Michaels completes acquisition of Joann's intellectual property and fan-favorite labels
NEW YORK (AP) — Craft labels from the now-shuttered fabrics seller Joann are making their way to a new home: Michaels.
The Michaels Companies announced on Thursday that it had completed its purchase of Joann's intellectual property and private label brands — in an acquisition that arrives as the Texas-based arts and crafting chain works to expand its own fabric, sewing and yarn offerings.
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Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
TACO time
Opinion The stock market says, 'Yes.' And the bond market says, 'No.' This sums up much of the recent sentiment about the economy in the United States, and for that matter the global economy, amid the back-and-forth policies of U.S. President Donald Trump. Stocks have largely recovered their losses this year, as investors believe the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — with its tax cuts largely focused on the wealthy — will power a surge in growth. Michael Probst / The Associated Press files The curve of the German stock index DAX is seen in the background as U.S. President Donald Trump is shown on a TV screen at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany. What's more, many investors ascribe to 'TACO', a term coined by a Financial Times columnist that stands for 'Trump always chickens out,' meaning most of the tariffs threats are bluster meant to make him appear to be a master deal-maker and they won't be here to stay. 'That is quite a diverging opinion from what the bond market is saying,' says Jonathan Baird, Toronto-based editor and publisher of the Global Investment Letter. Bond investors view the One Big Beautiful Bill as a recipe for inflation, eventually adding more than US$3.8 trillion to the annual budget deficit. Tariffs, too, are inflationary, which further make the case for more investors to sell their U.S. bonds. Average investors, not Wall Street, are likely feeling indecisive and maybe even fearful. A dose of caution is warranted, says John De Goey, portfolio manager with Design Wealth Management in Toronto, and author of Stand Up to the Financial Services Industry. Even without Trump-induced mayhem, 'stocks are very expensive and therefore very risky.' He points to the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings — or CAPE — for the S&P 500. CAPE helps determine if an investment — based on a 10-year average of inflation-adjusted earnings — is valued appropriately. Right now, the S&P 500 is highly overvalued, according to CAPE. De Goey says the metric may not be a good predictor of bear markets. 'But it's extremely reliable for determining what the annualized return will be for the asset class … over the next decade,' he says. 'So when the S&P 500 is in the 30s or higher, the return over the next decade has historically been around zero.' The CAPE for the world's largest stock index has been about 35 in recent weeks. What's more, many seasoned investors see a decade ahead that could be similar to the 1970s when 'stagflation' weighed on markets. Characterized by higher than normal inflation and slow economic growth, stagflation can be toxic for stock and bond returns. 'I would suggest probably being as defensive as you're comfortable being,' says Baird, who expects stagflation to be a problem for the next few years. He doesn't recommend moving all of the portfolio to cash to preserve capital. That is tricky to time correctly on getting out of the market and, even more so, getting back into the market. Broadly, stagflation fighting strategies should focus less on growth stocks. Instead, consider companies selling goods and services consumers can't go without — like groceries and housing. Bonds should have shorter durations to reduce the impact of inflation. Commodity- and currency-based strategies can also provide some upside amid volatility. As well, alternative investments — private equity and credit, private real estate and hedge funds — are increasingly used by portfolio managers. 'The low-hanging fruit is increasing alternatives exposure,' De Goey says, noting these assets are less correlated to stock and bond markets, providing portfolio stability. Previously only available to wealthy investors, alternatives are now widely available as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). That said, investors should still own stocks, including those in the U.S., but they should consider reducing exposure to overvalued companies like the so-called Magnificent Seven (including Amazon Inc., Tesla Inc., Apple Inc. and Meta Inc.), says Jai Gandhi, investment adviser with Endeavour Wealth Management, iA Private Wealth in Winnipeg. 'We're not cutting our weight to the U.S. market compared with a year ago, but we're conscious of the high values of companies that hold more risk.' That said, owning good companies never goes out of style for long-term investors. 'We don't worry too much about short-term price movements,' says Hardev Bains, president and chief investment officer at Lionridge Capital Management in Winnipeg. Rather, the focus for Bains and other fundamental investors is owning companies with long-term profitability growth, strong balance sheets (significantly more assets than liabilities) and competitive advantages. These companies, however, are only purchased when their share price reflects fair value relative to those qualities. What's more, even holding great companies can be risky when they become steeply overvalued. At that point, it's worthwhile selling those holdings or at least reducing their portion in the portfolio. 'Part of our discipline is if we sell companies and can't find anything to buy — which happens in periods of expensive markets — we go to cash, as we're doing right now,' Bains says Companies may have great business models, but their share price today is generally too high to purchase with a margin of safety. Still, Lionridge's equity portfolio obviously must hold stocks — currently about 20 companies that are likely to weather stagflation and even a recession better than other stocks. A recession is likely already underway, De Goey notes, pointing to gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter contracting in the U.S. 'No reasonable person expects the economy to grow in Q2 given tariffs are now having more of an impact.' Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. The best companies should remain profitable, and market drops will put their shares on sale from time to time, Baird says. In the meantime, beware of FOMO — fear of missing out — when markets surge higher, he adds. That often leads to buying high and, worse, selling low in a knee-jerk reaction to markets plunging in fear. 'We're all fallible and prone to psychological traps,' Baird adds. 'So the biggest thing for any investor is managing our emotions.' Joel Schlesinger is a Winnipeg-based freelance journalist joelschles@
Toronto Star
6 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Can an American pope apply US-style fundraising and standards to fix troubled Vatican finances?
VATICAN CITY (AP) — As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was often on the lookout for used cars that he could buy cheap and fix up himself for use in parishes around his diocese. With cars that were really broken down, he'd watch YouTube videos to learn how to fix them. That kind of make-do-with-less, fix-it-yourself mentality could serve Pope Leo XIV well as he addresses one of the greatest challenges facing him as pope: The Holy See's chronic, 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit, 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall and declining donations that together pose something of an existential threat to the central government of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church.
Winnipeg Free Press
6 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Withering donations Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
