Prep Business Report – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Nov 4, 2015

Canada’s dollar fell more than half a U.S. cent and the Toronto stock market gave up its early gains Wednesday morning.

The loonie was down 0.66 at 75.96 cents U-S.

On Tuesday it gained 0.28 of a cent to end the day at 76.62 cents U-S.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX index was down 8.62 points at 13,701.69, giving up gains earlier in the morning.

The Dow Jones average of 30 stocks also gave up early gains and was down 51.03 points at 17,867.12, the broader S&P 500 index declined 7.63 points to 2,102.16 and the Nasdaq fell 13.59 points to 5,131.54.

On the commodity markets, the December gold contract also reversed course and was down $1.40 to US$1,112.70 an ounce.

The December crude contract was down $1.52 cents at US$46.38 a barrel and the December contract for natural gas was up four cents at US$2.29.

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(StatCan-Trade)

Economists say a decline in the trade deficit in September suggests Canada may be starting to see a positive impact from the lower loonie and firming U-S demand.

Statistics Canada says the trade shortfall declined to 1.7-billion dollars from a revised 2.7-billion in August.

The result is better than economists expected and came as imports slipped 1.3 per cent and exports increased 0.7 per cent.

Bank of Montreal senior economist Benjamin Reitzes says trade is going to add significantly to growth in the third quarter. (The Canadian Press)

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(EDS-Tata)

Canada’s lead export funding agency will provide Tata companies with up to 500-million dollars U-S a year to support the Indian conglomerate’s expansion and growth in Canada.

Export Development Canada says it will underwrite loans primarily to help small- to medium-sized companies within Tata’s global network.

E-D-C chief executive Benoit Daignault says the Tata group is a critical organization in India, which is a key market for Canadian exporters.

Tata has also invested more than 1.3-billion dollars in Canadian operations over the past five years in the beverage, steel, consulting, chemicals, communications and technologies sectors that employ about three-thousand workers. (The Canadian Press)

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(Moody’s-Global-Economy)

Moody’s Investor Services says a slowdown in global growth linked to China and an expected rise in U-S interest rates are the two main reasons why it could lower its credit grades for countries next year.

The credit ratings agency released a report today predicting a “shallow” economic recovery around the world should help shore up the ratings it assigns to countries.

But it warns a sharp slowdown in China would negatively impact trading partners and economies that are highly dependent on commodity exports.

It also says a rate hike from the U-S Federal Reserve could hit emerging market economies. (The Associated Press)

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(WiLAN-Restructuring)

Ottawa-based WiLAN says about 30 per cent of its workforce will be affected by a restructuring to be completed by the end of the year.

WiLAN says the restructuring will reduce cash operating expenses by eight- to 10-million dollars U-S per year in response to a difficult environment for patent licensing companies.

But it isn’t clear whether some staff would be transferred to a new research and development company that WiLAN is planning to spin off.

WiLAN also announced plans to slash the company’s dividend by 76 per cent starting in January as it revealed its third-quarter revenue from licensing patents was down 12 per cent from a year ago and its adjusted earnings fell about seven per cent. (The Canadian Press)

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(Honda)

Honda reported a quarterly profit of one-billion dollars today, up seven per cent from its revised result from the year before.

That growth came amid healthy sales despite the costs of a massive recall related to defective air bags.

Tokyo-based Honda says it will stop buying air bag inflators from supplier Takata for models now under development. (The Associated Press)

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(Business Report by The Canadian Press)

(The Canadian Press)

INDEX: BUSINESS