Top headlines: Fix coming for struck-down environmental impact law, Ottawa says
Today’s headlines
Little relief in sight for rental market as vacancy rate hits historic low
Take GDP surprise with ‘grain of salt’: What latest numbers mean to the Bank of Canada
Bank of Canada governor says interest rates not to blame for housing crisis
Top story
Bill coming to fix Ottawa’s environmental impact law, Wilkinson says
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the government will have legislation ready by the spring to fix the constitutional problems the Supreme Court has with the federal Impact Assessment Act.
The Liberals passed the act in 2019 to overhaul how major projects are assessed for their environmental and social impacts.
In October, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the law was too broad because it allowed Ottawa to wade into provincial jurisdiction.
The new legislation to fix that is part of a plan Wilkinson is publishing today to speed up the regulatory approval and permitting process for major projects.
Canada needs massive investments in the electrical grid and potentially hundreds of new critical mineral mines to meet the growing demand of the clean tech revolution.
But it can take more than 15 years to get a new mine approved and built because of inefficiencies in the review process, a timeline Wilkinson says must be cut by more than half.
— The Canadian Press
4:45 p.m.
Market close: TSX gains almost 100 points, U.S. markets also rise
Canada’s main stock index gained almost a hundred points despite weakness in energy stocks, while U.S. markets erased a big chunk of their losses from the day before.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 97.33 points at 21,119.21.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 369.54 points at 38,519.84. The S&P 500 index was up 60.54 points at 4,906.19, while the Nasdaq composite was up 197.63 points at 15,361.64.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.60 cents U.S. compared with 74.64 cents U.S. on Wednesday.
The March crude contract was down US$2.03 at US$73.82 per barrel and the March natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.05 per mmBTU.
The April gold contract was up US$3.70 at US$2,071.10 an ounce and the March copper contract was down five cents at US$3.85 a pound.
The Canadian Press
2 p.m.
Calgary sees bump in home sales but inventory remains low in tight market
The Calgary Real Estate Board says there were 1,650 home sales in January, marking a 37.7 per cent year-over-year increase as the city saw a 15.4 per cent bump in newly listed homes.
The unadjusted residential benchmark price rose to $572,300, which was 10 per cent higher than January 2023.
The board says despite the rise in new listings, Calgary’s low inventory situation persisted with 2,150 units on the market — close to the January record low set in 2006 and nearly 49 per cent below the long-term average for the month.
But CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie says the January increase in new listings did help provide options to potential buyers, even though conditions remained relatively tight and drove further price growth.
Apartment-style properties saw the most significant gains in sales, with 488 properties changing hands — a 54 per cent increase from January 2023.
The board says new listings rose for all detached homes priced above $500,000, but the largest gains occurred in the category priced over $700,000.
The Canadian Press
1:25 p.m.
Trans Mountain still seeking solution to obstruction that has pushed back start date
The company building the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is still working to find a solution for its latest unexpected construction challenge in British Columbia.
Crown corporation Trans Mountain Corp. is currently removing the section of pipe it had been attempting to pull into the hole drilled for it in the Fraser Valley between Hope and Chilliwack.
The company had been using an engineering technique called horizontal directional drilling for that section, but announced on Monday it had encountered what it called “technical issues.”
On Wednesday, a company spokesperson said the problems were related to an obstruction discovered while attempting to pull the pipe into the hole, and that it is now assessing options to remove it.
The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada’s only oil pipeline to the West Coast and its expansion will increase the pipeline’s capacity to 890,000 barrels per day from 300,000 bpd currently.
But the company has been racing against the clock as it deals with a variety of difficulties related to hard rock and challenging terrain. The latest challenges are expected to push the pipeline’s expected in-service date back from the first quarter to the second quarter of this year.
— The Canadian Press
12:08 p.m.
Midday markets: TSX, Wall Street rise
Canada’s main stock index was slightly up in early afternooon trading as gains in the industrial, base metal and telecommunication sectors offset losses in the financial and technology stocks.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.16 per cent at 21,153.38.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.60 per cent at 38,383.62. The S&P 500 index was up 0.54 per cent at 4,871.48, while the Nasdaq composite was up 0.92 per cent at 15,305.46.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.79 cents US compared with 74.64 cents US on Wednesday.
The March crude contract was up 1.23 per cent at US$76.78 per barrel and the March natural gas contract was down three cents at US$2.07 per mmBTU.
The April gold contract was up 0.52 per cent at US$2,078.20 an ounce and the March copper contract was down four cents at US$3.86 a pound.
— The Canadian Press
11:00 a.m.
Industry group warns job vacancies are piling up at Ontario manufacturers
Industry group Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters is warning on the rising number of job vacancies in Ontario’s manufacturing sector as positions go unfilled, thousands of new positions are set to be created and a wave of retirements takes hold.
CME says Ontario has more than 18,900 vacancies and about 7,000 confirmed new manufacturing jobs opening up.
The association says the industry could see as many as 18,500 retirements from baby boomers in the province every year between now and 2034.
It adds the labour shortage will be more pronounced in the auto and electric vehicle sector as EV production ramps up.
Dennis Darby, chief executive of CME, says manufacturing is more important than ever to Ontario’s future.
CME is calling on the provincial government to invest more in the training and skills upgrading of workers, bolster its tax credit for employer-led training and better align its programs to match employers with workers.
— The Canadian Press
10:40 a.m.
Markets open: U.S. stocks rise, TSX up on energy
U.S. stocks advanced as traders awaited earnings from a trio of megacaps, while weighing mixed economic data in the run-up to Friday’s jobs report.
Wall Street, reeling from Jerome Powell’s message that a March United States Federal Reserve cut is unlikely, sent equities higher. Big tech led the rebound ahead of results from Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. After the heightened volatility of the Fed-decision day, Treasury yields looked reasonably stable.
Oil rose on a news report that the United States approved plans for strikes in Iraq and Syria.
The S&P 500 was up 0.62 per cent, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.32 per cent. The Nasdaq composite index was up 0.75 per cent.
In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.49 per cent on strength in energy and materials stocks.
— Bloomberg
9:30 a.m.
Canada Goose revenue rises 6% from year ago
Canada Goose Holdings Inc. reported $130.6 million in net income attributable to shareholders for its third-quarter as its revenue rose six per cent compared with a year ago.
The luxury parka maker said the profit amounted to $1.29 per diluted share for the quarter ended Dec. 31 compared with net income attributable to shareholders of $134.9 million or $1.28 per diluted share a year earlier when it had more shares outstanding.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $609.9 million, up from $576.7 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned $1.37 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of $1.27 per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, the company said it expects revenue between $310 million and $330 million for its fourth quarter and an adjusted profit between two and 13 cents per diluted share.
For its full 2024 financial year, Canada Goose said it expects total revenue between $1.285 billion and $1.305 billion compared with its earlier guidance for between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion. Adjusted net income per diluted share is now expected between 82 cents and 92 cents compared with earlier guidance for between 60 cents and $1.40.
— The Canadian Press
8:32 a.m.
AIMCo sets up $1B fund to invest in energy transition opportunities
The Alberta Investment Management Corp. has set up a new $1-billion fund dedicated to investing in the global energy transition and decarbonization sectors.
The investment manager says the money represents new capital and investments made through the fund will be in addition to its other climate-related investments across asset classes.
AIMCo chief investment officer Marlene Puffer says it has been strategically evaluating climate change risks and opportunities for the last decade and the organization has a strong track record of making investments in the energy transition space.
AIMCo says the new fund will look to offer exposure to a range of energy transition opportunities such as industrial decarbonization, carbon capture and sequestration.
Other areas could include renewable fuels, low-carbon renewable energy production and related technologies and electrification, storage and energy efficiency.
AIMCo invests on behalf of pension, endowment, insurance and government funds in Alberta and has more than $158 billion in assets under management.
— The Canadian Press
7:30 a.m.
Shell profits tumble by almost a third
Oil giant Shell saw profits tumble by nearly a third in 2023 as a result of lower oil and natural gas prices, which had surged the year before in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
London-based Shell said today its post-tax earnings fell 29 per cent, to US$28.3 billion from the previous year’s all-time high of US$40 billion.
The main reason behind the decline was the fall in energy prices, with oil trading at an average of US$82 a barrel against US$100 the year before.
Shell chief executive Wael Sawan said the company had “made good progress” over the year and that it would focus on “more value with less emissions.”
— The Associated Press
Stock markets before the opening bell
Stocks looks set for a slight bounce after the steepest slump in four months Wednesday.
Futures are up as investors reset expectations on the timing of Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and assessed a deluge of earnings.
Chair Jerome Powell said after Wednesday’s decision he doesn’t think it’s likely the Fed will cut in March. In a sign that officials are not in a hurry to lower rates, the central bank also said it “does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 per cent.”
United States megacap earnings are back in focus, with Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. all due to release results.
— Bloomberg
What to watch today
The Bank of England is expected to hold its interest rate at 5.25 per cent today, but observers will be watching for hints on its next move.
Some big names are reporting their results today. Investors will be closely watching what tech giants Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc have to say after the bell. Rogers Communications Inc and Canada Goose Holdings Inc are on deck for Canada.
Need a refresher on yesterday’s top headlines? Get caught up here.
Additional reporting by The Canadian Press, Associated Press and Bloomberg
