Tausi Insider

The Canadian dollar CADUSD strengthened to a seven-week high against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday as U.S. inflation pressures cooled and Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said the economy could avoid a major rise in the unemployment rate. The loonie was trading 1.2% higher at 1.3370 to the greenback, or 74.79 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest level since Sept. 20 at 1.3334. “The U.S. dollar fell sharply in a broad-based way and the loonie has benefited from that,” said Rahim Madhavji, president at KnightsbridgeFX.com . “There were a lot of people that were long the U.S. dollar and short some of the other currencies … so a lot of people are closing position.” The greenback fell sharply against a basket of major currencies, bond yields tumbled and Wall Street rallied after U.S. consumer prices rose less than expected last month, data that may allow the Federal Reserve to ease up on aggressively hiking interest rates. The Bank of Canada has also been tightening at a rapid ...

“Post-IPO, our Canadian business will trade exclusively on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and our U.S. business will trade exclusively on a U.S. exchange,” said CEO Kurt MacAlpine, seen here on Dec. 20, 2019. Tijana Martin/Tausi Insider CI Financial Corp. says it plans to file for a stock offering for its U.S. wealth-management business later this month, the next step in a plan to divide the company into two businesses, one on each side of the border. The plan includes delisting the current company’s shares from the New York Stock Exchange, chief executive officer Kurt MacAlpine told CI investors Thursday as part of the company’s earnings call. “Post-IPO, our Canadian business will trade exclusively on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and our U.S. business will trade exclusively on a U.S. exchange,” Mr. MacAlpine said. “The listings will be reflective of the primary market that each business operates in.” CI said the plan also may include selling a larger proportion of the U.S. business th...

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the COP27 climate conference, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 11. SeanGallup/Getty Images U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking Friday at an annual international summit on climate change, urged world leaders to “double down” on their resolve to fight global warming, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reinforces the need to phase out fossil fuels. “We can no longer plead ignorance to the consequences of our actions, or continue to repeat our mistakes,” Mr. Biden said. The President’s brief attendance at the United Nations climate conference, known as COP27, was largely a victory lap as he emphasized new spending on clean energy initiatives that will “change the paradigm” for the United States and the rest of the world. But Mr. Biden glossed over how he’s pushed for more oil and gas production to bring down costs that have been politically troublesome at home, and fuelled the invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to fetch higher prices for its energ...

Tesla has considered plans for exporting made-in-China electric vehicles to the United States and Canada, two people with knowledge of the planning told Reuters, a step that would connect its largest factory to North America, its largest market. Tesla has been evaluating whether Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles made in Gigafactory Shanghai could be sold in North America as soon as next year, according to the people, who declined to be named because the process was confidential. Tesla’s evaluation has included consideration of whether parts made by Tesla’s China-based suppliers would be compliant with regulations in the United States and Canada, they said. The Shanghai plant has been working toward an initial plan for a small-batch test run of production of vehicles in the first quarter of 2023 that would be compliant with North American standards for potential export, one of the people said. After Reuters published its article on Friday, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, in a Twi...

The sun sets behind the COP27 logo outside the conference venue on Saturday, Nov. 12 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Peter Dejong/The Associated Press It’s halfway time at the UN climate talks in Egypt, with negotiators still working on draft agreements before ministers arrive next week to push for a substantial deal to fight climate change. The two-week meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh started with strong appeals from world leaders for greater efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help poor nations cope with global warming. Scientists say the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere needs to be halved by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord. The 2015 pact set a target of ideally limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but left it up to countries to decide how they want to do so. Here is a look at the main issues on the table at the COP27 talks: What about the U.S. and China? The top U.S. negoti...

Oil prices settled around $3 lower on Monday, dragged down by a firmer U.S. dollar while surging coronavirus cases in China dashed hopes of a swift reopening of the economy for the world’s biggest crude importer. Brent crude futures settled down $2.85, or 3%, at $93.14 a barrel after gaining 1.1% on Friday. WTI crude futures settled down $3.09, or 3.47%, to $85.87 after advancing 2.9% on Friday. On Friday, commodities prices rallied after China’s National Health Commission adjusted its COVID-19 prevention and control measures to shorten quarantine times for close contacts of cases and inbound travellers. But COVID-19 cases climbed in China over the weekend, with Beijing and other big cities on Monday reporting record infections. “The surge in COVID cases will only lead to more lockdowns in the near term … for now China is not a source of bullish support for the petroleum complex,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. The U.S. dollar also rose against the euro ...

Collapsed-crypto exchange FTX outlined a “severe liquidity crisis” in U.S. bankruptcy filings, which said the group could have more than 1 million creditors, as regulators opened investigations and lawmakers called for clearer rules on how the industry operates. FTX’s filing to a U.S. bankruptcy court, published late on Monday in the United States, said it was in contact with financial regulators and had appointed five new independent directors at each of its main companies, including its sibling trading firm Alameda Research. The exchange, which had been among the world’s largest, filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday in one of the highest-profile crypto blowups after panicked traders withdrew $6-billion from the platform in just 72 hours and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal. “FTX faced a severe liquidity crisis that necessitated the filing of these cases on an emergency basis last Friday,” the court filing stated. “Questions arose about Mr. Bankman-Fried’s leaders...

Ring of Fire Metals is in talks with the United States government about possibly getting funding for its critical minerals project in northern Ontario. “We’ve had initial discussions with the U.S. Department of Defence (DOD) regarding the important role that Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire region will play in producing the critical minerals needed by Canada and the U.S.” the company said in a statement to Tausi Insider. The Australian-owned junior mining company is trying to move forward on the Eagle’s Nest nickel project, which it hopes one day will produce metals for electric cars. Ring of Fire Metals. is also studying the viability of constructing a battery processing plant in Ontario that would refine nickel for the automotive industry. The DOD last week confirmed it is willing to help fund feasibility studies for early-stage mining companies in North America with promising projects that could help alleviate shortages in some critical minerals, like battery metals. Feasibility st...

The Canadian dollar CADUSD strengthened to its highest level in eight weeks against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as the greenback broadly declined and domestic data showed a surprise increase for wholesale trade in September. The U.S. dollar fell against a basket of major currencies and U.S. stock index futures rallied as data showed that U.S. producer prices increased less than expected in October, providing further evidence that inflation was starting to subside. Canadian wholesale trade increased by 0.1 per cent in September from August, beating expectations for a 0.2 per cent decline, helped by higher sales of pharmaceutical products, data from Statistics Canada showed. Separate data showed that manufacturing sales were unchanged in September from August, an outcome that was also stronger than expected. Canada’s inflation data for October is awaited by investors on Wednesday for clues as to whether the Bank of Canada would raise interest rates by 25 or 50 basis points at its ...

Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s renewables affiliate is committing to invest up to US$700-million in a newly formed U.S. recycling business, targeting recycled materials as part of the push to cut global carbon emissions. Brookfield Renewable Partners LP has invested an initial US$200-million for a minority stake in Circular Services, a new company that is majority owned and managed by New York-based investment firm Closed Loop Partners. Brookfield Renewable is also committing to invest another US$500-million to help Circular Services grow. The investment is being made through the US$15-billion Brookfield Global Transition Fund, which is co-led by vice chair and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and Brookfield Renewable CEO Connor Teskey. It is Brookfield’s first fund focused on investments intended to help speed the transition to a net-zero economy. Circular Services owns and operates a dozen municipal recycling facilities in the United States. And it has large municipa...

Oil prices settled more than a dollar lower on Wednesday after Russian oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary restarted and as rising COVID-19 cases in China weighed on sentiment. Brent crude futures settled a dollar lower at $92.86 a barrel, down 1.1%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid by $1.33, or 1.5%, to settle at $85.59 a barrel. The market gave up early gains after Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that flows through the Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia had resumed following a brief outage. The market later recovered some losses after U.S. crude stocks fell more than expected on the back of heavy refining activity. The Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude inventories fell by 5.4 million barrels last week, compared with expectations for a 440,000-barrel drop. In addition, tanker-tracker Petro-Logistics said in a report that exports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have fallen significantly so ...

The Canadian dollar CADUSD weakened against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, pulling back from an eight-week high, as oil prices fell and investors weighed domestic inflation data that could leave the door open to a smaller rate Bank of Canada rate hike. Canada’s annual inflation rate held steady at 6.9 per cent in October, matching analyst forecasts, while core inflation measures were mixed, Statistics Canada data showed. Money markets have fully priced in a 25 basis point interest rate hike by the BoC at its next policy decision on Dec. 7 and see a 35 per cent chance of a larger hike of 50 basis points, up from about 30 per cent before the data. The central bank hiked by 50 basis points last month, lifting its policy rate to a 14-year high of 3.75 per cent. The price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, fell as geopolitical tensions following an attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman were offset by concerns over rising COVID-19 cases in China. U.S. crude prices fell 2 pe...

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday it plans to hold a hearing in December to investigate the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The committee said it expects to hear from the companies and individuals involved, including FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research, Binance, FTX and related entities, among others. “The fall of FTX has posed tremendous harm to over one million users, many of whom were everyday people who invested their hard-earned savings into the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, only to watch it all disappear within a matter of seconds,” Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters said. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, leaving an estimated 1 million customers and other investors facing total losses in the billions of dollars. The collapse reverberated across the crypto world and sent bitcoin and other digital assets plummeting. House Financial Services committee top Republican Patrick McHenry said “we must get to the bottom of th...

U.S. crude stocks fell by more than 5 million barrels in the most recent week, while fuel stocks rose as refiners boosted output to deal with high demand and low inventories. Crude inventories fell by 5.4 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 11 to 435.4 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 440,000-barrel drop. “The drawdown in crude supplies is substantial. The crude supply is still very tight, heating oil supply is still below average,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “My gut feeling is it’s a very supportive report, it shows supplies are very tight.” Refinery crude runs picked up in the most recent week, rising by 63,000 barrels per day to bring refinery utilization rates to 92.9 per cent of overall capacity, up 0.8 percentage points. Fuel stocks rose across the board, a salve for end-users worried about low inventories that have persisted for several mo...

Oil prices fell more than 3% on Thursday, with demand squeezed by mounting COVID-19 cases in China and fears of more aggressive hikes in U.S. interest rates. Brent crude fell $3.08 to settle at $89.78 a barrel, down 3.3%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid $3.95, or 4.6%, to settle at $81.64 per barrel. “It’s kind of a triple whammy. We’ve got COVID-19 cases rising in China, interest rates are continuing to rise here in the U.S. and now we’ve got technical weakness in the market,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial. St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said a basic monetary policy rule would require interest rates to rise to at least around 5%, while stricter assumptions would recommend rates above 7%. The dollar also rose as investors digested U.S. economic data. A stronger dollar makes dollar-denominated oil more expensive for holders of other currencies. China reported rising daily COVID-19 infections and Chinese refiners...

The Canadian dollar CADUSD weakened against its U.S. counterpart on Friday, with the currency adding to this week’s decline as oil prices fell and data showed the largest divestment of Canadian securities by foreign investors in nearly four years. The price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, was on track for a second weekly decline, pressured by concern about weakening demand in China and further interest rate rises by the U.S. Federal Reserve. U.S. crude prices fell 3.7 per cent to $78.62 a barrel, while the Canadian dollar was trading 0.3 per cent lower at 1.3360 to the greenback, or 74.85 U.S. cents. It traded in a range of 1.3301 to 1.3368. For the week, it was on track to decline 0.8 per cent, after four straight weeks of gains. Foreign investors sold a net C$22.3-billion ($16.7-billion) in Canadian securities in September, led by federal government bonds, following a revised C$26.2-billion total purchase in August, Statistics Canada said. This was the largest divestment sin...

Oil prices dropped to trade near two-month lows on Monday, having earlier slid by around $1 a barrel, as supply fears receded while concerns over fuel demand from China and U.S. dollar strength weighed on prices. Brent crude futures for January had slipped 65 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to $86.97 a barrel by 1000 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for December were at $79.71 a barrel, down 37 cents or 0.5 per cent, ahead of the contract’s expiry later on Monday. The more active January contract was down 50 cents or 0.6 per cent to $79.61 a barrel. Both benchmarks closed Friday at their lowest since Sept. 27, extending losses for a second week, with Brent down 9 per cent and WTI 10 per cent lower. “Apart from the weakened demand outlook due to China’s COVID curbs, a rebound in the U.S. dollar today is also a bearish factor for oil prices,” said CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng. “Risk sentiment becomes fragile as all the recent major countries’ economic data point to a rece...

The Canadian CADUSD dollar weakened to its lowest level in 11 days against its U.S. counterpart on Monday as rising COVID-19 cases in China weighed on investor sentiment and speculation that OPEC would increase output led to volatility in the price of oil. The loonie was trading 0.4% lower at 1.3440 to the greenback, or 74.40 U.S. cents, after touching its weakest intraday level since Nov. 10 at 1.3495. “It’s predominantly being driven by exogenous factors,” said Bipan Rai, North America head of FX strategy at CIBC Capital Markets. “We see the (U.S.) dollar up across the board; including against the Canadian dollar.” The safe-haven U.S. dollar advanced against a basket of major currencies, recouping some recent losses, as fresh COVID-19 curbs in China fuelled worries over the global economic outlook and made traders shun riskier currencies. The price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, whipsawed as reports varied about whether Saudi Arabia and other OPEC oil producers are consider...

The two largest U.S. rail unions representing conductors and engineers split in ratification votes on a tentative contract deal reached in September raising the possibility of a strike or lockout that could cause significant damage to the U.S. economy. Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted to ratify the agreement while train and engine service members the transportation division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) voted to reject the deal. SMART-TD yardmasters voted to ratify their national agreement, the unions said Monday. The vote could put pressure on Congress to intervene to prevent a strike or lockout ahead of the holiday season. “The ball is now in the railroads’ court. Let’s see what they do. They can settle this at the bargaining table,” said SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said in a statement. “This can all be settled through negotiations and without a strike.” If there i...

The Canadian dollar CADUSD rose against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday as investor risk appetite picked up and preliminary domestic data showed retail sales climbing in October, while investors awaited comments by a senior Bank of Canada policy-maker. Canadian retail sales fell by 0.5 per cent in September from August, matching estimates, weighed by lower sales at gasoline stations, data from Statistics Canada showed. However, a flash estimate showed sales rebounding by 1.5 per cent in October. Other flash estimates were also upbeat, with manufacturing sales rising 2 per cent and wholesale trade up 1.3 per cent. Global shares recovered some of the previous day’s losses, drawing comfort from less-hawkish comments on interest-rate hikes by Federal Reserve policy-makers, although concern over more COVID infections in China kept gains in check. The safe-haven U.S. dollar fell against a basket of major currencies, while the price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, rose after top expo...