A tailings pond reflects the Syncrude oilsands mine facility near Fort McMurray, Alta.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Stories Report on Business is following today :
Fed grows more optimistic
The U.S. economic recovery is spreading to most parts of the country. Merchants are seeing better sales and factories are boosting production, but many companies are still wary of ramping up hiring, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.
The Fed's new survey is consistent with Chairman Ben Bernanke's view that a modest recovery is unfolding, although it won't be strong enough to quickly drive down unemployment now at 9.7 per cent.
All of the Fed's 12 regions - except for St. Louis - said "economic activity increased somewhat." That was an improvement from the last Fed survey, released in early March, where nine regions reported modest economic advances. Snowstorms had crimped activity along the East Coast.
In the new survey, the St. Louis region said economic conditions had "softened." That was a downgrade from the previous report when the region reported mixed economic conditions.
Obama seeks greater oversight over derivatives
U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that Democrats' efforts to regulate Wall Street will not result in new public bailouts of banks, as Republicans have charged.
Mr. Obama also said he wants greater federal oversight of derivatives - investment products that contributed to the nation's financial meltdown.
The President met with House and Senate leaders of both parties to discuss legislation revamping regulation of the financial industry. The Senate is beginning to debate the measure amid sharp partisan differences.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who sat two chairs from Mr. Obama in the White House Cabinet Room, delivered a speech earlier Wednesday saying the administration-backed bill would perpetuate bailouts for Wall Street rather than end them.
Greens launch NAFTA action over oil sands
Environmental groups launched a complaint against Canada under the North American free-trade agreement on Wednesday, saying the country has failed to enforce anti-pollution rules governing its vast oil sands.
In the latest move in a long-running campaign to highlight the impact of oil sands development, the submission by Environmental Defence Canada, Natural Resources Defense Council and three citizens charges that toxic tailings ponds are being allowed to leak and contaminate ground water.
The ponds store residual oil, heavy metals and other byproducts of oil sands processing in Alberta. They are subject to environmental provisions under the federal Fisheries Act, the groups said.
"We're out of options when it comes to trying to get the government to enforce its law," Matt Price, policy director at Environmental Defence Canada, told reporters.
No unemployment relief in sight
Unemployment rates in the world's developed economies likely will remain high through 2011, suggesting that central banks should keep interest rates low and that governments should be ready to spend on job creation, the International Monetary Fund says.
In an analysis of the global recession on labour markets, the IMF predicts that the average unemployment rate of a group of the 14 rich countries that includes Canada will be around 9 per cent at the end of 2011, compared with about 6 per cent at the end of 2008.
"One legacy of the Great Recession will likely be persistently high unemployment rates in several advanced economies," the IMF report said. "Because high unemployment can quickly become a structural problem, this could lead to serious political and social challenges."
The nature of the global recession explains the persistent unemployment rates.
Radio advertisers returning, broadcasters say
Advertising budgets that took a beating during the recession are now on the mend, according to Canada's two largest owners of radio stations, Astral Media and Corus Entertainment Inc.
During a call on Wednesday to discuss the company's second-quarter earnings, Corus chief executive officer John Cassaday told investors that he is "quite confident that the ad recession is behind us."
While revenues were down slightly in Corus' radio segment in the three months ended Feb. 28, the declines were milder than they have been. The segment was down 4 per cent in revenues, compared to a 6-per-cent decline in the first quarter. Corus owns 50 radio stations across the country as well as specialty television channels.
Yield: A quick look at the different kinds
Yield can mean different things: To give up or surrender; A measure of agricultural production; That big yellow sign you missed before slamming into another vehicle.
Most people know those definitions of yield. But do you know the difference between dividend yield and earnings yield, or between current yield and yield to maturity? Judging by some of the reader e-mails we receive at Investor Clinic, there's a fair bit of confusion about yield.
That's not surprising, because yield has a multitude of meanings in the investing world.
Asia powers ahead
As global economies shift in the wake of the financial crisis, Asia is powering ahead, leading global growth and moving world markets.
The most striking development today came in Singapore, where the country's central bank revalued the currency and fresh data showed economic growth surged by 32.1 per cent, annualized and seasonally adjusted, in the first quarter. That's the best showing on records dating back to 1975. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country's central bank, sets policy just two times each year, and said today it adjusted its target to a modest and gradual appreciation. Economists quoted by the Reuters news agency said the move effectively revalued Singapore's dollar by between 1.2 per cent and 1.4 per cent.
"The move is fully justified not only by the enormous strength of [first-quarter]GDP but the likely sustainability of the recovery," Robert Prior-Wandesforde, HSB''s senior Asia analyst, told The Associated Press. "The Asian recovery has become self-sustaining."
South Korea is also on the rebound, though it actually escaped a recession last year and now projects economic expansion of more than 5 per cent this year. Today, fresh numbers showed a surge in the labour market in South Korea, the fourth-biggest economy in Asia, and, noted Scotia Capital Economists Derek Holt and Karen Cordes Woods, the country's jobless rate has declined to 3.8 per cent from 4.8 per cent in just two months, putting it back in line with pre-crisis levels.
Separately today, Moody's Investors Service raised its rating on South Korea's debt, a vote of confidence that also boosted its currency, saying in a statement that "the change has been prompted by Korea's demonstration of an exceptional level of economic resilience to the global crisis, while containing the government's budget deficit."
And in China, the country continues to see a surging real estate market, where house prices are now up 11.7 per cent from a year ago. "That brings the rise back to the same rates as late 2007 and early 2008 just before the global crisis set in," said Mr. Holt and Ms. Cordes Woods. "Chinese house prices never really corrected to the downside, as the worst point was reached in March of last year when prices fell only 1.3 per cent [year over year] That makes it sound kind of like Canada, where house prices did indeed fall in the early stages of the downturn but have quickly regained previous heights and moved onto new records. Canada and China are relatively unique among significant economies in that regard."
China also today boosted prices for gasoline and diesel fuel. Tomorrow, China is scheduled to report several economic indicators, including inflation and what is expected to be economic growth of up to 11.7 per cent in the first quarter. China has moved recently to cool its economy amid fears of asset bubbles.
The strong economic showing in Asia helped boost prices for resources such as oil and copper, in turn bolstering currencies, like the Canadian dollar, that are linked to commodities. The dollar , which has hovered around parity with its U.S. counterpart for some time now, pushed above that mark again.
Read
Singapore's GDP soars 32 per cent
Canadian dollar opens above parity
JPMorgan profit jumps in quarter
JPMorgan Chase & Co. kicked off earnings among the major U.S. banks today with a 55-per-cent jump in first-quarter profit amid signs that consumer credit troubles are easing. Profit rose to $3.33-billion (U.S.) or 74 cents a share from $2.14-billion or 40 cents a year earlier, beating the estimates of analysts, and its credit loss provisions fell by 30 per cent. "We're generally positive on the big banks because it looks like the rate of inflow of new problem loans has peaked and is beginning to come down," analyst Chris Kotowski of Oppenheimer & Co. told Bloomberg News before the results were released.
JPMorgan executives were also upbeat. Chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said the economy is improving and "this could be the makings of a good recovery," while chief financial officer Michael Cavanagh said delinquency trends were also improving. Read the story
Apple delays global iPad launch
Apple Inc. is delaying the global debut of its iPad computer tablet by a month because of what it says is strong demand from its U.S. launch. The device is now scheduled to be available in Canada and several other countries at the end of May. "Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad," the computer giant said this morning. "… Faced with this surprisingly strong U.S. demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10." Read the story
From today's Report on Business
Oil sands deal gives China crucial veto on exports
Canadian exporters ride resurgence in global trade
Canadian banks raise rates as finance costs rise