 months,” Julien Lafargue, chief market strategist at Barclays Private Bank, said in a note Thursday.
Gold prices pulled back from a record high on Thursday as investors booked profits following a rally driven by concerns around U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariff policies.
Spot gold was down 0.6% at $3,321.89 an ounce, as of 1003 GMT, after touching a record $3,357.40 earlier in the session. Bullion has gained 2.7% so far this week.
U.S. gold futures fell 0.3% to $3,335.60.
“Likely the reversal off fresh all-time highs can be attributed to some profit-taking on the highs. A slightly firmer tone to an otherwise weak U.S. dollar likely took the edge off gold,” said Ross Norman, an independent analyst.
“Price dips are well bought into, suggesting underlying sentiment is very positive.”
The dollar index recovered from near a three-year low on Thursday, making gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Gold rose 3.6% on Wednesday, driven by Trump’s order to open a probe into potential tariffs on all critical mineral imports, in addition to reviews into pharmaceutical and chip imports.
Meanwhile, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday the Fed would wait for more data before changing interest rates, while also cautioning that Trump’s tariff policies risked pushing inflation further from the central bank’s goals.
Gold, traditionally viewed as a hedge against inflation, also tends to thrive in a low-interest rate environment.
“The market’s interpretation seems to be that gold would benefit either way,” said Carsten Menke, an analyst at Julius Baer.
Demand for physical gold was tepid in India this week as a blistering price rally curbed purchases, while premiums held firm in top consumer China.
“Reduced participation in the rally by traditional gold buyers might signal the move is nearer the end than the beginning. But it’s hard to see a scenario where gold would correct lower just now, other than being technically overbought and overextended,” Norman said.
Spot silver dropped 1.3% to $32.32 an ounce, platinum shed 1.2% to $955.60, and palladium fell 2.5% to $947.94.
The bank held off publishing a central forecast amid uncertainty about U.S. trade policy, but outlined two possible scenarios. The downside scenario sees Canada entering a recession this year and inflation rising above 3 per cent.
Canada’s inflation rate surprisingly cooled in March as travel-related prices fell during the month, coinciding with a sharp pullback in trips to the United States during the trade war.
The consumer price index rose 2.3 per cent in March from a year earlier, down from 2.6 per cent in February, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday. Financial analysts were expecting higher inflation of 2.7 per cent, because of upward pressure from the end of the federal tax holiday in mid-February.
Consumer prices rose 0.3 per cent in March from February, lagging way behind estimates of a 0.7-per-cent gain.
Inflation has largely resided near the Bank of Canada’s 2-per-cent target since last summer, allowing the central bank to cut interest rates at seven consecutive meetings.
But the bank’s next rate decision, on Wednesday, is hardly certain, because of the fallout from the global trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Economists and analysts are roughly split over whether the Bank of Canada will cut rates again or hold them steady at 2.75 per cent. The interest rate swaps market – which captures investor expectations of monetary policy – is suggesting it’s a coin-flip outcome, according to LSEG data.
Still, the soft inflation report has bulked up bets that another cut is imminent.
“The central bank will be weighing the inflation risk from tariffs against the downside risk coming from consumer/business sentiment surveys, a loosening job market, and a very weak real estate market,” James Orlando, senior economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, said in a client note.
“We are maintaining our call for another cut from the bank, as it should take out more insurance against the mounting downside risks to the economy,” he added.
Tuesday’s inflation report showed a cooldown on several fronts. Gasoline prices fell 1.8 per cent in March from February. Excluding gas, the CPI rose 2.5 per cent on an annual basis, down from 2.6 per cent in February.
Travel prices, which often swing wildly because of seasonal demand, fell notably during the spring break period. Prices for travel tours fell 8 per cent in March from February, while airfare prices tumbled 12 per cent from a year earlier.
Statscan has published several reports that show Canadians are forgoing trips to the U.S. to protest Mr. Trump’s tariffs and his repeated jibes about Canadian sovereignty. The number of Canadians returning from the U.S. by car plummeted 32 per cent in March, year over year.
The Bank of Canada’s preferred measures of core inflation – which strip out volatile movements in the CPI – also eased in March. On a three-month annualized basis, those measures rose by an average of 2.7 per cent in March, down from 3.3 per cent in February.
The Bank of Canada faces a unique challenge in a trade war, which constrains economic growth but pushes up prices – outcomes that typically prompt different decisions from the central bank.
Canada is facing 25-per-cent tariffs on imports that aren’t compliant with the North American trade pact, along with sectoral duties on steel, aluminum, autos and lumber.
To date, Canada has imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on $60-billion of U.S. goods imports, along with duties on U.S.-made vehicles. These tariffs will raise prices for Canadian consumers, but are intended to put pressure on the Trump administration to reverse its trade policies.
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem has repeatedly stressed that interest rates won’t likely be cut to near-zero levels, as they were in the pandemic. The central bank is trying to prevent a tariff-induced price shock from escalating into persistently higher inflation.
Gold prices were subdued on Monday, after having touched record highs earlier in the session.
Spot gold slipped 0.2 percent to $3,229.56 per ounce in European trade after hitting a new record high of $3,245.42 per ounce earlier.
U.S. gold futures were little changed at $3,244.79, with a softer dollar helping cap bullion’s downside.
The dollar remained weak after reports emerged that the Trump administration’s exemptions on electronic devices from tariffs may not last long.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the exemptions aren’t permanent and that smartphones and computers as well as other devices and components would be subject to “semiconductor tariffs” that will likely come in “a month or two,” stirring up more tariff uncertainty.
Also, Trump said in a Truth Social post that these products are still “subject to the existing 20 percent Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff bucket.
Goldman Sachs has raised gold price target to $3,700 an ounce by end-2025, citing heightened concerns over the U.S. economy fueled by an escalation in the U.S.-China trade war.
In economic releases, U.S. reports on retail sales, industrial production, import and export prices and housing starts will be in the spotlight this week.
Several Fed officials are set to speak this week, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday.
Statistics Canada says wholesale trade, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.3 per cent to $85.7-billion in February.
The overall increase in sales came as just two of the seven subsectors posted gains.
Statistics Canada says sales in the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector gained 7.1 per cent for the month to $19-billion, while the food, beverage and tobacco subsector rose 0.5 per cent to $15.5-billion.
The motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories subsector posted the largest decrease as it fell 3.1 per cent to $14.3-billion.
In volume terms, wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, increased 0.2 per cent in February.
Statistics Canada has started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade, but is excluding the data from its monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
Oil prices traded higher on Monday, with a weaker dollar and geopolitical tensions offering some support. There was some cheer as Chinese data showed a sharp rebound in crude imports in March.
China’s crude oil imports in March were up nearly 5 percent from a year earlier, boosted by Iranian oil and a rebound in Russian deliveries.
Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.6 percent to $65.15 a barrel in European trade while WTI crude futures were up 0.7 percent at $61.93.
The dollar remained weak as investors grappled with the latest tariff headlines.
Traders looked past a reprieve on the imposition of certain electronic tariffs after U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed his exemption for the technology sector.
On the geopolitical front, at least 34 people were killed and another 117, including 11 children, were injured by a Russian missile attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
This was the deadliest attack on Ukraine this year and Trump called it a “horrible thing” and a “mistake”.
Elsewhere, the death toll from Israel’s attacks on Gaza on Sunday rose to 37 as condemnation grows over attack on al-Ahli Hospital.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is set to visit Moscow this week to discuss recent nuclear negotiations with the United States held in Oman.
While speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night, Trump said the goal behind the specific tariff is to “uncomplicate” trade in the semiconductor sector.
“We wanted to uncomplicate it from a lot of other companies, because we want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country,” Trump said while traveling back to Washington, D.C. from West Palm Beach.
