Daily Market Commentary

Economic News:

Canada:

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said fiscal first-quarter profit rose 43 percent, led by capital markets and banking and a gain from selling some retail properties. The firm raised its quarterly dividend 2.4 percent to C$1.27 a share.
Oil-sands investments in Western Canada that gobbled tens of billions of dollars over the past decade are proving an Achilles heel for some of the world’s biggest energy producers. Exxon Mobil Corp. slashed proved reserves the most in its modern history after removing the entire $16 billion, 3.5-billion-barrel Kearl oil-sands project from its books on Wednesday.
Justin Trudeau’s embrace of deficits won him accolades from global investors and policy makers, but not a full year into his first budget and Canada has run out of fiscal runway. Faced with deficits of almost C$100 billion ($76 billion) in the prime minister’s first mandate, the tone in Ottawa for months has been one of prudence, penny pinching and scaled-down expectations.
Loblaw had $11.13 billion of revenue and a $201 million net profit in the fourth quarter. The profit amounted to 50 cents per share. The net profit was up 57 per cent or $73 million from a year earlier, while revenue was up $265 million or 2.4 per cent

United States:

U.S. President Donald Trump has summoned some of America’s most prominent corporate executives to the White House Thursday, and he intends to put them to work. Trump is planning on splitting the group of executives -– which includes Johnson & Johnson’s chief executive officer, Alex Gorsky, and David Farr, chairman of Emerson Electric –- into working groups to come up with recommendations on how to craft new policies on taxes, job creation and trade that the new president says are needed to jump-start the U.S. economy.
Elon Musk gave Tesla Inc. shareholders the welcome news he still plans to deliver his mass-market electric sedan in July, overwhelming any concern with disclosures the company’s chief financial officer is exiting and its finances would run “close to the edge” without another cash infusion. The Model 3 electric sedan remains on schedule and will reach production of about 5,000 units per week by the end of the year, Tesla said Wednesday.

International:

European stocks were little changed as positive results from companies including Telefonica SA and Bouygues SA helped offset an extended slide in mining shares. Commodity producers tracked declines in copper prices, falling 1 percent for a second daily drop. Bets for stronger global growth and a pickup in inflation have boosted European shares by 3.3 percent this year.
Volkswagen AG is in advanced talks to team up with Tata Motors Ltd. as the German automaker takes another stab at India’s fast-growing demand for cars, according to people familiar with the matter. A deal to jointly develop vehicles for emerging markets may be announced at the Geneva auto show in early March.
Morgan Stanley is scouting for office space in Frankfurt and Dublin for an enlarged European Union hub following the U.K.’s vote to leave the political bloc, according to three people with knowledge the matter. The bank may initially move about 300 workers to one of the cities, the people said without giving a time frame. They asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.
A rally in Asian shares paused as investors shifted focus on corporate earnings amid signals that equities’ gains have been excessive. The MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index swung between gains and losses, holding close to its highest closing level since July 2015.

*All sources from Bloomberg unless otherwise specified

2017-02-24T15:58:32+00:00

The Daily – February 23rd, 2017