Category: Uncategorized

Monday November 13

Canada’s Remembrance Day (stock markets open, bond markets closed)

China’s aggregate yuan financing, new loans and money supply

Japan machine tool orders

(2 p.m. ET) U.S. budget balance for October.

Earnings include: Computer Modelling Group Ltd.; Orla Mining Ltd.; Power Corp. of Canada; Sun Life Financial Inc.; Tyson Foods Inc.; XP Inc.

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Tuesday November 14

Euro zone GDP

(4:30 a.m. ET) Bank of Canada deputy governor Toni Gravelle participates in a panel on “Challenges for Financial Stability and Financial Regulation amid Heightened Uncertainty” in Zurich.

(6 a.m. ET) U.S. NFIB Small Business Economic Trends Survey for October.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. CPI for October. The Street is forecasting an increase of 0.1 per cent from September and up 3.3 per cent year-over-year.

Earnings include: Africa Oil Corp.; Aya Gold & Silver Inc.; Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund; Dream Unlimited Corp.; Headwater Exploration Inc.; Home Depot Inc.; H&R REIT; Premium Brands Holdings Corp.; Strathcona Resources Ltd.; Torex Gold Resources Ltd.

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Wednesday November 15

China industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investments

Japan GDP and industrial production

Euro zone industrial production and trade surplus

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian manufacturing sales and new orders for September. Estimates are month-over-month increases of 0.7 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively.

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s wholesale trade for September. Estimate is a flat reading from August.

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian new motor vehicle sales for September. Estimate is a year-over-year rise of 20.0 per cent.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. retail sales for October. The Street is expecting a decline of 0.3 per cent from September (or a 0.2-per-cent drop excluding automobiles)

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. PPI final demand for October. Consensus is a rise of 0.1 per cent from September and 2.0 per cent year-over-year.

(9 a.m. ET) Canadian existing home sales and average prices for October. Estimates are year-over-year increases of 1.5 per cent for both.

(9 a.m. ET) Canada’s MLS Home Price Index for October. Estimate is a year-over-year increase of 1.5 per cent

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. business inventories for September.

Also: U.S. President Joe Biden meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco.

Earnings include: Cisco Systems Inc.; Freehold Royalties Ltd.; Loblaw Companies Ltd.; Metro Inc.; NetEase Inc.; Palo Alto Networks Inc.; Seabridge Gold Inc.; Target Corp.; TJX Companies Inc.; Well Health Technologies Corp.

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Thursday November 16

Japan’s trade deficit and core machine orders

(8:15 a.m. ET) Canadian housing starts for October. Estimate is an annualized rate decline of 2.0 per cent.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. initial jobless claims for week of Nov. 11. Estimate is 222,000, up 5,000 from the previous week.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. import prices for October. The Street is projecting a decline of 0.3 per cent from September and a drop of 1.8 per cent year-over-year.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. Philadelphia Fed Index for November.

(9:15 a.m. ET) U.S. industrial production for October. Consensus is a month-over-month decline of 0.3 per cent with capacity utilization sliding 0.2 per cent to 79.5 per cent.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. NAHB Housing Market Index for November.

(11 a.m. ET) U.S. Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity for November.

Earnings include: Alibaba ADR; Applied Materials Inc.; Birchcliff Energy Ltd.; Macy’s Inc.; Ross Stores Inc.; Sigma Lithium Resources Corp.; Strathcona Resources Ltd.; Walmart Inc.

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Friday November 17

Euro zone CPI

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s industrial product and raw materials price indexes for October. Estimates are month-over-month declines of 0.1 per cent and 1.0 per cent, respectively.

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s international securities transactions for September.

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian household and mortgage credit for September.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. housing starts for October. The Street expects an annualized rate decline of 0.6 per cent.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. building permits for October. Consensus is a decline of 1.4 per cent on annualized rate basis.

Earnings include: Real Matters Inc.

Published: 11/10/2023 4:59 AM ET

Gold prices eased on Friday and were set for weekly losses of about 2 percent after a string of hawkish comments from Fed, ECB and BoE policymakers. Waning concerns over the Israel-Hamas war also dented demand for bullion.

Spot gold slipped 0.2 percent to $1,954.86 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down half a percent at $1,959.55.

The dollar strengthened and Treasury yields spiked following a weak sale of 30-year notes and comments Fed Chair Jerome Powell that the U.S. central bank “will not hesitate” to resume raising rates if it becomes appropriate.

Powell said that inflation has slowed over the past year but the process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2 percent has a long way to go.

Elsewhere, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said in a newspaper interview that it is premature to discuss European Central Bank rate cuts.

Bank of England’s Chief Economist Huw Pill said the monetary policy needs to be restrictive in order to bring inflation back to the target.

In the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday his country does not seek to conquer, occupy or govern Gaza after its war against Hamas but a civilian government would need to take shape in Gaza and Israel would make sure an attack like Oct. 7 does not happen again.

Saputo Inc. says it earned $156 million in its second quarter, up from $145 million a year earlier.

The Montreal-based company says revenues for the quarter ended Sept. 30 were $4.3 billion, down from 4.5 billion during the same quarter last year.

Earnings per diluted share were 37 cents, up from 35 cents a year earlier.

Saputo says overall sales volumes were stable in its second quarter despite continued softening of global demand for dairy products, with higher domestic sales volumes more than offsetting lower volumes on the export side.

The company says during the rest of the financial year it expects to benefit from the carryover impact of price increases as well as other initiatives.

It also expects near-term inflation on its overall input costs to moderate, but remain elevated.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.

Linamar Corp. says it sales and income got a boost in the third quarter thanks in part to its diversification efforts away from contracts reliant on gasoline-powered vehicles.

Sales were $2.43 billion in the third quarter, up from $2.1 billion in the same quarter last year, as the industrial segment of the manufacturer grew faster than its automotive division.

Linamar says it earned $146.7 million, or $2.38 per share, in the quarter ending Sept. 30, up from $133.2 million, or $2.10 per share, last year.

Adjusted earnings were $2.21 per share, up from $1.91 last year, while analyst had expected earnings of $2.07 per share according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

The company says it continues to set itself up for the electric vehicle transition, including with its recent acquisition of the Mobex chassis and suspension business.

It says 57 per cent of new business contracts for its mobility division are for EVs, while 74 per cent of new business wins in the segment are either ‘propulsion agnostic’ or for EVs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.

U.S. consumer sentiment fell for a fourth straight month in November, and households’ expectations for inflation rose again, with their medium-term outlook for price pressures shooting to the highest in more than a dozen years, a survey showed on Friday.

The University of Michigan’s preliminary reading of its Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 60.4, the lowest since May, from October’s final reading of 63.8.

The median expectation among economists in a Reuters poll had been for the index to be little changed at 63.7.

The survey’s preliminary gauge of current conditions fell to 65.7 from last month’s final level of 70.6, while the expectations index slid to 56.9 from 59.3 in October. Like the headline index, both subindexes were the lowest since May.

Consumers’ outlook for inflation in the year ahead rose for a second month to a seven-month high of 4.4%. Over a five-year horizon, consumers expect inflation to average 3.2%, up from 3.0% in October and the highest since March 2011.

Officials at the Federal Reserve, who have raised interest rates by 5.25 percentage points since March 2022 to lower inflation from four-decade highs, keep close tabs on consumers’ attitudes about price trends. They are keen to see inflation expectations trend lower so as not to alter consumption behaviour that could reverse the gains they have made in slowing the pace of price increases.

Thanks largely to persistent inflation, American households have held a broadly sour view of the U.S. economy and their own prospects ever since the pandemic struck in early 2020, even though overall employment is back to record highs, jobless rates are near historic lows, wages have been rising faster than before the health crisis, and overall economic growth has been running well above trend.

Brookfield Corp. BN-T -1.82%decrease is stockpiling spare cash and refinancing loans across its portfolios in anticipation of an uptick in deal-making over the course of next year as confidence returns to volatile markets.

The parent company of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM-T -0.16%decrease is sitting on US$120-billion of capital that is available to be deployed, with US$4-billion in cash and undrawn credit lines and another US$60-billion in liquid securities.

Given widespread uncertainty in financial markets, Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt reminded investors that “cash is king” in a letter to shareholders. Higher interest rates have made it tougher for asset managers and private-market investors to fundraise or secure financing, which has curbed deal-making.

But Brookfield appears to have largely resisted those trends so far. And Mr. Flatt said he believes interest rates “have crested around the world” and, as inflation cools, confidence in pricing financial risks is gradually increasing.

All of that should add up to “a very busy period of transaction activity through to the end of next year,” he said. And though Brookfield has been spending some of its cash on share buybacks, as the company believes its shares are undervalued, it expects to rebuild that cash pile and to see more opportunities to put it to work.

Brookfield Corp.’s distributable earnings – a measure of the company’s profits that could be paid out to shareholders – were down 2.6 per cent to nearly US$1.1-billion in the third quarter, before accounting for realizations and after adjusting for the spinoff of the asset manager as a separate business.

Over the past 12 months, distributable earnings before realizations increased 11 per cent year-over-year to US$4.2-billion.

Brookfield earned a profit of US$35-million, or 12 U.S. cents a share, compared with US$716-million, or 24 U.S. cents a share, in the same quarter last year, when profits were boosted by one-time valuation gains.

Over the first nine months of the year, Brookfield has sold about US$25-billion of assets, and US$35-billion over the past 12 months, to bolster its cash reserves.

The company is also waiting to close its acquisition of insurers Argo Group International Holdings Ltd. and American Equity Investment Life Holding Co., which would double the insurance float available to be invested to US$100-billion.

At the same time, the company has refinanced nearly US$15-billion of debt in its private equity business, without significantly increasing its overall cost of debt. And it has refinanced US$23-billion of debt across 131 real estate loans, despite the mounting pressure on commercial real estate.

 | Published: 11/9/2023 4:54 AM ET

Oil prices rose nearly 1 percent on Thursday, after having fallen over 2 percent to hit their lowest since mid-July in the previous session on concerns over waning demand in the U.S. and China.

Benchmark crude futures rose about 1 percent to $80.27 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were up 0.9 percent at $76.01.

Oil prices were rising despite new data indicating deflationary pressures in China, the world’s biggest crude oil importer.

Official data showed earlier in the day that China’s consumer price inflation fell 0.2 percent year-on-year in October while factory-gate prices declined 2.6 percent, falling for a 13th month in a row and raising concerns over domestic demand.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said earlier this week that crude production in the U.S. will rise by slightly less than previously expected but demand will fall.

The dollar struggled for direction in European trade following hawkish comments from Fed officials and an uneventful speech from Chair Jerome Powell, who will appear again on a panel discussing monetary policy challenges later today.

Hydro One Ltd. reported a third-quarter profit of $357 million, up from $307 million a year ago.

The power utility says the profit amounted to 59 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 51 cents per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue totalled $1.93 billion, down from $2.03 billion in the same quarter last year, while revenue, net of purchased power, totalled $1.08 billion, up from $1.07 billion a year earlier.

Hydro One says the increase in revenue, net of purchased power, was helped by a hike in transmission rates and higher average monthly peak demand.

Since the end of the quarter, the company says it was awarded the right to develop and construct three new transmission lines to meet growing demand in Northeastern and Eastern Ontario.

It says it has been collaborating with First Nations on early planning and that First Nations will have the opportunity to invest in a 50 per cent equity stake in the transmission line component of the projects.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.

WSP Global Inc provides engineering and design services to clients in the Transportation and Infrastructure, Property and Buildings, Environment, Power and Energy, Resources, and Industry sectors. It also offers strategic advisory services. The firm operates through four reportable segments namely, Canada, Americas ( US and Latin America), EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa), and APAC (Asia Pacific, comprising Australia, New Zealand and Asia).

 WSP Global Inc. is reporting its third-quarter profit and revenue both rose by nearly a quarter compared with a year ago, buoyed by organic growth as well as recent acquisitions.

The engineering company says its net earnings attributable to shareholders grew to $156.2 million or $1.25 per share for the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with $127.5 million or $1.05 per share in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 24 per cent to $3.6 billion in its third quarter from $2.9 billion the year before.

On an adjusted basis, WSP’s profit climbed to $1.98 per share in its most recent quarter compared with $1.59 per share a year earlier.

The result beat analyst expectations for $1.90 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Chief executive Alexandre L’Heureux also says a seven per cent year-over-year backlog growth to $14.28 billion in the third quarter speaks to continued demand for the Montreal-based firm’s services.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.