Business News
May 15, 2008TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers has reached a tentative contract with Chrysler, on the heels of forging an agreement with General Motors.
The union didn't immediately release details of the Chrysler deal, but it's believed to be similar to tentative contracts hammered out with GM and Ford.
OTTAWA - Trade Minister David Emerson is telling Europeans they are missing out on a great opportunity in the future development of the North by not moving aggressively to strengthen economic ties with Canada.
Emerson told a conference on transatlantic trade Thursday that Europe and Canada have not paid close enough attention to trade and investment links, and interest is especially lacking in Europe.
TORONTO - Strong gains by energy and mining companies sent the Toronto stock market into record high territory Thursday morning even as investors took in data which showed that a weakening U.S. economy is hurting manufacturers.
New York markets were slightly higher, held back by worries about factories and employment.
VIENNA, Austria - Oil climbed above US$125 a barrel Thursday, a day after the U.S. government issued a mixed report on the country's petroleum reserves and the U.S. dollar weakened against other key currencies.
"The overall sentiment in the market remains quite bullish... and in the near term, the bullish sentiment could cause the market to challenge a new high, driven by news events," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
TORONTO - There is now convincing evidence that Canada's housing market has come off the boil, Bank of Nova Scotia economists say.
Home resales have fallen for four consecutive months, and the inflation-adjusted average resale home price registered its first quarterly decline in seven years during the first three months of this year, Scotia Economics noted in a report Thursday.
TORONTO - Investment firm Sprott Inc. (TSX:SII) has closed its $200-million initial public offering of 20 million shares and begun trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The share issue - a secondary offering by current shareholders of the employee-owned firm including founder Eric Sprott - priced each share at $10.
OTTAWA - A new study says Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador have stepped into a new era of prosperity.
Statistics Canada says the commodity boom offered a unique opportunity for the two provinces to tap into their natural resources as never before.
OTTAWA - Manufacturers gave back some of their recent gains in March as factory sales retreated 1.6 per cent to $49 billion, their first decline of 2008.
The scope of March's slowdown was extensive as 18 of the 21 manufacturing industries, representing 76 per cent of total sales, posted declines.
TOKYO - Toyota's Prius started out a decade ago as a risky experiment in green technology.
Today, it's the world's first mass-produced gas-electric hybrid vehicle to hit the one million mark in sales. The Prius, which went on sale in Japan in 1997, has been a big hit with drivers around the world and is now sold in 40 countries and regions. Its popularity is going strong amid surging gas prices and growing concerns about the environment.
VANCOUVER - Lundin Mining Corp. (TSX:LUN) said Thursday its first-quarter profit rose 51 per cent to US$78.8 million on higher copper and lead prices.
The Vancouver-based miner, reporting in U.S. dollars, said sales were $305.7 million, up 58 per cent from $193.9 million in the same quarter last year as stronger copper and lead prices offset declines for zinc and nickel.
TORONTO - Property services provider FirstService Corp. (TSX:FSV) has reported a 35 per cent increase in quarterly sales but a net loss on the bottom line blamed on the strong Canadian dollar and the slumping U.S. real estate market.
FirstService, headquartered in Toronto but with its business concentrated in the United States and its results in U.S. dollars, said Thursday it had revenue of $371.7 million in the fourth quarter of its financial year ended March 31, up from $275.7 million in the same period last year.
OTTAWA - Allen-Vanguard Corp, has cut expectations for its current financial year, citing delays in U.S. military programs. The maker of protective gear and devices to disable roadside bombs also said Thursday its outlook "strengthens considerably" through 2011.
Allen-Vanguard shares were shot down 10 per cent on the news, trading Thursday morning at $3.03, down 33 cents on the TSX, after earlier hitting a 52-week low of $2.85 - down from a high last September of $11.95.
TORONTO - Coalcorp Mining Inc. (TSX:CCJ) has called off an effort to sell itself and is "embarking on a multifaceted, focused strategy with a view to the company producing approximately six million tonnes of coal per year by 2010."
The plan includes a $120-million public offering of new equity - though the company said Thursday morning that an unnamed major shareholder has indicated it intends to make an alternative financing proposal.
LONDON - Barclays PLC reported a US$1.94-billion writedown in the first quarter Thursday, but bucked a trend in the banking sector and did not announce a capital increase to shore up its balance sheet.
The third-largest bank in Britain said it turned a diminished profit, but did not release figures.
TORONTO - Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) will be hit by $855 million in writedowns "relating to market conditions" as part of its second-quarter results.
The writedowns will be worth $420 million after tax, Canada's largest bank said Wednesday. RBC shares climbed 2.6 per cent after the disclosure, rising $1.30 to $49.92 at midafternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
OTTAWA - The loonie once again worth about the same as the U.S. greenback, employment, exports and consumer spending continuing strong - what is happening to Canada's year of economic discontent?
Just as the Canadian and U.S. economies were expected to be at their gloomiest - falling into negative numbers or close to it in the second quarter - some economists are entertaining the notion that the worst may already be in the past.
DETROIT - Workers at a General Motors Corp. stamping plant in Ohio have withdrawn their threat to go on strike, a GM spokesman said Wednesday.
United Auto Workers Local 549 was set to go on strike Thursday morning but has withdrawn that deadline and is continuing negotiations to reach a local contract, spokesman Dan Flores said.
TORONTO - Timminco Ltd. (TSX:TIM), under attack from skeptics who cast doubt whether the company really has a break-through technology for producing silicon for solar cells, presented what they hope is a credible outside expert to back their case Wednesday.
What the specialty metals company delivered was an hour-long discourse on the company's plans and processes by a consultant who advises both Timminco and its customers and who, overall, said he was impressed with what the company has showed him
