There have been a number of recent interesting economic and
legal developments aimed at generating greater investment in
Alberta-particularly in areas that will help diversify the
provincial economy and make it more resilient to energy commodity
price shocks and difficulties in accessing markets. Some of these
developments are directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the
adverse impact it has had on the economy generally and specifically
with respect to energy commodity prices. Other developments result
from pre-pandemic macroeconomic conditions, as well as the
provincial election in 2019. These developments may be of interest
to existing, new and potential investors in Alberta.
Part 1: Opportunities in Alberta’s petrochemical
industry
At the heart of what the government calls the “New Alberta
Advantage” is a desire to expand the petrochemical industry in
Alberta. The government needs to seize this opportunity, given the
province’s skilled workforce and significant resource
endowments. The government has embraced a strategy to expand and
diversify the petrochemicals industry as part of its larger Natural Gas Vision and Strategy, announced on
October 6, 2020. The government proposes that supporting the
province’s capacity to produce petrochemicals is a means to
attract investment, capitalize on the education and skills of
Albertans, capture a larger share of the commodities value chain,
and to mitigate and avoid some of the market access challenges that
currently face crude oil, bitumen and natural gas.
Every day, people around the world use dozens of products that
are made with petrochemicals, including:
medical supplies, personal protective equipment, including face
shields, masks and gloves, components for ventilators, and
computers for X-rays and MRIs;
commercial fertilizers;
polyester fabric, televisions, cellphones, bicycle helmets,
household appliances and computers;
car tires and automotive parts;
desks, chairs, carpets and office supplies; and
food packaging to keep food fresh and safe during transport and
storage.
Alberta already has a significant petrochemical industry, and is
Canada’s largest hub for refining and petrochemical production.
There are 36 chemical and petrochemical manufacturers currently
operating in central Alberta. In 2019, the production of industrial
chemicals contributed $12.1 billion to the province’s economy
and employed over 58,000 people directly and indirectly. Methane,
ethane, ethylene and propane, among others, are some of the
petrochemicals produced in Alberta which are used as the chemical
building blocks for manufacturing.
There are five petrochemical production hubs in Alberta, each of
which has rail access to export markets. Alberta has four
ethane-cracking plants, including two of the worlds largest, with a
combined annual capacity of 4.1 million tons per year of ethylene
output. These plants make plastics and other building block
chemicals from natural gas liquids. The National Energy Board of
Canada (now the Canada Energy Regulator) estimated that
Alberta’s ethane gathering system has an excess ethane supply,
which can be tapped to build new steam cracking capacity in the
province.
Alberta produces significant volumes of petrochemical feedstocks
for manufacturing. The province currently produces an estimated 10
bcf/d of natural gas and 160,000 bbl/d of propane, both in excess
of domestic demand, with large quantities available for
petrochemicals applications. The province accounts for 68% of
Canadian natural gas production and is a major exporter of natural
gas and natural gas liquids. The in-Alberta price of petrochemical
feedstocks is often lower than the price in other markets and this
value differential supports the economics for investing in new or
expansions of existing petrochemical facilities in Alberta.
In addition to the availability of feedstock for petrochemical
production, Alberta has extensive infrastructure in place, which
can help to accommodate new petrochemicals production capacity.
Furthermore, Alberta’s existing carbon capture infrastructure
and geology make the province well-positioned to produce
petrochemicals with lower greenhouse gas emissions. The province
has the most comprehensive natural gas and natural gas liquids
transportation and processing capacity in Canada, with the Nova Gas
Transmission Line system, the Alberta Ethane Gathering System and
in-depth natural gas liquid extraction infrastructure integrating
upstream hydrocarbon production with downstream consumers.
Projects on the horizon
With global demand for petrochemicals expected to continue to
increase, there is great potential for expansion in Alberta’s
petrochemical sector. The government’s goal is to establish
Alberta among the world’s top ten petrochemical producers by
2030. The Alberta Industrial Heartland Association, a non-profit
group of municipalities near the Industrial Heartland area
northeast of Edmonton, estimates that there could be a further $30
billion of private-sector investment in the province’s
petrochemical industry by 2030.
The petrochemical industry in Alberta is considered an essential
service and has remained active through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Industry participants have adapted to the public health crisis and
petrochemical production has supported the increased demand for
products made from petrochemicals such as personal protective
equipment, acrylic shields, ventilators, and COVID-19 testing
kits.
The province will be home to Canada’s first two propane
derivatives plants, each of which will produce polypropylene (a
plastic product) from propane: the 525,000 tonne per annum
Heartland Petrochemical Complex, currently under construction by
Inter Pipeline Ltd., and the 550,000 tonne per annum complex to be
constructed by Canada-Kuwait Petrochemical Corporation, a joint
venture between Pembina Pipeline Corporation and Kuwait’s
Petrochemical Industries Company.
On May 11, 2020, two Canadian companies, NOVA Chemicals
Corporation, a prominent producer of chemicals and plastic resins,
and Enerkem Inc., a world-leading renewable fuels and chemicals
producer, announced the signature of a joint development agreement
to explore turning non-recyclable and non-compostable municipal
waste into ethylene. Enerkem Inc. is the first company in the world
to produce renewable methanol and ethanol from non-recyclable,
non-compostable municipal solid waste on a commercial scale. This
joint venture is a unique and cutting-edge component of
Alberta’s growing petrochemical industry. It has the potential
to unlock the potential of the “circular economy”, and
recover and recycle plastic initially created for single-use. The
government is encouraging of these initiatives, in alignment with
its goal of taking stewardship and accountability over plastics
management, and becoming the centre of excellence for plastics
diversion and recycling in Western North America by 2030.
New Petrochemical Incentives Program aims to maintain
momentum
As part of the province’s pandemic Recovery Plan, on July 9, 2020, the government
announced the Alberta Petrochemicals Incentive Program
(APIP), a 10-year program to attract multi-billion
dollar investments in the petrochemical sector. APIP is intended to
be a re-branding, improvement, and expansion of the province’s
2016 Petrochemicals Diversity Program (PDP). Under
APIP, the government does not intend to cap grants available to
petrochemical facilities developers, according to Samantha Peck,
the press secretary for the Ministry of Natural Gas and
Electricity.
APIP grants will be provided in line with typical investment
cycles, and are anticipated to give petrochemical developers the
ability to account for the full value of this incentive in their
project modeling, rather than trying to estimate the value of
royalty credits in an unpredictable market. On October 6, 2020 in
the press conference announcement of the Natural Gas Vision and
Strategy, Premier Jason Kenney indicated that APIP grants would
take the form of provincial income tax relief, once petrochemical
projects are commissioned and operational. In this way, APIP
differs from PDP with its more cumbersome system of marketable
royalty tax credits. The government pledged that APIP grants will
be provided to every project that applies and meets the criteria.
However, more specific terms of the grants are uncertain at this
time as the government continues its engagement with industry
stakeholders to finalize the technical design of the program. The
government’s announcement indicated that details about the
application process and program guidelines are in development and
will be made available at the official launch of APIP in fall 2020,
but we are still waiting for those details.
The government anticipates that growth in the petrochemical
sector through APIP could create more than 90,000 direct and
indirect jobs over the construction and operation periods of new
facilities, and more than $10 billion in revenue from corporate and
personal income taxes.
Part 2: Projects, programs and policies that can support
Alberta’s growing petrochemical industry through regulation,
environmental leadership and new infrastructure
(a) Legislative changes to promote
investment
Corporate Income Tax reductions
Alberta is the most tax-competitive business jurisdiction in
Canada, and is among the most attractive investment destinations in
North America. The government announced its “Job Creation Tax
Cut” in 2019. Through the tax cut, the government was to
reduce Alberta’s corporate income rate from 12% to 8% by 1%
increments by January 1, 2022. These reductions have been
accelerated though the Recovery Plan, such that Alberta’s
corporate income tax rate was reduced to 8% effective July 1, 2020.
This does not affect the federal corporate income tax rate, which
applies across Canada.
“Red tape” reduction
As of June 2020, the government completed more than 200
initiatives to eliminate “red tape” that reduces
administrative efficiency and job creation. On June 11, 2020, the
government proposed to eliminate further procedural burdens and
bureaucratic barriers in order to create new jobs and bolster
economic growth in Alberta and tabled Bill 22, the Red Tape
Reduction Implementation Act, 2020 (Bill 22) to achieve this.
Bill 22 received Royal Assent on July 23, 2020 and will enact
changes to 14 statutes across six ministries; these changes come
into force upon proclamation.
The amendments that Bill 22 makes to the Business
Corporations Act and the Partnership Act are aimed at
increasing investment in Alberta. The changes made to both statutes
seek to increase foreign and extra-provincial investment and reduce
barriers that both corporations and partnerships face when coming
to Alberta. Bill 22 does this by removing the requirement for
corporations to have directors who are residents of Canada and
substituting the requirement to have an “agent for
service” who is an Alberta resident. Bill 22 significantly
streamlines the process of forming limited partnerships in Alberta
(by reducing the public disclosure requirements), provides limited
partners with greater statutory rights, and makes it clear that the
laws of the jurisdiction of formation of an extra-provincial
limited partnership will apply to determine the limited liability
status of its limited partners. These changes are investor-friendly
and are intended to make Alberta laws as or more attractive than
the laws of other Canadian jurisdictions, such that Alberta either
has a competitive advantage or is on equal footing with those
jurisdictions.
Another change brought about by Bill 22 is a streamlining of the
approval process for new oil and natural gas projects, with a goal
of giving investors greater certainty that projects will be
approved, and will be able to proceed sooner. This acceleration can
be seen in both the Mines and Minerals Act and the Oil
Sands Conservation Act, where the requirement for certain
Cabinet approvals of the Minister of Energy’s or Alberta Energy
Regulator’s (the AER) recommendations will be
removed. As a result, the Minister of Energy’s or AER’s
decision will be determinative in these situation without the
further review and approval by the Cabinet, saving time and
expense.
Bill 22 will also remove Cabinet oversight under the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act and the Municipal Government Act.
For more information on Bill 22, see our articles here and here.
Invest Alberta Corporation
On July 31, 2020, Bill 33, the Alberta Investment Attraction
Act, came into force. Through this new legislation, the
government has created Invest Alberta Corporation
(IAC), which has a mandate to work closely with
banks and investors globally to define and defend Alberta’s
leadership on environmental, social and governance standards across
all sectors, and to outline major capital investment opportunities
as the province recovers from the pandemic. IAC will coordinate the
work of Alberta’s 11 trade promotion offices around the world
and expand its footprint to include key foreign markets for
Alberta, beginning with establishing permanent staff in Houston,
Texas.
Seven members have been appointed to IAC’s board of
directors, with diverse backgrounds and professional experience.
The board will determine IAC’s strategic direction and
announced on September 23, 2020 that it has appointed Dr. David
Knight Legg as IAC’s CEO. Dr. Legg was formerly the Principal
Advisor to the Premier of Alberta where his focus was on capital
markets, investment, tax, sector diversification, Indigenous equity
participation, and environmental, social and governance
matters.
Support for innovation in smaller enterprises
On July 22, 2020, the government introduced the Innovation
Employment Grant, which is intended to encourage economic growth by
supporting small and medium-sized businesses that invest in
research and development (R&D) with a grant
worth up to 20% of their qualifying expenditures. The Innovation
Employment Grant will be delivered through the corporate tax
system, and will provide up to $4 million in annual R&D
spending. The legislation governing the Innovation Employment Grant
will be introduced in the fall of 2020.
(b) Environmental leadership
Carbon pricing and capture
The Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction
(TIER) Regulation came into effect on January 1,
2020. TIER replaces and updates Alberta’s Carbon
Competitiveness Incentive Regulation. Through TIER, the
government aims to manage emissions without disrupting investment
through overregulation. TIER applies to any facility that emitted
100,000 tonnes or more of carbon dioxide equivalent
(CO2e) greenhouse gases in 2016, or any year
following. Facilities with fewer than 100,000 tonnes of CO2e green
house gas emissions may be eligible to opt into TIER. The ability
to opt in is available in respect of a facility that competes
against a TIER-regulated facility or that has greater than 10,000
of annual emissions “in an emissions-intensive, trade-exposed
sector.”
TIER meets the federal government’s carbon pricing
requirements – and by opting in, operators of facilities may apply
to become exempt from the application of the federal Greenhouse
Gas Pollution Pricing Act. TIER was designed to drive
continued reductions in emission intensity. It configures emissions
obligations by one of two approaches: a facility-specific approach
or a high-performance benchmark approach. The facility-specific
benchmark calls for a 10% reduction relative to a facility’s
average emissions intensity. The high performance benchmark, which
applies to facilities that have already made substantial progress
in reducing their emissions, is linked to the average emissions of
the most efficient facilities in the industry. TIER seeks to
achieve emissions reduction with a more cost-efficient approach
tailored directly to Alberta’s industries, while maintaining
robust regulation and upholding the highest environmental
standards.
Alberta was also the first jurisdiction in North America to
direct dedicated funding to implement carbon capture and storage
technology across industrial sectors. The province has committed
$1.24 billion through 2025 to fund two commercial-scale carbon
capture and storage projects. Both projects will help reduce the
C02 emissions from the oil sands and fertilizer sectors, and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by 2.76 million per year.
Payments made through the TIER program are allocated into the
TIER fund, which will be used for research and investment in carbon
capture utilization and storage, and improved oil sands extraction.
On September 22, 2020 the government announced that it will spend
$750 million from the TIER fund to support projects across all of
Alberta’s industries reduce their carbon emissions, with a
particular focus on advancing carbon capture and sequestration
technology. The province’s $750 million investment will be
supplemented with money from industry and other sectors, for a
total investment of $1.9 billion in Alberta’s economy, which is
intended to create 3,400 jobs through the provincial funding, and
up to 8,700 jobs through partnerships with private enterprises who
collaborate with the province to make investments aimed at reducing
emissions.
Methane emissions
In April 2020, the federal government announced a $750 million
emissions reduction fund that will help companies continue their
progress to reduce methane emissions. Canada’s oil and natural
gas industry has committed to a 45% reduction of methane emissions
by 2025. On August 17, 2020 the federal government announced that
eligible conventional and offshore oil and gas companies will be
able to apply to a new “repayable contribution program”,
which will provide repayable loans up to $675 million. The
remaining amount, up to $75 million, is for investments in
emissions reduction and research and development in the offshore
sector, and some of the federal government’s contributions in
the offshore sector may be non-repayable.
At the provincial level, the AER has developed requirements to
address the primary sources of methane emissions from Alberta’s
upstream oil and gas industry: fugitive emissions and venting. The
AER’s requirements are set out in Directive 060: Upstream
Petroleum Industry Flaring, Incinerating, and Venting and Directive 017: Measurement Requirements for Oil and Gas
Operations. The methane reduction requirements in Directive 060 came into effect on January 1, 2020, while
the requirements in Directive 017 went into effect
immediately upon the directive’s release in December 2018.
Hydrogen
The emerging market for hydrogen is forecast to increase
ten-fold and be worth $2.5 trillion by 2050, offering a potential
solution for carbon-intensive sectors such as heavy industry and
freight. Alberta is one of the world’s largest hydrogen
producers, and produces it at the second-lowest cost worldwide,
after Russia. Both the federal and Alberta governments are seeking
to build on existing hydrogen and natural gas production, with a
goal of becoming the frontrunner producer for the world’s
hydrogen needs. Pure hydrogen can be burned to produce heat in a
furnace or engine, just like oil or natural gas. Hydrogen can also
be channeled into a fuel cell to produce electricity. Interest in
hydrogen as an alternative energy source is on the rise, as
hydrogen burns without emitting carbon dioxide, and has been
heralded as a potential solution to global emissions and energy
storage challenges. In the longer term, the government’s goal
is to deploy large-scale hydrogen production with carbon capture,
utilization and storage in various commercial settings in the
province by 2030, and to export hydrogen and hydrogen-derived
products to other provinces and countries by 2040.
Hydrogen does not naturally occur in commercially producible
quantities, and not all hydrogen is created equally.
“Grey” hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels such as
natural gas, and accounts for roughly 95% of the hydrogen produced
globally. “Blue” hydrogen is made by extracting hydrogen
from natural gas using steam methane reformation, and then using
carbon capture and sequestration technology to store the remaining
carbon. “Green” hydrogen is generated through
electrolysis using renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind
power.
In July 2020, the government announced $10.8 million in funding
for the three hydrogen projects in Alberta. The goal of
Alberta’s hydrogen plan is to establish “a very aggressive
and profitable hydrogen industry”, including maintaining the
province’s position as the leading hydrogen producer in Canada,
according to Dale Nally, Alberta’s Associate Minister of
Natural Gas. The announcement this summer pledged $5 million for a
prototype and field-testing for a new method of extracting hydrogen
from natural gas, and $3 million on the development of a new
early-stage technology to use heat to crack methane into hydrogen
and other byproducts. ATCO Ltd. will also receive $2.8 million in
provincial funding for a $5.7 million project to be built next year
that will blend blue hydrogen into natural gas streams distributed
for home heating in Fort Saskatchewan, near Edmonton.
A key benefit to Alberta’s hydrogen market is the extensive
pipeline and carbon dioxide transportation systems, including Air
Products’ Heartland Hydrogen pipeline, the Alberta Carbon Trunk
Line and the Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project. Current gas
conduits can flow with as much 20% of their streams consisting of
hydrogen, and many home furnaces could handle increased hydrogen
amounts, providing a ready market for the fuel and a quick way to
reduce carbon emissions.
At the national level, the federal government has indicated that
a national hydrogen strategy is forthcoming. This plan is expected
to be premised on the use of both blue and green hydrogen.
(c) Energy infrastructure projects to support new
investors
By the end of 2020, Alberta will have seen the largest-ever
government investment in infrastructure. The government has
earmarked $10 billion to be spent on projects across the province.
These projects are intended to establish the foundation for the
private sector to create 50,000 jobs while creating many collateral
benefits for Alberta, and drawing additional investors to
established and emerging industries in Alberta.
On April 1, 2020 the government announced a $1.5 billion equity
investment in the Keystone XL Pipeline (Keystone
XL), coupled with a $6 billion loan guarantee. During the
next two years of construction, Keystone XL will directly and
indirectly support 7,000 jobs, spurring increased economic activity
in associated trades, retail, and hospitality services along the
construction route. TC Energy Corp. the primary proponent announced
on September 29, 2020 that a memorandum of understanding had been
reached with Natural Law Energy, which represents four First
Nations in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan, for a minority
investment in Keystone XL.
Overall, the government estimates that Keystone XL will
contribute approximately $2.4 billion to Canada’s GDP, and in
its first year of service, will generate more than $7 million in
property taxes. Keystone XL could generate $30 billion in tax and
royalty revenues over the life of the pipeline.
Despite legal challenges, protests and blockades related to the
construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, construction
of the expansion is underway. Courts of all levels, including the
Supreme Court of Canada, have repeatedly confirmed the validity of
the approvals for and processes undertaken in respect of the
pipeline. On January 16, 2020 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in
support of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion going forward, and
the Government of British Columbia has since announced that it will
not initiate further challenges against the Trans Mountain
Pipeline. In March 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to
hear five additional challenges to the federal government’s
decision to approve the expansion and, in June 2020, declined to
hear additional challenges to the adequacy of the government’s
consultation efforts. Construction is ongoing in Alberta and
Kamloops, British Columbia, and expansion work continues in the
Westridge Marine Terminal and the Burnaby Terminal on the West
coast. On September 15, 2020, Ian Anderson, president and CEO of
Trans Mountain Corp. announced that the Trans Mountain Pipeline
expansion is currently on budget and on schedule for completion by
the end 2022, despite challenges related to COVID-19. The Trans
Mountain Pipeline will increase the pipeline’s capacity to
transport petroleum products from Strathcona County (near
Edmonton), Alberta to the Burnaby Terminal from 300,000 to 890,000
barrels per day.
In October 2018, the joint venture partners of the LNG Canada
liquefied natural gas export terminal announced a positive final
investment decision to proceed with the project, which will allow
LNG Canada to transport natural gas from northeastern British
Columbia to the LNG Canada liquefaction facility and export
terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, via the Coastal GasLink
pipeline (the CGL Pipeline). The Coastal GasLink
Limited Partnership, which is controlled by TC Energy, is building
and will own and operate the CGL Pipeline. Pre-construction
activities began in November 2018 and completion is targeted for
2025. In late 2019, TC Energy announced that it would sell 65% of
the limited partnership units in Coastal GasLink Limited
Partnership to investment companies KKR & Co Inc. and Alberta
Investment Management Corporation. The transaction closed on May
25, 2020. The government aims to gain access to Asian and European
markets via multiple LNG export facilities by 2030.
To address crude oil egress concerns for Alberta’s
producers, the previous government leased 4,400 rail cars capable
of transporting 120,000 bbls/day of crude oil out of the province.
Under this arrangement, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission
would purchase crude oil from producers and market it, using the
expanded rail capacity to transport the marketed oil to purchasers.
In February 2020, the current government announced that it had sold
or assigned $10.6 billion worth of crude-by-rail contracts to the
private sector, a move that retained producers’ ability to
access the expanded export capacity.
On September 28, 2020, the President of the United States
granted a presidential permit for the proposed US$17 billion Alaska
to Alberta railway. The project would extend United States access
to Alberta’s resources and would provide Alberta with an
additional means of egress and access to the Southcentral Alaska
Ports. The 2,750 km project is not yet fully permitted. The project
developer, Alaska to Alberta Railway Development Corp., estimates
that the project will provide an additional $60 billion in
cumulative economic output through 2040 and create more than 28,000
jobs.
* * *
Alberta’s pandemic recovery strategy and the pre-pandemic
goals of the provincial government combine to create a welcome
environment for investors in the province. Alberta’s vast
resource endowment gives the province great power to responsibly
diversify its economy in the wake of the pandemic. The government
is investing heavily in infrastructure to facilitate investors’
projects, and introducing legislation and policies to remove
barriers to entry. As the demand for petroleum-based products
remains ubiquitous globally, Alberta presents a strong option for
investors seeking to get involved in petrochemicals, or other
projects across various industries.
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TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.
“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.
Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.
But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.
Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.
“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.
A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.
It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.
More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.
“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.
In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.
“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was down more than 200 points in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the technology, base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets also fell.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 239.24 points at 22,749.04.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 312.36 points at 40,443.39. The S&P 500 index was down 80.94 points at 5,422.47, while the Nasdaq composite was down 380.17 points at 16,747.49.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.80 cents US compared with 74.00 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down US$1.07 at US$68.08 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.26 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$2.10 at US$2,541.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$4.10 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in technology, financial and energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also pushed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 171.41 points at 23,298.39.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 278.37 points at 41,369.79. The S&P 500 index was up 38.17 points at 5,630.35, while the Nasdaq composite was up 177.15 points at 17,733.18.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.19 cents US compared with 74.23 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up US$1.75 at US$76.27 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.10 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$18.70 at US$2,556.50 an ounce and the December copper contract was down less than a penny at US$4.22 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2024.
