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Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales were unchanged in September at $70.4-billion. The agency says the result came as sales of durable goods rose 1.0 per cent to $34.1-billion, helped higher by an 11.1 per cent gain in aerospace product and parts. Meanwhile, sales of non-durable goods fell 0.9 per cent to $36.3-billion in September, as sales of petroleum and coal products fell 2.4 per cent and food industry sales dropped 1.8 per cent. Sales in constant dollars edged down 0.2 per cent in September. In a separate report, Statistics Canada says wholesale sales rose 0.1 per cent to $81.8-billion, as sales rose in five of seven subsectors. Wholesale sales of personal and household goods rose 4.3 per cent to $11.2-billion, the largest monthly increase since June 2020, while the food, beverage and tobacco subsector climbed 1.9 per cent to $14.9-billion. Overall wholesale sales fell 0.2 per cent in constant dollars in September. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadian-manufacturing-...

Elon Musk’s first two weeks as Twitter’s owner have been marked by rapid change and chaos. CONSTANZA HEVIA/AFP/Getty Images Seven Democratic senators sent a letter on Thursday to the Federal Trade Commission, warning that Twitter TWTR-N, now owned by Elon Musk, was acting in disregard of users and urging the agency to investigate any breach of a consent decree that the FTC inked with Twitter. The lawmakers, including Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren, asked the agency to consider enforcement actions against the company and against individual executives where appropriate. “In recent weeks, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has taken alarming steps that have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform, and announced new features despite clear warnings those changes would be abused for fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation,” the lawmakers said in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan. Neither Twitter nor the FTC immediately responded to requests for ...

Statistics Canada says the number of job vacancies was up 3.8 per cent in September at 994,800. The agency says the month-over-month increase was largely attributable to seasonal variations, as job vacancies typically peak in September. The number of vacancies in the accommodation and food services sector rose 12.0 per cent to 152,400, while the construction industry saw a gain of 14.0 per cent to 93,900. The number of vacancies in manufacturing was down 11.3 per cent at 76,000 in September. On a year-over-year basis, Statistics Canada says the total number of job vacancies was little changed. The job vacancy rate, measured as the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand, was 5.7 per cent in September, up from 5.4 per cent in August, but down from 5.9 per cent in September 2021. https://www.tausiinsider.com/job-vacancies-in-canada-rose-3-8-in-september-statscan-says/?feed_id=332893&_unique_id=64665571496ef

The United Nations food agency’s world price index fell marginally in November, marking an eighth straight monthly fall since a record high in March after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 135.7 points last month, down from 135.9 for October, the agency said on Friday. The October figure was unchanged from the FAO’s previous estimate. Lower readings for cereals, meat and dairy products in November offset higher prices for vegetable oils and sugar, the FAO said. Last month’s agreement to prolong a UN-backed grain export channel from Ukraine for another 120 days has tempered worries about war disruption to massive Black Sea trade. The slight decrease in November meant that the FAO food index is now only 0.3-per-cent above its level a year earlier, the agency said. The indicator, however, remains at historically high levels after reaching a 10-year peak in 2021 owing t...

Coils of rolled steel at the ArcelorMittal Dofasco facility, in Hamilton, Ont., on Oct. 13. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose 2.8 per cent to $72.6-billion in October as higher prices helped boost petroleum and coal industry sales. The agency says sales were up in 12 of the 21 industries it tracks, led by a 12.7 per cent gain for petroleum and coal industry sales, which totalled $10.6-billion in October. Sales in the food manufacturing industry hit a record high in October as they climbed 2.9 per cent to $12.3-billion as grain and oilseed milling sales gained 18.4 per cent to $2.0-billion, with prices and volumes for canola oil both higher. Chemical product sales rose 4.9 per cent to $6.1-billion. Meanwhile, sales of motor vehicles fell 3.2 per cent to $3.4-billion as Statistics Canada said a lack of materials and microchip shortages continue to plague several auto manufacturers. Overall sales in constant dollars were unchanged in Octob...

Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Friday after falling 2% in the previous session on central bank interest rates hikes, and is poised to end the week higher after a series of positive oil demand forecasts. Brent crude futures rose 36 cents or 0.4% to $81.57 per barrel by 0109 GMT. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 25 cents, or 0.3%, to $76.36 per barrel. Both benchmarks are poised to end the week more than 7% higher. The market found support this week from International Energy Agency projections of Chinese oil demand recovering next year after a 2022 contraction to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd). The agency raised its 2023 oil demand growth estimate to 1.7 million bpd. OPEC on Tuesday stuck to its forecasts for global oil demand growth of 2.55 million bpd this year and 2.25 million bpd in 2023 after several downgrades, saying that while economic slowdown was “quite evident” there was potential upside such as from a relaxation of China’s zero-COVID policy. In bearish demand ne...

Statistics Canada says wholesale sales rose 2.1 per cent to $83.4-billion in October, boosted by gains in the miscellaneous goods, building material and supplies, and personal and household goods subsectors. The agency says sales were up in six of the seven subsectors it tracks. Sales for the miscellaneous goods subsector gained 5.5 per cent at $13.0-billion in October, with the bulk of the increase in the agricultural supplies industry. The building material and supplies subsector rose 3.3 per cent to $12.6-billion in October on higher sales for lumber, millwork, hardware and other building supplies. Meanwhile, the personal and household goods subsector rose 2.8 per cent to $11.6-billion. Statistics Canada says overall sales in constant dollars rose 0.9 per cent in October. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadian-wholesale-sales-up-2-1-in-october-statscan-says/?feed_id=327842&_unique_id=641894a8dec12

Agents offer not just expertise in navigating lingering restrictions, but also have access to the inventory of multiple airlines and hotels – handy when a trip is disrupted. LM Otero/The Associated Press Barry Pilbeam had never used a travel agent before. But he decided to turn to one for a trip from Calgary to southeast Asia with his wife to make sure he was prepared for any restrictions and tricky visa situations. Their first big trip in years, they didn’t want a repeat of the last time they booked a hotel in Amsterdam that turned out to be awful. “I figured I’m not going to do that ever again and I’m going to deal with a professional and know that I’ll get what I’m looking for,” said Mr. Pilbeam, 64. “I got to use their expertise in what to do and where to go.” Now he plans to always use an agent, unless he’s familiar with the location or has friends who live at his destination. Travel agents are hearing from new customers looking for a sense of security after COVID-19 created an ...

Statistics Canada says the number job vacancies fell by 4.8 per cent in October to their lowest level since August 2021. The agency says the number of job vacancies fell by 44,300 to 871,300 in October. The month-over-month drop came as vacancies in the construction sector fell 17,200 or 20.4 per cent and administrative and support, waste management and remediation services dropped 11,000 or 19.9 per cent. Statistics Canada says no sector recorded a statistically significant increase in its number of unfilled positions, although vacancies remained near record levels in health care and social assistance. The overall job vacancy rate – the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand – was 4.9 per cent in October, the lowest since June 2021. There were 1.2 unemployed people for every job vacancy in October, up from the low of 1.0 in June, but down from 2.0 in February 2020, before the pandemic. https://www.tausiinsider.com/job-vacancies-in-canada-drop-by-4-8-i...

An attendee tries the Valeo eXtended Reality Experience during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 6. ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Is the metaverse closer than we think? It depends on who you ask at CES, where companies are showing off innovations that could immerse us deeper into virtual reality, otherwise known as VR. The metaverse – essentially a buzzword for three-dimensional virtual communities where people can meet, work and play – was a key theme during the four-day tech gathering in Las Vegas that ended Sunday. Taiwanese tech giant HTC Corp. unveiled a high-end VR headset that aims to compete with market leader Meta Platforms Inc., and a slew of other companies and startups touted augmented-reality glasses and sensory technologies that can help users feel – and even smell – in a virtual environment. Among them, Vermont-based OVR Technology showcased a headset containing a cartridge with eight primary aromas that can be combined to create different...

Flight status boards at Harry Reid International Airport, in Las Vegas, on Jan. 11. John Locher/The Associated Press U.S. air travel returned mostly to normal Thursday, a day after a computer system that sends safety information to pilots broke down and grounded traffic from coast to coast. By midafternoon on the East Coast, about 150 flights had been cancelled and more than 3,700 delayed – much lower figures than on Wednesday, when more than 1,300 flights were scrubbed and 11,000 delayed. Attention turned to the federal agency where the technology failure apparently started hours before it inconvenienced more than 1 million travellers. The Federal Aviation Administration said a damaged database file appeared to have caused the outage in the safety-alert system. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised a thorough examination to avoid another major failure. “Our immediate focus is technical – understanding exactly how this happened, why the redundancies and the backups that we...

Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales were flat at $72.3-billion in November. The result came as sales in the motor vehicle industry rose 12.7 per cent to $3.9-billion in November, as the agency says production at several assembly plants in Canada ramped up. Sales in the fabricated metal product industry gained 2.7 per cent to hit $4.5-billion in November, while sales in the primary metal industry rose 1.7 per cent to $5.7-billion. Meanwhile, chemical industry sales fell 4.4 per cent to $5.8-billion in November, as pesticide, fertilizer and other agricultural chemical industry sales fell 34.7 per cent. Sales in the petroleum and coal product industry fell 2.1 per cent to $10.3-billion. In volume terms, overall sales edged up 0.1 per cent in November. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadian-manufacturing-sales-flat-at-72-3-billion-in-november/?feed_id=324146&_unique_id=63eabf8e43586

People walk through Yorkdale Mall, in Toronto, on Nov. 26, 2021. Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press Canadian retail sales edged down in November amid a broad consumer spending pull back as the rising cost of living continued to erode purchasing power. Statistics Canada said Friday retail sales dropped 0.1 per cent to $61.8-billion in November. While the decrease wasn’t as pronounced as expected – the agency’s early estimate for the month predicted a 0.5 per cent drop – other measures show a bigger drop. Retail sales in volume terms, which measures the quantity of goods sold and controls for price changes due to inflation, decreased 0.4 per cent in November. Core retail sales, which exclude gasoline stations and motor vehicle and parts dealers, dropped 1.1 per cent – the largest decline in 11 months. Still, the federal agency’s early estimate for December suggests retail sales rebounded slightly up 0.5 per cent for that month, though it cautioned the figure would be revised. “Canadian c...

Statistics Canada says November saw the lowest number of employment insurance beneficiaries on record in 25 years. The federal agency says November marked the lowest number of people receiving EI since comparable data became available in 1997, with the exception of the summer of 2020 when the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit was in place. The unemployment rate in November was 5.1 per cent. Statistics Canada says the number of people receiving regular EI benefits that month fell in eight provinces. The agency says fewer men and women in all age groups collected regular EI benefits in November. The agency’s Labour Force Survey found the number of core-aged people who left a job involuntarily in the past 12 months was down 3.2 per cent in November compared with a year before, and down 18.6 per cent compared with November 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. “This decline in the number of people leaving a job involuntarily could have contributed to the historic lows in the number of peo...

Shaking a traditional rattle, Brazil’s incoming head of Indigenous affairs recently walked through every corner of the agency’s headquarters – even its coffee room – as she invoked help from ancestors during a ritual cleansing. The ritual carried extra meaning for Joenia Wapichana, Brazil’s first Indigenous woman to command the agency charged with protecting the Amazon rain forest and its people. Once she is sworn in next month under newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio da Silva, Wapichana promises to clean house at an agency that critics say has allowed the Amazon’s resources to be exploited at the expense of the environment. As Wapichana performed the ritual, Indigenous people and government officials enthusiastically chanted “Yoohoo! Funai is ours!’’ – a reference to the agency she will lead. Environmentalists, Indigenous people and voters sympathetic to their causes were important to Lula’s narrow victory over former President Jair Bolsonaro. Now Lula is seeking to fulfill cam...

Statistics Canada says the number of job vacancies fell by 2.4 per cent in November to their lowest level since August 2021. The agency says the number of job vacancies across all sectors was down 20,700 at 850,300 for the month. The job vacancy rate – which measures the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand – was 4.8 per cent in November, the lowest rate since June 2021. Statistics Canada says the number of job vacancies fell in the professional, scientific and technical services category by 18.1 per cent, while health care and social assistance vacancies dropped 12.8 per cent. The number of vacancies in construction rose 16.6 per cent. There were 1.2 unemployed people for every job vacancy in November, up from the low of 1.0 in June. https://www.tausiinsider.com/job-vacancies-in-canada-down-2-4-in-november-to-lowest-level-since-august-2021/?feed_id=322224&_unique_id=63d637c520c38

Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Friday after falling 2% in the previous session on central bank interest rates hikes, and is poised to end the week higher after a series of positive oil demand forecasts. Brent crude futures rose 36 cents or 0.4% to $81.57 per barrel by 0109 GMT. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 25 cents, or 0.3%, to $76.36 per barrel. Both benchmarks are poised to end the week more than 7% higher. The market found support this week from International Energy Agency projections of Chinese oil demand recovering next year after a 2022 contraction to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd). The agency raised its 2023 oil demand growth estimate to 1.7 million bpd. OPEC on Tuesday stuck to its forecasts for global oil demand growth of 2.55 million bpd this year and 2.25 million bpd in 2023 after several downgrades, saying that while economic slowdown was “quite evident” there was potential upside such as from a relaxation of China’s zero-COVID policy. In bearish demand ne...