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• Qatar’s prime minister told Iran’s leader to refrain from attacking Israel while Gaza cease-fire negotiations are ongoing in Doha, according to The Washington Post.
• The talks are set to resume Friday.

U.S. crude oil futures fell 3% on Friday amid reports that Qatar told Iran to not attack Israel while Gaza cease-fire talks are ongoing.

Qatar’s prime minister told Iran’s leaders in a phone call after the first day of Gaza cease-fire talks in Doha Thursday that they should de-escalate, warning of the consequences of attacking Israel when progress is being made in the negotiations, two diplomats told The Washington Post.

Here are Friday’s energy prices:

• West Texas Intermediate September contract: $76.13 per barrel, down $2.02, or 2.58%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has gained 6.2%.
• Brent September contract: $79.15 per barrel, down $1.91, or 2.36%. Year to date, the global benchmark is ahead 2.7%.
• RBOB Gasoline September contract: $2.31 per gallon, down 4 cents, or 1.81%. Year to date, gasoline is up 10.2%.
• Natural Gas September contract: $2.16 per thousand cubic feet, down 3 cents, or 1.32%. Year to date, gas is down 13.7%.

The cease-fire talks were paused Friday, with negotiations expected to meet again next week.

The U.S. benchmark jumped more than 4% on Monday on fears that an attack by Iran on Israel was drawing closer. Iran has vowed to retaliate over the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran in late July.

Prices have subsequently pulled back as an assault has not yet materialized. Worries about softening oil demand in China have also weighed on the market.

“The pendulum of price influence keeps swinging between fundamentals and geopolitics, with today’s selloff seemingly dictated by negotiations in the Middle East and an ongoing lack of retaliation by Iran,” said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler.   

Consumer spending held up even better than expected in July as inflation pressures showed more signs of easing, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Advanced retail sales accelerated 1% on the month, according to numbers that are adjusted for seasonality but not inflation. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 0.3% increase. June sales were revised to a decline of 0.2% after initially being reported as flat.

Excluding auto-related items, sales increased 0.4%, also better than the 0.1% forecast.

There was also good news on the labor market front: Initial unemployment benefit claims for the week ending Aug. 10 totaled 227,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week and lower than the estimate for 235,000.

Gains in sales were propelled by increases at motor vehicles and parts dealers (3.6%), electronics and appliance stores (1.6%) and food and beverage outlets (0.9%). Miscellaneous retailers saw a plunge of 2.5% while gas stations saw receipts climb just 0.1% and clothing stores were down 0.1%.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/15/retail-sales-july-2024-.html

Franco-Nevada Corp. (FNV) on Tuesday reported second-quarter earnings of $79.5 million.

On a per-share basis, the Toronto-based company said it had profit of 41 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to 75 cents per share.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 78 cents per share.

The precious metals streaming and royalty company posted revenue of $260.1 million in the period.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research.

Access a Zacks stock report on FNV at https://www.zacks.com/ap/FNV

Inflation rose as expected in July, driven by higher housing-related costs, according to a Labor Department report Wednesday that is likely to keep an interest rate cut on the table in September.

The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, increased 0.2% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.9%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for respective readings of 0.2% and 3%.

Excluding food and energy, core CPI came in at a 0.2% monthly increase and a 3.2% annual rate, meeting expectations.

The annual rate is the lowest since March 2021, while the core is the lowest since April 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Headline inflation was 3% in June.

A 0.4% increase in shelter costs was responsible for 90% of the all-items inflation increase. Food prices increased 0.2% while energy was flat.

Stock market futures were mildly negative after the report while Treasury yields were mostly higher.

Though food inflation was soft on the month, multiple categories saw sizeable increases, most notably eggs, which were up 5.5%. Cereals and bakery items declined 0.5% while dairy and related products fell 0.2%.

Inflation readings have been gradually drifting back to the central bank’s 2% target. A report Tuesday from the Labor Department showed that producer prices, a proxy for wholesale inflation, rose just 0.1% in July and were up 2.2% year over year.

Fed officials have indicated a willingness to ease, though they’ve been careful not to commit to a specific timetable nor to speculate about the pace at which cuts might occur. Futures market pricing currently points to about an even chance of a quarter- or half-percentage point reduction at the Sept. 17-18 meeting and at least a full point in moves by the end of 2024.

As inflation has eased, percolating concerns about a slowing labor market seemed to have raised the likelihood that the Fed will start cutting for the first time since the early days of the Covid crisis.

“Coming down but the sticky areas continue to be sticky,” Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said in describing the CPI report. “We have to keep a close eye on both the inflation data as well as the employment data.”

There were several crosscurrents in the report that indeed suggest inflation is stubborn in some areas.

CAE Inc. is reporting a big drop in profits for its latest quarter as the company grapples with supply-chain constraints.

The flight simulator maker says net income attributable to shareholders fell 26 per cent to $48.3 million in the quarter ended June 30 from $65.3 million in the same period a year earlier.

The Montreal-based company says its revenue rose six per cent to $1.07 billion from $1.01 billion the year before.

CAE says adjusted earnings in its first fiscal quarter decreased 13 per cent to 21 cents per share from 24 cents per share last year.

CAE chief executive Marc Parent says the company’s more than 50 per cent year-over-year backlog growth to $17 billion speaks to a sunny horizon despite “supply-chain headwinds.”

The company says it is targeting about 10 per cent growth in adjusted operating income for its civil aviation segment this year and annual revenue growth in the low- to mid-single-digit range for its beleaguered defence business.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 13, 2024.

2024 THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

•  Sales of $6,651.8 million, up 3.5%
•  Food same-store sales⁽¹⁾ up 2.4%
•  Pharmacy same-store sales⁽¹⁾ up 5.2%
•  Net earnings of $296.2 million, down 14.6%, and adjusted net earnings⁽¹⁾ of $305.0 million, down 3.1%
•  Fully diluted net earnings per share of $1.31, down 12.1%, and adjusted fully diluted net earnings per share⁽¹⁾ of $1.35, unchanged versus last year
• Transition to the new automated Terrebonne distribution centre completed

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/metro-reports-2024-third-quarter-results-875071818.html

WSP Global Inc.WSP-T +1.99%increasehas struck a deal to acquire U.S. consulting firm Power Engineers Inc. as the Canadian engineering giant bulks up its capabilities in the North American energy sector.

Montreal-based WSP will pay US$1.78-billion in cash for Hailey, Idaho-based Power Engineers and take on its 4,000 employees, according to the terms of the agreement announced after market close Monday.

Employee-owned Power has a proven track record doing business with the most prominent utilities on the continent, WSP said in a statement. Its revenues are almost entirely generated within the United States, with over 90 per cent of this revenue coming from repeat business.

“The acquisition will mark a transformative step that will position us at the forefront of the energy transition,” WSP Chief Executive Alexandre L’Heureux said in the statement. “This opportunity brings forth a wealth of strategic benefits.”

WSP said it expects the acquisition to drive accelerated growth and that it will be immediately accretive to its adjusted net earnings per share. It will finance the deal through a combination of new terms loans and stock sales.

The Canadian engineering company said it intends to launch a public offering of subscription receipts worth about $500-million in a bought deal led by CIBC Capital Markets, National Bank Financial and RBC Dominion Securities as joint book-runners. It is also selling $500-million of shares through private placements with four of its major shareholders, namely GIC Pte. Ltd, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, British Columbia Investment Management Corp., and a subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

“Through this investment, CDPQ is reaffirming its long-standing commitment to WSP, allowing the company to carve out an influential position in the global power and energy industry and contribute to the transition underway” Kim Thomassin, executive vice-president at the Caisse, said in a statement. The pension fund manager’s financial pledge is worth $158-million.

The global energy landscape makes this transaction all the more timely, Mr. L’Heureux said on a conference call Monday. Large utilities invested nearly $171-billion last year alone to modernize their aging infrastructure and decarbonize their operations, he said.

Mr. L’Heureux had hinted a deal was coming, telling analysts on an earnings call last month that it was eyeing larger acquisitions after a string of smaller takeovers over the past 18 months. The CEO said he saw opportunities for growth in Europe, Australia and the United States, and that it didn’t matter for WSP’s prospects who won the U.S. presidency in November.

WSP’s backlog of work booked but not yet complete stood at $14.7-billion at the end of June, an all-time high.

Sun Life Financial Inc. says its net income slipped in the second quarter on a restructuring charge while its adjusted net income rose.

The insurer says it had a net income of $646 million, down two per cent from the same quarter last year, as it took a $138 million restructuring charge related to efforts to improve productivity and drive earnings growth.

The company says its adjusted or underlying net income was an even $1 billion, up from $920 million last year.

It says the increased earnings reflected growth in Canada and Asia, while the U.S. division saw a small pullback in income related to Medicaid redeterminations in the dental program.

The company says its assets under management stood at $1.47 trillion at quarter end, up $98 billion or seven per cent from last year.

It says its underlying return on equity was 18.1 per cent, up from 17.7 per cent last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2024.

• The U.S. crude oil benchmark fell as an expected attack by Iran on Israel has not materialized.
• Concerns about the strength of global oil demand are also weighing on the market.

U.S. crude oil prices fell more than 1% on Tuesday, as slowing global demand overshadows tensions between Iran and Israel.

The market has shifted its focus back to fundamentals after the International Energy Agency and OPEC flagged softening consumption in China this week.

Here are Tuesday’s energy prices:

• West Texas Intermediate September contract: $79.01 per barrel, down $1.05, or 1.31%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has gained 10.23%.
• Brent October contract: $81.25 per barrel, down $1.05, or 1.28%. Year to date, the global benchmark is ahead 5.43%.
• RBOB Gasoline September contract: $2.40 per gallon, down 4 cents, or 1.74%. Year to date, gasoline is up 14%.
• Natural Gas September contract: $2.21 per thousand cubic feet, up more than 2 cents, or 1.14%. Year to date, gas is lower by 12%.

World oil demand continues to slow as China’s post-pandemic rebound has run its course, according to the IEA. Global demand in the second quarter increased at its slowest pace, 710,000 barrels per day, since the end of 2022, according to the Paris-based agency.

OPEC on Monday lowered its demand growth forecast by 135,000 barrels per day this year citing softness in China. The IEA forecasts a crude oil surplus in 2025 even if OPEC keeps production cuts in place, due to output in Brazil, Canada, Guyana and the U.S.

U.S. crude rallied more than 4% in the previous session as Israel braced for an expected attack from Iran and the Pentagon accelerated the deployment of a carrier strike group to defend its ally.

“The oil market’s concern is that a broader conflict between Israel and Iran could cause oil supply disruptions in and around the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s seaborne crude supply is shipped,” Henning Gloystein, head of energy at the Eurasia Group, wrote to clients in a note.

“These risks remain low-probability events, which helps explain the modest increase in prices,” Gloystein wrote.

Rob Ginsberg, managing director at Wolfe Research, said U.S. crude could rise above a resistance level of $84 per barrel. “Once out, mid to high $90s isn’t crazy,” Ginsberg said.