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TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index gained almost 100 points Friday on strength in technology, base metal and financial stocks, while U.S. markets also moved higher.

It was a positive end to the week after Thursday’s backslide, which saw investors sour on Microsoft and Meta despite strong earnings reports.

Markets are looking for perfection from the mega-cap tech names, said Allan Small, senior investment adviser at IA Private Wealth.

“It was a silly reaction to, I thought, two fantastic earnings reports by Meta and Microsoft. I’m quite surprised,” said Small.

A strong report after the bell from Amazon helped turn things around Friday, with Microsoft gaining back one per cent as Amazon rose by more than six per cent.

The e-commerce giant reported higher profits than expected by analysts.

“I think it was a reason for investors to buy in after maybe a couple of days of soft markets,” said Small.

“Overall, today is a charge higher.”

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 288.73 points at 42,052.19. The S&P 500 index was up 23.35 points at 5,728.80, while the Nasdaq composite was up 144.77 points at 18,239.92.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 98.29 points at 24,255.16.

Intel shares also rallied after its revenue and forecast beat expectations. Meanwhile, shares in Apple fell after its revenue growth forecast for the holiday quarter disappointed.

After a busy week of earnings, next week will bring the U.S. election on Tuesday followed by the next U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate decision Wednesday.

“Next week will be interesting to say the least,” said Small.

The election still feels like a “coin toss,” he said, but expectations for the Fed are clearer: he sees the central bank announcing a quarter-percentage-point cut.

“I just don’t see a catalyst coming from the Fed,” he said.

“If and when they do cut 25 basis points, I think that’s already baked in.”

Friday also brought a weak jobs report in the U.S., with the economy adding just 12,000 jobs compared with the 115,000 expected. Two hurricanes during the month and a strike at Boeing weighed on the report.

Factoring out the short term effects, the numbers were more or less as predicted, said Small, adding to the case for a quarter-percentage-point cut from the Fed on Wednesday.

The Canadian dollar traded for 71.78 cents US compared with 71.86 cents US on Thursday.

The December crude oil contract was up 23 cents at US$69.49 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.66 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down 10 cents at US$2,749.20 an ounce and the December copper contract was up three cents at US$4.37 a pound.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version erroneously said the crude oil contract settled at US$9.49 per barrel.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – A change to the law that limited the right of an accused person to a preliminary inquiry does not apply to some ongoing cases, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.

The top court’s decision Friday helps clarify who is eligible for a preliminary inquiry — a judicial hearing to see if there is enough evidence for a trial — in light of a 2019 amendment to the criminal law.

In September 2019, a Criminal Code change abolished the right to a preliminary inquiry for an accused charged with an indictable offence punishable by less than 14 years in prison.

The government said the amendment would free up time and resources in provincial courts, while alleviating the burden on some witnesses and victims by preventing them from having to testify twice in cases.

After the change, there was disagreement among judges across the country about the circumstances under which someone charged with an offence before the amendment came into force would be eligible for a preliminary inquiry.

In its decision, the Supreme Court said a preliminary inquiry is available when an accused person could actually face 14 or more years behind bars.

The top court said a preliminary inquiry is also possible in some ongoing cases involving events that occurred before the 2019 change.

The court’s pronouncements came in the separate cases of two men accused of sexual offences punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison when the crimes allegedly took place, long before the September 2019 amendment.

However, both requested a preliminary inquiry only after the 2019 change to the law.

The issue worked its way through the Quebec courts, with the province’s Court of Appeal concluding the amendment did not apply to the two men and that preliminary inquiries should take place.

The Crown then requested a hearing at the Supreme Court.

Five of the top court’s nine judges agreed the previous version of the law applied in these particular cases, meaning the men were entitled to preliminary inquiries.

The majority provided three sets of reasons for that conclusion.

In her reasons, Justice Sheilah Martin said where the alleged offence date is prior to September 2019, an accused who would have been eligible for a preliminary inquiry but for the amendment “remains eligible, regardless of the applicable maximum punishment.”

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, an intervener in the case, had noted in a written submission to the court that preliminary hearings can be used to screen out meritless allegations.

“This protective function is provided by the fact that an accused will be discharged after a preliminary hearing, at an early stage of the proceedings, if there is insufficient evidence to justify a prosecution.”

Cases involving charges laid many years after the offence was allegedly committed present unique challenges to accused people, the association added.

“Evidence relating to the offence, and necessary to marshal a defence, can with the passage of time become lost, or can be rendered increasingly difficult to uncover. Memories fade, accounts become vague, witnesses die or become hard to track down,” the association said.

“In such cases, preliminary hearings become the vehicle through which the accused gains the power to subpoena witnesses, to ask questions to the investigators, the Crown’s witnesses, and potential defence witnesses, and to uncover potentially critical and previously undisclosed evidence.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – Ports in British Columbia could potentially be paralyzed again starting next week as a lockout looms in the dispute between employers and the union representing more than 700 foremen.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said Friday the lockout coincides with an expanded job action at the Port of Montreal, bringing more uncertainty to Canada’s supply chain.

“It’s tremendously concerning to us, particularly because of the drumbeat of disruption that we’ve seen throughout the Canadian supply chain and the transport sector over the last 12 to 18 months,” said Matthew Holmes, executive vice-president at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

The BC Maritime Employers Association said Friday in a statement that it will “defensively” lock out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 starting Monday at 8 a.m., shutting down all cargo operations provincewide but leaving cruise ships and operations for grain vessels unaffected.

The employers said the lockout is meant to “facilitate a safe and orderly wind-down of operations” in light of “escalating and unpredictable strike action,” as the union had issued a 72-hour strike notice for job action also starting Monday at 8 a.m.

“We did not arrive to this decision lightly,” the employers association said in its statement announcing the lockout. “This regretful action follows thorough consideration of ILWU Local 514’s continued intransigence and their provocative decision to proceed with another strike notice.”

In response, Local 514 president Frank Morena said in a union release that workers had only planned to “engage in limited job action” such as an overtime ban, and it was the employers who “completely overreacted” by threatening a “full-scale lockout.”

“Regardless of BCMEA provocations, we will take limited job action only starting Monday, Nov. 4 unless an agreement has (been) reached before then — and we are prepared to resume negotiations immediately,” Morena said in the statement.

He noted that workers are now “extremely angry” over the employers’ refusal to bargain major issues, such as staffing requirements as more automation is introduced at the ports, and the lockout is an “attempt to force the federal government to intervene in the dispute.”

There have already been a number of recent disruptions at the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest port, due to labour unrest.

The list includes a days-long picketing effort at several grain terminals in September, a work stoppage involving both major Canadian railways in August, and a port worker strike last year that lasted 13 days and froze billions in trade at the docks.

Expanded job action on Thursday at the Port of Montreal shut down two container terminals, stopping 40 per cent of the container capacity at Canada’s second largest port.

“It feels like the entire business fabric and connective tissue of our country is constantly under fire,” Holmes said. “And how do we have a viable economy for small business?”

He said 2023 saw the highest number of days lost to labour disputes across all Canadian industries since 1986, and the fear is that frequent disruptions to road, rail, ship and air traffic may add up to damage to Canada’s economy that can’t be easily corrected.

“When companies can’t get their goods into the ports in Canada, they have to go somewhere else,” he said. “When they go somewhere else, it doesn’t mean they come back here. And … we’ve seen that in previous disruptions.”

The union representing foremen in B.C. has said that employers have tried to “lower existing minimum manning levels” at ports across the province, with a Canada Industrial Relations Board document noting that Local 514 made a complaint in February that one employer — DP World — “failed to engage in bargaining on a manning agreement” and “purported to have the right to unilaterally implement automated rail operations” at its Vancouver container terminal.

The board ultimately decided to dismiss the union’s complaint, saying DP World’s practices “may not be conducive to harmonious labour relations” but the company had no legal duty or obligation to engage Local 514 on a manning proposal presented earlier this year.

Local 514 said its inability to negotiate with DP World as a single employer led to a vote among the membership “industry-wide” that resulted in a 96 per cent approval in September to authorize strike action if needed.

The union accuses the employers of not showing up for negotiations on Thursday, the last scheduled day of mediated talks this week, while also failing to notify others that they would not be participating.

The employers association says its final offer to the union remains open for workers to accept unless it is withdrawn, and the group is prepared to rescind the lockout notice if the union withdraws its strike notice.

Holmes said Canadian small businesses are not taking sides in either the disputes in B.C. or in Montreal, but added it has become clear that there is a “systemic problem” in labour dispute resolution in Canada and more action from federal government is needed to prevent disruptions.

He said some of the negative impact of disruptions can already be seen in Canada’s GDP, where August saw transportation and warehousing acting as a “drag” on the overall Canadian economy.

“It means we’re going to be poorer as a nation at the end of this year as a result of those few days and the time it took to get things moving again,” Holmes said. “And we’re going to see that again and again until we figure this out.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.