Tausi Insider

Amazon.com Inc AMZN-Q is reviewing unprofitable business units, including the devices unit, to cut costs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares of the company rose 11 per cent in morning trade. Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. As part of the months-long review, Amazon has told employees in some unprofitable divisions to look for jobs elsewhere in the company because the teams they were working on were being suspended or closed, the report said. Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant business, is also under review, the Journal reported, adding that the unit had an operating loss of more than $5-billion a year. https://www.tausiinsider.com/amazon-reportedly-reviewing-unprofitable-business-units-in-bid-to-cut-costs/?feed_id=443268&_unique_id=649f39059fcb3

Construction workers on the top floor of the Time and Space condominium project in Toronto on Oct. 11. Fred Lum/Tausi Insider Canada’s federal housing agency is lending billions of dollars to boost construction of rental homes without routinely disclosing the recipients of the money or where the units are being built, shrouding in secrecy a program designed to address the country’s housing shortfall by providing developers with low-cost financing. The Rental Construction Financing Initiative is one of Ottawa’s major efforts to boost home construction. It was announced in 2016 with $2.5-billion in funding, which has grown to more than $25-billion, making it the largest program in the government’s National Housing Strategy, a bundle of different initiatives intended to improve access to affordable units. RCFI is administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which as of this summer had committed to $13.6-billion in loans through the program. The developers receiving the m...

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts slowed in October from its high for the year reached in September. The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in October was 267,055 units, down 11 per cent from 298,811 units in September. The annual pace of urban starts was down 11 per cent at 245,234 units in October as multi-unit urban starts fell 13 per cent to 188,189 units. Urban starts of single-detached homes dropped four per cent to 57,045 units. CMHC says the annual pace of starts was down in Toronto and Vancouver, however Montreal posted an increase. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,821. The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate was 277,667 units in October, up 0.5 per cent from 276,374 in September. https://www.tausiinsider.com/annual-pace-of-housing-starts-in-canada-slowed-in-october/?feed_id=350691&_unique_id=648a5981c56e0

Apple Inc’s AAPL-Q iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max model shipments could miss market expectations by up to 20 million units in the holiday quarter due to labor unrest at a major Chinese factory, TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said. Kuo is the latest to flag a hit to the world’s most valuable company from protests over pay and strict COVID-19 curbs at the world’s biggest iPhone factory, the Foxconn-operated plant in the central city of Zhengzhou. He trimmed his estimate for quarterly iPhone shipments by about 20 per cent to between 70 million and 75 million units, compared with the market consensus of 80 million to 85 million units. Apple shares were trading down more than 2 per cent, set to add to the 6 per cent decline so far this month as worries grow over shipments in the all-important holiday sales season. Kuo, in a blog post on Tuesday, also predicted that the supply shortfall could erase demand for the more popular Pro models, instead of deferring sales, as consumers also grapple...

Workers who test games at Activision Blizzard Inc.’s unit Blizzard Albany have voted to form a union months after the games developer began negotiating with employees at its Wisconsin unit, the first in the company to unionize. The workers based near Albany, New York, voted 14-0 to join the Communication Workers of America union, the National Labor Relations Board said on Friday. Blizzard Albany has developed installments of popular video game franchises including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Activision had argued that Blizzard Albany’s entire work force of about 100 employees, including production workers, should have been involved in the union vote and not only game testers. The NLRB rejected those claims earlier this week, saying game testers could form their own bargaining unit because they perform a distinct role and have separate supervision and significantly lower wages than other employees. CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement th...

Vale Canada's Copper Cliff Complex South Mine Project in Sudbury, Ont., on Oct. 13. Gino Donato/Tausi Insider Vale SA plans to sell up a 10-per-cent stake in its underperforming base metals unit, as the big Brazilian miner attempts to cash in on a worldwide rush for battery metals. Vale plans to raise billions from the sale of the minority stake, and use the proceeds to expand output, so it can feed demand from the auto industry for copper and nickel used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Ahead of the sale, the miner intends to legally separate the base metals unit from Vale’s much bigger iron ore division. The unit includes copper and nickel operations in Brazil, Indonesia and Canada, where Vale has large mines in Sudbury and Voisey’s Bay, N.L. Base metals will function as a stand-alone entity, have its own board of directors and fund itself. Currently, Vale can divert profits from the highly profitable iron ore division to the less-profitable base metals division, a dynamic t...

Canada’s CI Financial Corp CIX-T said on Thursday its U.S. unit had confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the United States, more than eight months after the wealth management firm announced plans for a spinoff. The move comes against the backdrop of a punishing year for IPOs as financial markets have been roiled by the Federal Reserve’s rate-hike campaign and fears of a recession. On Nasdaq alone, the capital raised through stock listings has fallen by nearly 91%, the exchange operator said last week. In April, CI Financial said it would spin off up to 20% of the unit but hold on to its remaining stake. Proceeds from the IPO would be used to pay down debt, it added. As of Nov. 30, the U.S. wealth management unit had $183.3 billion of assets under management. Shares of CI Financial have nearly halved so far this year. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadian-wealth-manager-ci-financials-u-s-unit-confidentially-files-for-ipo/?feed_id=327004&_unique_id=64106e668e...

A now hiring sign on a storefront in Washington, on Oct. 7, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, pointing to another month of solid job growth and continued labour market tightness despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to cool demand for workers. The weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday likely does not change expectations that the U.S. central bank will further scale back the size of its interest rate increases next month. It, however, poured cold water on financial market hopes that the Fed would pause its fastest rate hiking cycle since the 1980s, which had been fanned by a slump in retail sales in December and a retreat in inflation. “A low level of layoffs indicates that demand for workers remains strong and labour market conditions remain tight,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in White Plains, New York. “Facing work...

A unit of Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial Inc SLF-T has partnered with Hong Kong-based Dah Sing Bank in a deal valued at nearly C$260-million ($193-million), the companies said on Friday. Under terms of the partnership, Sun Life would pay to become the exclusive life insurance provider for Dah Sing Bank’s 570,000 retail customers, beginning July, the companies said. The deal will bring in new customers for Sun Life and help the insurer expand its customer base in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government had lifted COVID-19 restrictions and reopened its borders with China early this month, opening the lucrative market for insurance sales. Executives at the Canadian insurer told analysts in a post-earnings conference call last November that it experienced outflows in Asian markets in the third quarter, including Hong Kong, due to market volatility. Sun Life-Asia President Ingrid Johnson added at the time that the market in Hong Kong “was very encouraging with the emergence of sales.” ...

U.S. oil refining margins on Tuesday hit a three-month high and are likely headed higher, analysts said, as unplanned refinery outages weigh on already-tight fuel supplies. The outages have pushed up gasoline prices in Texas and Oklahoma this year ahead of what is expected to be a heavier than usual turnaround season for refineries. The rising prices and margins are unusual for this time of year, when travel falls. The crack spread, a key gauge of refiner profits that measures the difference between crude oil prices and selling prices of finished products, touched $42.41 on Tuesday, the highest since October. The five-year January average is $15.56, an analysis of Refinitiv Eikon data showed. Average gasoline prices in Texas hit about $3.07 a gallon on Tuesday, up almost 44 cents from a month ago, according to the AAA motor group. Motorists in Oklahoma also are paying about 45 cents more, at $3.13 a gallon, AAA data showed. A diesel producing unit at PBF Energy’s Chalmette, Louisiana...