Canada’s economy unexpectedly shrank in October as spillover from the stateside General Motors strike took a toll on the manufacturing sector. Overall gross domestic product fell 0.1 per cent in the month, the first contraction since February. It wasn’t universally negative — indeed, there was a strong showing by real estate agents in October, and 13 of the 20 sectors tracked by Statistics Canada showed growth. But today’s GDP news adds to a stretch of disappointing data in the country after Friday’s dismal retail sales report and the weak jobs data for November.
BOEING REPLACES CEO
Dennis Muilenburg is out as the chief executive of Boeing. He’ll be replaced by the planemaker’s current chairman, David Calhoun, on Jan. 13, and by CFO Greg Smith immediately on an interim basis. In a brief release, Boeing said its board decided the leadership change was “necessary to restore confidence” in the beleaguered company that’s been struggling to manage the fallout from global groundings of its 737 Max jet.
POT HEIST
Aleafia Health reported a theft of its pot over the weekend. The Toronto-based cannabis firm said a vehicle belonging to a third-party carrier that’d been hired to haul recreational products to wholesale facilities was stolen. Aleafia says all relevant authorities have been notified and that the shipment’s value isn’t material. But it certainly raises important questions about safeguarding the country’s adult-use pot. Who’s shipping the stuff? What kind of insurance policies are available to producers? We’ll look into that.
CHINA CUTS TARIFFS
The Chinese government announced a sweeping round of tariff cuts overnight, affecting almost 900 products, including frozen pork and pharmaceuticals, whose import value last year totalled US$389 billion. The finance ministry touted the move as helping to open China’s economy.
WELCOME BACK…
We’ve got a holiday surprise coming up on BNN Bloomberg. Stay tuned for the return of a familiar face, who’ll be stopping by The Open today for a teaser this morning.
OTHER NOTABLE STORIES
-Shares of Lions Gate Entertainment jumped at the start of trading after NBCUniversal announced a long-term pact with the studio, including a licensing agreement for NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
-Cam Battley, who in many respects was the face of Aurora Cannabis, has stepped down from his role as the pot producer’s chief corporate officer. Separately, Aurora today said it has started shipping 2.0 products, which it expects to be on store shelves early next month.
-Brookfield Infrastructure is buying Cincinnati Bell in an all-cash deal worth US$2.6 billion, including debt. Cincinnati Bell is a telecom service provider operating in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Hawaii.
-CI Financial is making good on its previously-stated plan to expand in the U.S.: This morning it said it’s buying a majority stake in One Capital Management, a California-based registered investment advisory firm with US$1.6 billion in assets.
Every morning BNN Bloomberg’s Managing Editor Noah Zivitz writes a ‘chase note’ to BNN Bloomberg’s editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins by heading to www.bnnbloomberg.ca/subscribe.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
