Toronto stocks jump as US inflation data keep rate-cut hopes alive
At 09:50 a.m. ET (1350 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE), opens new tab was up 0.26% at 27,847.43 points and was trading near record levels.
The communications sector (.GSPTTTS), opens new tab led the advances on TSX by rising 1.24%, followed by a 0.8% rise in healthcare (.GSPTTHC), opens new tab.
A Labor Department report showed U.S. consumer prices rose 0.2% in July after a 0.3% gain in June. On a year-over-year basis, CPI advanced 2.7%, slightly below the 2.8% forecast from economists polled by Reuters.
The data maintained the case for a Fed rate cut next month, according to traders' bets in futures markets.
"Inflation is on the rise, but it didn't increase as much as some people feared," said Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
"In the short term, markets will likely embrace these numbers because they should allow the Fed to focus on labor-market weakness and keep a September rate cut on the table."
An additional boost came from seemingly subsiding trade tension between the world's top two economies. U.S. President Donald Trump extended a tariff truce with China to November 10, averting triple-digit duties on Chinese goods.
Canada's materials index (.GSPTTMT), opens new tab added 0.5%, thanks to rising copper prices due to the China tariff deadline extension.
However, the trade tension between China and Canada showed no signs of easing. Beijing announced a preliminary anti-dumping duty on Canadian canola imports, a fresh escalation in a year-long trade dispute that began with Ottawa's imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports last August.
In other stocks, Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO), opens new tab fell more than 9% after the Financial Times reported that the apparel manufacturer is nearing an about $5 billion deal to acquire Hanesbrands (HBI.N), opens new tab, including debt.
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Air Canada strike: Hundreds of flights grounded as industrial action begins
Air Canada has suspended all its flights as a strike by cabin staff begins - a move the airline said will disrupt travel plans for around 130,000 passengers a union representing more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants confirmed the 72-hour industrial action early on Saturday morning. The airline said it had suspended all flights, including those under its budget arm Air Canada Rouge, and advised affected customers not to travel to the airport unless flying with a different Canada's flight attendants are calling for higher salaries and to be paid for work when aircraft are on the ground. The strike took effect at 00:58 ET (04:58 GMT) on Saturday, though Air Canada began scaling back its operations before then. The airline says around 500 flights will be affected per attendants will picket at major Canadian airports, where passengers were already trying to secure new bookings earlier in the Canada, which flies directly to 180 cities worldwide, said it had "suspended all operations" and that it was "strongly advising affected customers not to go to the airport".It added that Air Canada Jazz, PAL Airlines and Air Canada Express flights were unaffected by the strike."Air Canada deeply regrets the effect the strike is having on customers," it Friday night, the airline said it had cancelled 623 flights affecting more than 100,000 passengers, as part of a winding down of operations ahead of the contract negotiations, the airline said it had offered flight attendants a 38% increase in total compensation over four years, with a 25% raise in the first said the offer was "below inflation, below market value, below minimum wage" and would still leave flight attendants unpaid for some hours of work, including boarding and waiting at airports ahead of union and the airline have publicly traded barbs about each other's willingness to reach an this month, 99.7% of employees represented by the union voted for a jobs minister Patty Hajdu this week urged Air Canada and the union to return to the bargaining table to avoid a also said in a statement that Air Canada had asked her to refer the dispute to binding has asserted that it had been negotiating in good faith for more than eight months, but that Air Canada instead sought government-directed arbitration."When we stood strong together, Air Canada didn't come to the table in good faith," the union said in a statement to its members. "Instead, they called on the federal government to step in and take those rights away."
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Air Canada suspends all operations sparking travel chaos – what to do with flight tickets
AIR Canada has sparked travel chaos after suspending all of its operations. Customers have been left scrambling for help after the airline announced on Saturday morning that all flights are grounded due to employee strikes. 2 2 The strikes, led by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, will impact an estimated 130,000 passengers a day, according to the airline. Flight attendants walked out at 1 a.m. on Saturday after the airline refused to accept new contract negotiations, Canadian Union of Public Employees spokesman Hugh Pouliot confirmed. Only regional Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz Aviation and PAL Airlines are not affected. "Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge carry approximately 130,000 customers a day who could be affected by a disruption, this includes the 25,000 Canadians that the airline flies home from abroad each day, who could be stranded," it said in a statement before the strike was confirmed. The airline announced it will begin a phased shutdown as the first flights began being canceled on August 14 as the airline and the union took to the negotiating table. "The company has made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to provide customers alternative travel options to the extent possible,' it added. 'Customers will be notified of alternative travel options that are identified for them. "However, given other carriers are already very full due to the summer travel peak, securing such capacity will take time and, in many cases, will not be immediately possible." The airline said travelers whose flights are canceled can ask for a full refund should they opt not to travel on alternative flight arrangements made for them. Although Air Canada doesn't fly domestically in the US, the airline does serve as a carrier for international connections, which could affect American flyers on a connecting flight. Chaos as UK airspace meltdown strikes again and grounds all outbound flights An estimated 27,000 American customers are expected to be impacted by the cancellations, according to Air Advisor. US customers should continuously check their flight status to ensure that their flight has not been cancelled or rebooked. While the duration of the strike is unknown, passengers with flexible travel plans can rebook their flights between August 21 and September 12 at no additional cost. It is not yet known how long disruption could last as Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr said it could take up to a week to fully restart operations once any kind of deal is reached. Air Canada noted that since the strike is out of the airline's control, it is not legally required to provide compensation for food and lodging expenses. CONTRACT ISSUES The strike comes after eight months of negotiations between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Air Canada Strike statement 'We regret the impact a disruption will have on our customers, our stakeholders and the communities we serve. However, the disappointing conduct of CUPE's negotiators and the union's stated intention to launch a strike puts us in a position where our only responsible course of action is to provide certainty by implementing an orderly suspension of Air Canada's and Air Canada Rouge's operations through a lockout. As we have seen elsewhere in our industry with other labour disruptions, unplanned or uncontrolled shutdowns, such as we are now at risk of through a strike, can create chaos for travellers that is far, far worse,' said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive of Air Canada. 'Our latest offer included a 38 per cent increase in total compensation over four years that would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada, along with provisions for ground pay and other work-life balance, career and pension improvements. At the same time, we asked for no concessions from the union. Given this, while we remain available for discussions with CUPE, we have requested government-directed arbitration as we now view it as the only certain avenue to bring closure to bargaining and mitigate the impact on travellers, business and the Canadian economy.' Flight attendants are asking the airline for higher pay and for on-ground pay. Currently, flight attendants only receive pay for their time spent flying, which doesn't include boarding passengers or deplaning. 'The disappointing conduct of CUPE's negotiators and the union's stated intention to launch a strike puts us in a position where our only responsible course of action is to provide certainty by implementing an orderly suspension of Air Canada's and Air Canada Rouge's operations through a lockout,' said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive of Air Canada. 'Our latest offer included a 38 per cent increase in total compensation over four years that would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada, along with provisions for ground pay and other work-life balance, career and pension improvements. 'At the same time, we asked for no concessions from the union. Given this, while we remain available for discussions with CUPE, we have requested government-directed arbitration as we now view it as the only certain avenue to bring closure to bargaining and mitigate the impact on travellers, business and the Canadian economy.' Flight attendant Henly Larden told the Associated Press that the union won't stop fighting until all its demands are met, with an emphasis on ground pay. 'Just because it's a past practice doesn't mean here in 2025 that it's OK or it's right, and we want to change that going forward,' she said.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
What happened when we let Times readers bet $10,000 on stocks
If you could go back in time to the day of the 2024 US election — armed with $10,000 and everything you know now — how much money could you make in the stock market? That is the challenge we set Times readers last week. Buy and sell any stock in the S&P 500 or the FTSE 100 and jump forward in time, watching how the actions of the Trump administration have affected global markets. You can play it here. So, how did readers get on as stock market traders? The average player managed to turn their $10,000 investment into about $14,000 over the eight simulated months, meaning that they generated $4,000 profit — a return of 40 per cent. This is a pretty good return, even if readers knew exactly what would happen: $10,000 invested in the S&P 500 would have returned $10,787, and the same in the FTSE 100 would have resulted in $11,095 — although $10,000 in bitcoin, turning into $16,931, would have beaten the lot. Trump's tariffs resulted in a frenzy of trading, helping Barclays to a 23 per cent jump in pre-tax profits in the first half of the year. There are, of course, some objectively 'better' stocks to pick. The US AI firm Palantir, co-founded by the Trump ally Peter Thiel, has more than tripled its value since the election. Other US AI firms and computer chip manufacturers (such as Super Micro Computer Inc and Jabil Inc) have also experienced strong growth, as well as companies in AI adjacent sectors, particularly energy stocks such as the General Electrics power spin-off GE Vernova Inc, which has benefited from increased demand from AI data centres. • The cheap and easy way to invest (without the risk) A significant number of readers wisely put all their money into Palantir, yielding returns of 200 per cent. But the highest profits were for those who traded repeatedly at optimum times. Only two players turned their $10,000 into more than $100,000; at the time of writing, the top score was an eye-watering $441,681. The highest possible score, buying the best performing stock day after day, was well over a trillion dollars. Compounding returns, to paraphrase Albert Einstein, really are the eighth wonder of the world. For data privacy reasons, we don't know which stocks the top performer picked. However, on average, those who played did not opt for high-risk, high-reward US tech stocks. In fact, most readers put their money into recognisable UK companies that had a track record of doing well. Readers rightly focused on UK defence stocks such as Rolls-Royce, BAE and also Babcock, the best performing FTSE 100 company during the period. All those stocks boomed after Trump's realignment of global defence. • Bull or bear? Find out what kind of investor you are Other top performers picked out by readers included Airtel Africa, International Airlines Group (which owns British Airways) and the mining firm Fresnillo. For the FTSE at least, readers had a good sense of where the gains have been, with most of the ten best-performing stocks over the period being in the most-bought list. The above looks at which stocks had the most money invested. But the list of stocks that were bought and sold the most — that is, with the highest number of trades — shows a preference towards US growth firms. Top of this list is Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, and Elon Musk's Tesla, both of which have share prices inherently tied to unpredictable and volatile entities. Readers also explored options with oil and steel stocks. Due to tariff changes, these companies were particularly volatile. Many readers bought BP, others looked at Chevron or the US steel manufacturer Steel Dynamics. There were good profits to be had with all these, but you'd need to buy and sell at specific times to really make a good profit. • I want to invest in Europe's comeback. Where do I start? These lists also feature unexpected appearances from 3M, 3i Group, AES Corporation and APA Corporation. Theses companies didn't perform particularly well over the period and their inclusion is likely to be due to their names appearing at the top alphabetically, rather than being selected as part of a broader investment strategy.
