These are stories Report on Business is following Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015.
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Flex time?
Apple Inc. may be planning a bendable phone. One that's actually meant to bend.
Among 28 patents awarded yesterday to the tech giant is one for a "flexible electronic device" that, based on the drawings, you could put in your back pocket without fear.
"A flexible electronic device may include a flexible display, a flexible housing and one or more flexible internal components configured to allow the flexible electronic device to be deformed," the document says.
"Flexible displays may include flexible display layers, flexible touch-sensitive layers, and flexible cover layers," it adds.
"The flexible housing may be a multi-stable flexible housing having one or more stable positions."
It goes on to talk about the possibility of flexible internal components, flexible batteries and flexible printed circuits.
Being granted the patent in no way means that Apple will make such a product, but it does make sense in this day and age as technology advances and consumer needs change. At some point, at least.
"This could be the future of the smartphone as the 'phablet' develops into basically a tablet that will fold to fit into your pocket," said analyst Jasper Lawler of CMC Markets in London.
Apple, of course, is coming off "Bendgate," but there's a lot more here.
"Flexible electronic devices may be more resistant to damage during impact events such as drops because the flexible device may bend or deform while absorbing the impact," the document says, adding that "rigid electronic devices may be vulnerable to damage in the event of an impact such as a drop of the device on a hard surface."
Prices fall
Fears of deflation are rippling through Europe after a report today showed consumer prices dipping in December.
The 0.2-per-cent decline from a year earlier marked the first annual drop in the euro zone since the fall of 2009, our European correspondent Eric Reguly reports.
This was largely driven by the plunge in oil prices, but nonetheless raises the pressure on the European Central Bank to launch a stimulus program known as quantitative easing, or QE, when it meets later this month.
"The direction that price inflation is headed, generally, is clearly not a positive development given that the ECB goal is 2 per cent," said senior economist Jennifer Lee of BMO Nesbitt Burns.
"All in, this spells likely ECB action, possibly as soon as the Jan. 22 meeting."
This came as the Eurostat agency also reported that unemployment in the euro zone held at an elevated 11.5 per cent in November.
Trade gap widens
Canada's trade deficit is widening as the collapse in oil prices takes its toll on energy exports.
The gap swelled in November to $644-million, from October's $327-million, as exports fell by 3.5 per cent to outpace the 2.7-per-cent decline in imports, Statistics Canada said today.
Export prices slipped 1.9 per cent, and volumes 1.6 per cent. On the other side of the ledge, import prices dipped 1 per cent, while volumes declined by 1.7 per cent.
Exports to the U.S. fell 2.6 per cent, and those to other countries by 6.2 per cent.
Export levels, the lowest since last April, were driven down primarily by energy, which declined by 7.8 per cent, the federal agency said.
That marked the six month in a row for falling energy exports, in turn led by oil and bitumen, down almost 10 per cent.
Prices for oil and bitumen exports fell 6.7 per cent, and volumes 3.4 per cent.
It wasn't just oil. The report marked "a sea of red" for overall exports, noted Nick Exarhos of CIBC World Markets.
"We knew that the collapse in oil would dent Canada's trade position, but exports have now wiped out nearly all of their 2014 gains," he added.
(Editor's note: This item has been corrected to fix the price and volume declines for oil and bitumen exports.)
Air Canada eyes leaving island airport
Air Canada is considering ceasing flights out of Billy Bishop Airport in downtown Toronto amid a continuing push to cut overall costs and failed efforts to gain more access to the airport, The Globe and Mail's Greg Keenan reports.
"While Air Canada's traffic and load factor at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport increased in 2014 over the previous year, as part of its continuing cost transformation initiatives, Air Canada is assessing the viability of Billy Bishop operations based on current imposed terminal rates and terms," the airline said in a statement.
The airport is owned and operated by the Toronto Port Authority, but its biggest user by far is Porter Airlines Inc., which owns the terminal at the airport but has put the building up for sale.
Air Canada offers 15 flights a day out of Billy Bishop, which permits only turbo-prop planes to use the airport. That's less than 1 per cent of Air Canada's total daily 1,500 flights across Canada.
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