Trump's tariff deadline: What a deal could cost Canada
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Edmonton Journal
31 minutes ago
- Edmonton Journal
Braid: Separatism debate heats up as referendum question goes to court
Elections Alberta is taking the separatists to court. It could be some show. Article content The elections office asks Court of King's Bench to decide whether a referendum question proposed by separatists is unconstitutional. Article content Article content Article content Whatever happens in court, the separatist drive for a referendum question is stalled for some time. Article content Some separatists are claiming the system is rigged against them, because any King's Bench judge who hears the case will be a federal appointee. Article content Another problem awaits. A related question has already been approved by Elections Alberta, the independent body established by the legislature. Article content Under the law, there can't be two questions on the same general subject. Article content Article content The pro-Canada leader of this campaign is former PC Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk. Article content He's now branded 'Tommy the Commie' by separatists who seem deeply annoyed that he got the jump on them. Article content He sure did. Lukaszuk's question was approved just before Canada Day. That kicked off a 30-day period for organizing that ends Wednesday. Article content After that, the group can start collecting official signatures to trigger a provincewide vote. Article content Lukaszuk's question was approved while a previous law was in effect. It requires him to gather 300,000 names, all fully checked and approved, in only 90 days. Article content Article content Bizarrely, after Lukaszuk's question was allowed, the UCP proclaimed legislation that lowers the bar to 177,000 signatures over 120 days. Article content That's a much more reasonable goal. But Lukaszuk may be stuck with the old one.
Globe and Mail
32 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Union Pacific to buy Norfolk Southern for $85 billion
Union Pacific UNP-N said on Tuesday it would buy smaller rival Norfolk Southern NSC-N in an $85 billion deal to create the nation's first coast-to-coast freight rail operator and reshape the movement of goods from grains to autos across the country. If approved, the deal would be the largest-ever buyout in the sector and combine Union Pacific's stronghold in the western two-thirds of the U.S. with Norfolk's 19,500 mile network that primarily spans 22 eastern states. The two railroads are expected to have a combined enterprise value of $250 billion and would unlock about $2.75 billion in annualized synergies, the companies said. The companies said on Thursday they were in advanced discussion for a possible merger. The deal will face lengthy regulatory scrutiny amid union concerns over potential rate increases, service disruptions and job losses. The 1996 merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific had temporarily led to severe congestion and delays across the Southwest. The deal reflects a shift in antitrust enforcement under U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. Executive orders aimed at removing barriers to consolidation have opened the door to mergers that were previously considered unlikely. Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs, appointed in January, has advocated for faster preliminary reviews and a more flexible approach to merger conditions. Even under an expedited process, the review could take from 19 to 22 months, according to a person involved in the discussions. Major railroad unions have long opposed consolidation, arguing that such mergers threaten jobs and risk disrupting rail service. 'We will weigh in with the STB (regulator) and with the Trump administration in every way possible,' said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the SMART-TD union's transport division, after the two companies said they were in advanced talks last week. 'This merger is not good for labor, the rail shipper/customer or the public at large,' he said. The SMART-TD union's transport division is North America's largest railroad operating union with more than 1,800 railroad yardmasters. The North American rail industry has been grappling with volatile freight volumes, rising labor and fuel costs, and growing pressure from shippers over service reliability, factors that could further complicate the merger. 7-Eleven owner staves off Canadian takeover, but struggles remain as shares fall The proposed deal had also prompted competitors BNSF, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and CSX CSX-Q, to explore merger options, people familiar with the matter said. Agents at the STB are already conducting preparatory work, anticipating they could soon receive not just one, but two megamerger proposals, a person close to the discussions told Reuters on Thursday. If both mergers are approved, the number of Class I railroads in North America would shrink to four from six, consolidating major freight routes and boosting pricing power for the industry. The last major deal in the industry was the $31 billion merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, which created the first and only single line rail network connecting Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. That deal, finalized in 2023, faced heavy regulatory resistance over fears it would curb competition, cut jobs and disrupt service, but it was ultimately approved. Union Pacific is valued at nearly $136 billion, while Norfolk Southern has a market capitalization of about $65 billion, according to data from LSEG.
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
US stocks edge higher as a busy week for markets picks up momentum
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are ticking higher as a busy week for Wall Street picks up momentum. The S&P 500 was up 0.2% in early trading Tuesday after setting all-time highs for six straight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.5%, coming off its own record. JetBlue Airways and SoFi Technologies rose but Merck fell following a jumbled set of profit reports from big U.S. companies. Treasury yields were easing a bit as the Federal Reserve gets set to begin a two-day meeting where it will decide what to do with short-term interest rates. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. Wall Street chugged mostly higher in premarket trading Tuesday as Chinese and U.S. officials begin a second day of trade talks and the Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day meeting to make a decision on interest rate policy. The meetings come amid one of the busiest weeks of corporate earnings season and a flurry of economic data. Futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.2%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher. Nasdaq futures rose 0.4% before the bell. Analysts said investors were watching for the latest from President Donald Trump and U.S. trade talks with China in Stockholm. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were meeting in the Swedish capital. 'Aside from addressing economic imbalances, tariffs are also now well entrenched in the geopolitical arena,' Tan Boon Heng of the Asia & Oceania Treasury Department at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. With regard to the Fed meeting, the widespread expectation on Wall Street is that officials at the U.S. central bank will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates, though a couple of Trump's appointees could dissent in the vote. The Fed has been on hold with interest rates this year since cutting them several times at the end of 2024. Trump has publicly chastised Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the benchmark lending rate, which Powell says is due to the uncertain ramifications of Trump's trade war, most notably whether those policies will trigger higher inflation. In corporate news, UnitedHealth Group shares slid 4% after the company badly missed Wall Street's second-quarter earnings expectations and disappointed investors with its updated profit forecast. The health care giant said Tuesday that it expects rising medical costs to continue to pressure its performance and forecast adjusted earnings of at least $16 per share in 2025. The company had started 2025 with an initial forecast for adjusted earnings of up to $30 per share. Union Pacific rose 1.2% in premarket after it offered up details on its bid to merge with Norfolk Southern that would create the U.S.'s first transcontinental railroad. Union Pacific is offering $20 billion cash and one share of its stock to buy Norfolk Southern, the companies said Tuesday, adding that the merger would streamline deliveries of all kinds of raw materials and goods. Norfolk Southern shares fell 3%. Novo Nordisk, which makes the weight loss drug Wegovy, plunged 24% in premarket trading after the company cut its sales and operating profit for the year. Also reporting earnings Tuesday are Boeing and Starbucks. Hundreds of U.S. companies are lined up to report how much profit they made during the spring, with nearly a third of the businesses in the S&P 500 index scheduled to deliver updates this week. The government will also be busy this week, releasing three separate sets of data on the labor market, punctuated with the July jobs report on Friday. The first second-quarter GDP estimate come on Wednesday, followed by the Fed's preferred measure of inflation on Thursday. Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, France's CAC 40 jumped 1.3% in early trading, while the German DAX rose 1.1%. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.5%. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% to 40,674.55 on broad selling of major companies including automakers and big banks. Toyota Motor Corp. dipped 2.3% and Honda Motor Co. fell 2.1%. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group finished 1.8% lower, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group stock dipped 1.6%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.2% to 25,524.45, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.3% to 3,609.71. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% higher to 8,704.60. South Korea's Kospi gained 0.7% to 3,230.57. Samsung Electronics edged 0.3% higher after jumping nearly 7% on Monday on news that it signed a deal with Tesla to provide computer chips for its electric vehicles. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude was unchanged at $66.71 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 5 cents to $69.37 a barrel.
