Economy

TSX falls on dour jobless data, vaccine rollout delays

Published

4 years ago

February 19, 2021

(Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index fell on Thursday as a jump in monthly jobless claims raised concerns over the country’s economic recovery, while delays in rollouts of coronavirus vaccines also hit sentiment.

* Canada lost 231,200 jobs in January, the largest decrease since May last year, led by declines in the trade, transportation and utilities and leisure and hospitality sectors, a report from payroll services provider ADP showed.

* At 9:41 a.m. ET (14:41 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 70.05 points, or 0.38%, at 18,304.73.

* Canada‘s COVID-19 vaccination campaign started on the same day in December as the United States, but it now lags dozens of countries, including its southern neighbor.

* The energy sector climbed 0.3% as U.S. crude prices were up 0.5% a barrel, while Brent crude added 0.2%.

* The financials sector slipped 0.3%. The industrials sector fell 0.8%.

* The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.3% as gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,780.8 an ounce.

* On the TSX, 67 issues were higher, while 149 issues declined for a 2.22-to-1 ratio to the downside, with 28.62 million shares traded.

* The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Crescent Point Energy, which jumped 13.4%, and Aphria Inc, which rose 4.8%.

* Canfor Corp fell 4.1%, the most on the TSX, while the second-biggest decliner was Ballard Power, down 3.9%.

* The most heavily traded shares by volume were Manulife Financial, down 0.8%; Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which was flat, and Fortis Inc, down 0.7%.

* The TSX posted eight new 52-week highs and no new lows.

* Across all Canadian issues there were 29 new 52-week highs and eight new lows, with total volume of 63.38 million shares.

(Reporting by Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M. & Aditya Soni)

Economy

PBO projects deficit exceeded Liberals’ $40B pledge, economy to rebound in 2025

Published

1 day ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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Economy

Statistics Canada says levels of food insecurity rose in 2022

Published

2 days ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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Economy

Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales fell 1.3% to $69.4B in August

Published

2 days ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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