Author: train2invest Admins

Canada’s annual inflation rate surged more than expected to 3.3 per cent in July as core measures eyed by the central bank remained stubbornly high, data showed on Tuesday, increasing the likelihood of another interest rate increase.Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast inflation would rise to 3.0 per cent from the 27-month low of 2.8 per cent recorded in June. The consumer price index was up 0.6 per cent on a month-over-month basis, Statistics Canada said, also higher than a forecast of a 0.3 per cent gain.The average of two of the Bank of Canada’s core measures of underlying inflation, CPI-median and CPI-trim, came in at 3.65 per cent compared with 3.70 per cent in June.“I think we’re getting another round of spiraling upside risks to inflation in Canada,” said Derek Holt, vice president of capital markets economics at Scotiabank. “Hikes aren’t done in my opinion.”Money markets increased bets for a quarter-percentage-point rate hike in September. They saw a 35 per cent probability immediately after the release of the inflation data, up from 22 per cent beforehand, and then settled back to a 27 per cent chance.The Canadian dollar was trading 0.1 per cent lower at 1.3465 to the greenback, or 74.27 U.S. cents, after touching a one-week low at 1.35 before the data.The Bank of Canada projected in July that inflation would hover around 3 per cent for about a year, before creeping down to its 2 per cent target by the middle of 2025, in part due to excess demand.Statscan said the rise in headline inflation was mainly attributable to a base-year effect in gasoline prices, as a large monthly decline in July 2022 was no longer impacting the 12-month movement.Grocery prices rose 8.5 per cent in July, the slowest pace in more than a year, mainly due to prices for fresh fruit and to a lesser extent, bakery products, Statscan said.Excluding food and energy, prices rose 3.4 per cent compared with a 3.5 per cent rise in June. Services prices rose 4.3 per cent annually in July, while the price of goods increased 2.3 per cent.

Cargojet Inc. CJT-T +8.79%increase reported net income of $31.1-million in its latest quarter, down from $160.9-million in the same quarter last year as its revenue moved lower.The air cargo company said Monday its profit amounted to $1.68 per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30, down from $8.20 per diluted share a year earlier.To prepare Cargojet to ride the current economic cycle, Cargojet chief executive Ajay Virmani said the company, which provides air cargo services to major cities across North America with a fleet of 40 aircraft, shifted its focus to cost management and rightsizing its network.“While we expect economic conditions to remain difficult, the shift in consumer spending towards travel and leisure versus goods is expected to normalize towards the end of this year,” Virmani said in a news release.On an adjusted basis, Cargojet earned 91 cents per share, down from an adjusted profit of $1.51 per share in the same quarter last year.Revenue for the quarter totalled $209.7-million, down from $246.7-million a year earlier.Revenue excluding fuel surcharges and other revenue was $171.6-million compared with $177.2-million a year ago.

Monday August 14(10:30 a.m. ET) Bank of Canada Senior Loan Officer Survey for Q2.Earnings include: Africa Oil Corp.; Boralex Inc.; Cargojet Inc.; Premium Brands Holdings Corp.–Tuesday August 15China industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investmentsJapan GDP, industrial production and department store sales(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian CPI for July. The Street is expecting a rise of 0.3 per cent from June and up 3.0 per cent year-over-year.(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian manufacturing sales and new orders for June. Estimates are month-over-month declines of 2.0 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively.(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s new motor vehicle sales for June. Estimate is a year-over-year rise of 14.0 per cent.(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. retail sales for July. The Street expects a rise of 0.4 per cent from June.(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. import prices for July. The consensus forecast is an increase of 0.2 per cent from June and down 4.5 per cent year-over-year.(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Survey for August.(9 a.m. ET) Canada’s existing home sales and average prices for July. Estimates are increases of 10.0 per cent and 3.5 per cent year-over-year, respectively.(9 a.m. ET) Canada’s MLS Home Price Index for July. Estimate is a year-over-year drop of 1.5 per cent.(10 a.m. ET) U.S. NAHB Housing Market Index for August.(10 a.m. ET) U.S. business inventories for June.Earnings include: Dream Unlimited Corp.; Home Depot Inc.; Osisko Mining Corp.; Suncor Energy Inc.–Wednesday August 16Euro zone GDP and industrial production(8:15 a.m. ET) Canadian housing starts for July. Estimate is an annualized rate slide of 5.8 per cent.(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian wholesale trade for June. Analysts expect a decline of 4.4 per cent from May.(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. housing starts for July. The consensus forecast is a rise of 1.1 per cent on annualized rate basis.(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. building permits for July. Consensus is an annualized rate increase of 2.0 per cent.(9:15 a.m. ET) U.S. industrial production and capacity utilization for July.(2 p.m. ET) U.S. Fed minutes from July 25-26 meeting are releasedEarnings include: Birchcliff Energy Ltd.; Cisco Systems Inc.; Lithium Americas Corp.; NFI Group Inc.; Target Corp.; TJX Companies Inc.–Thursday August 17Japan trade balance and core machine ordersEuro zone trade balance(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian international securities transactions for June.(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. initial jobless claims for week of Aug. 12. Estimate is 240,000, down 8,000 from the previous week.(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. Philadelphia Fed Index for August.(10 a.m. ET) U.S. leading indicator for July.Earnings include: Applied Materials Inc.; Walmart Inc.–Friday August 18Japan and Euro zone CPI(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian industrial product and raw materials price indexes for July. Estimates are month-over-month increases of 0.1 per cent and 1.0 per cent, respectively.(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian construction investment for June.(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian household and mortgage credit for June.(10 a.m. ET) U.S. quarterly services survey for Q2.Earnings include: Deere & Co.; Estee Lauder Companies Inc.; Palo Alto Networks Inc.

• The producer price index rose 0.3% for the month, slightly higher than the 0.2% estimate.
• On a year-over-year basis, headline PPI was up just 0.8%. Prices excluding food, energy and trader moved up by 2.7%.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/11/wholesale-prices-rose-0point3percent-in-july-higher-than-expected.html

• Net earnings ^[2] were $501 million or $0.75 per share ^[3] for the second quarter of 2023, compared with $601 million or $0.89 per share in 2022. 
  Adjusted net earnings ^[2][4] were $847 million or $1.27 per share, compared with $647 million or $0.97 per share in the second quarter of 2022.
• Adjusted net asset value per share ^[4] was $48.86 at June 30, 2023, compared with $41.91 at December 31, 2022, an increase of 16.6%. The Corporation’s book value per participating share ^[5] was $31.43 at June 30, 2023, comparable with December 31, 2022.
• In 2023, the Corporation purchased for cancellation 3.5 million subordinate voting shares for a total of $123 million as at June 30, 2023.
• Contribution to net earnings from the publicly traded operating companies was $496 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with $669 million in 2022. 
  Contribution to adjusted net earnings from the publicly traded operating companies was $842 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with $715 million in 2022.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/power-corporation-reports-second-quarter-2023-financial-results-840627806.html

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (AQN) on Thursday reported a loss of $253.2 million in its second quarter.On a per-share basis, the Oakville, Ontario-based company said it had a loss of 37 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to 8 cents per share.The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 10 cents per share.The utility operator posted revenue of $627.9 million in the period.Algonquin Power & Utilities shares have increased 19% since the beginning of the year. The stock has declined 46% in the last 12 months._____

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on AQN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AQN

• Consolidated comparable sales¹ were up 0.1%, following strong growth of 5.0% in Q2 2022
• Normalized diluted Earnings Per Share¹ (“EPS”) was $3.08, compared to $3.11 in Q2 2022; Diluted EPS was $1.76, compared to $2.43 in Q2 2022
• Loyalty sales as a percentage of retail sales¹ up 80 bps in the quarter

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canadian-tire-corporation-reports-second-quarter-2023-results-821701904.html

WSP Global Inc. WSP-T is riding high after boosting its earnings forecast for the year, buoyed by organic growth as well as recent acquisitions that have boosted revenues.Along with higher adjusted earnings, the engineering firm said Wednesday it now expects revenues for this year to hit between $10.7-billion and $11-billion, up from a previous outlook of $10-billion to $10.6-billion.The more optimistic outlook comes after WSP reported that net earnings rose 69 per cent year-over-year in its second quarter, to top $150-million.The growth occurred across “all our key regions and segments,” said chief executive Alexandre L’Heureux on a conference call with analysts.He highlighted the United States in particular, where a one-fifth increase in contract awards year-to-date has yet to be factored into an already 25-per-cent year-over-year boost to WSP’s total second-quarter backlog, which stood at a record $14.3-billion.The U.S. contract wins “reflect a rising need for improved infrastructure and for our expertise, which is a similar trend we see globally,” Mr. L’Heureux said.“We are seeing better performance than what we were anticipating at the beginning of this year essentially everywhere – with the exception of mainland China, where I think it’s widely recognized that the prolonged lockdown had its effect and impact on the business,” he added.The chief executive added that WSP’s entire Asian operation accounts for less than 3 per cent of profits.WSP’s rapid growth comes on the heels of at least eight buy-ups since May, 2022 – including the 6,000-strong environmental consulting business of U.K.-based John Wood Group – on top of 9 per cent year-over-year organic growth in net revenue last quarter.Once a boutique firm called Genivar, the 64-year-old engineering and design consultancy has more than quadrupled its head count over the past decade, swelling to about 67,300 employees as of mid-May, including an additional 10,900 in 2022.Its employee numbers far exceed rival SNC-Lavalin’s peak payroll, which now sits at roughly 36,500 after the Montreal-based competitor shed its construction and oil and gas businesses over the past five years.WSP’s stock is flirting with record highs of around $183 per share – a roughly 150-per-cent increase from five years ago – while rival SNC’s share price has fallen 23 per cent to about $41 in the same period. WSP’s $3.63-billion revenue clocks in 70 per cent above SNC’s latest quarterly figure of $2.13-billion, despite the latter’s healthy rebound under CEO Ian Edwards since 2019.“Importantly, WSP’s robust topline did not come at the expense of profitability or future growth,” said analyst Frederic Bastien of Raymond James, pointing to an adjusted earnings margin just below 17 per cent amid greater cost efficiency from the mergers.“If this does not speak to the continued strength of WSP’s end-markets, we simply don’t know what will,” he said.Amid such rapid expansion, however, labour shortages are a persistent growing pain.While turnover has dropped “significantly” in recent months, the company – and industry – have yet to return to historical levels, Mr. L’Heureux said. The voluntary turnover rate at WSP remained “slightly” above its goal of 12 per cent last quarter, he said.The firm remains focused on green projects that range from offshore wind farms set to power 600,000 New York State homes to carbon capture at a cement plant in Edmonton. But engineering and design of buildings is another burgeoning field for WSP – particularly in health care and “mission-critical” facilities, which must operate without interruption – comprising one-fifth of its business.“Without naming names, one of the larger tech companies that we were talking to not so long ago was just telling us that they intend to build 120 additional data centres worldwide over the next 12 months. That’s one data centre every three days,” Mr. L’Heureux said, adding that WSP has a master service agreement with the unnamed corporation in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Taiwan.“For us, this is very, very promising.”In the three months ended July 1, WSP reported net earnings attributable to shareholders reached $150.7-million compared to $89.3-million in the same period a year earlier.Second-quarter revenues jumped 32 per cent from $2.76-billion the year before, the Montreal-based company said.WSP said adjusted net earnings increased to $1.56 per share versus $1.30 per share a year prior, beating expectations of $1.49 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.For the full year, the company is projecting adjusted earnings of $1.9-billion to $1.93-billion versus an earlier guidance of between $1.76-billion and $1.84-billion.

Metro Inc. MRU-T +1.23%increase has reported a jump in both sales and profits in its third quarter, as a strike among its roughly 3,700 Toronto-area grocery workers continues for a second week.The Montreal-based retailer reported on Wednesday that adjusted profits grew by more than 10 per cent in the quarter, as inflation pushed prices higher and shoppers looking for deals visited its discount stores more often, pushing sales up.“Inflation is tough. People are searching for value in all our stores, on all of their trips,” Metro chief executive officer Eric La Flèche said on a conference call to discuss the results.Metro’s net earnings grew to $346.7-million or $1.49 per share, compared with $275-million or $1.14 per share in the same period the prior year. According to the company, that 26.1-per-cent jump in profits was partly accounted for by a one-time favourable adjustment on a tax benefit. Not including that $40.7-million benefit, Metro’s adjusted net earnings grew by 10.9 per cent.There are signs inflation is moderating: Metro received 40-per-cent fewer price-increase requests in the third quarter than it did in the same period last year, Mr. La Flèche said. But the size of those requests is still above normal levels, he added, with suppliers asking for percentage increases in the mid- to high-single digits, on top of double-digit increases put forward in 2022.Like other retailers, Metro executives say that while prices on shelves have been going up, they do not entirely pass on the cost increases received from suppliers.“We are absorbing part of the cost increases,” Mr. La Flèche said. “… There are limits to what we can charge to our customers.”Metro has been gaining market share amid higher traffic to its discount stores such as Food Basics and Super C, Mr. La Flèche said. Metro’s sales grew by 9.6 per cent to $6.4-billion in the third quarter.Same-store sales – an important industry measure that tracks sales growth not tied to new store openings – grew by 9.4 per cent at Metro’s grocery stores and rose 5.9 per cent at its drugstores such as Jean Coutu. Metro’s online grocery sales nearly doubled in the quarter compared with last year, largely because of partnerships the company has struck with other food-delivery companies.Food inflation has remained stubbornly high, even as the rate of overall inflation has slowed significantly. Food prices rose by 9.1 per cent year-over-year in June, once again outpacing the general rate of inflation at 2.8 per cent.Metro’s internal measure of food inflation was roughly 8 per cent, a deceleration in price hikes compared with its previous quarter. The company’s “food basket inflation” metric is based on prices for a basket of goods frequently purchased at its stores, and does not measure the same set of products as the Consumer Price Index tracked by Statistics Canada.Metro donates perishables to food banks as workers strike citing affordability issuesWorkers at Metro have raised concerns that their pay has not risen adequately, even as inflation has sharply increased the cost of living and grocers have reported increases in profits. In the Greater Toronto Area, 27 Metro stores remain closed amid the strike. A one-week labour dispute last year with Metro’s distribution-centre employees in Toronto cost the company $7.7-million.Metro announced on July 19 that it had reached a tentative agreement with Unifor Local 414, which represents the workers, and that the union’s bargaining committee had unanimously recommended the deal. However, workers rejected the four-year agreement, which included wage increases above inflation, and have been on strike since July 29.“Front-line grocery workers deserve their fair share of Metro’s record profits,” said a Unifor statement provided by spokesperson Paul Whyte on Wednesday. “Thirty-seven-hundred Metro workers remain focused on achieving a fair collective agreement that addresses the significant affordability challenges they face.”On Wednesday’s call, Mr. La Flèche also addressed a continuing investigation by the Competition Bureau into an alleged industry-wide scheme to inflate the price of bread in Canada. Metro is among the retailers, which have denied wrongdoing, under investigation. In June, one of the country’s largest bread producers, Canada Bread, agreed to pay a record $50-million fine to settle its part in the case.“Let me be clear. We have not participated in any price-fixing agreements, and we have not violated the Competition Act,” Mr. La Flèche said Wednesday.A court document related to the investigation included a screenshot of a 2007 e-mail in which Maple Leaf Foods’s former chief executive, Michael McCain, described a conversation with then-Metro employee Paul del Duca in which they discussed “the strategy of managing category profit up in the retail environment.” Maple Leaf controlled Canada Bread at the time.“Consistent with the position that he took on the last bread price increase, his point of view (and it is a very vigorous point of view) is that this is an acceptable strategy and they are aligned with it even in our meat categories,” Mr. McCain wrote in the e-mail, which was sent from the account of his executive assistant at the time, Sue Perkins.Maple Leaf has denied any involvement in the alleged bread price fixing, and denied that the e-mail suggested any knowledge of or involvement in improper activity.A class-action lawsuit is seeking certification in Quebec over alleged price fixing in the meat category. Mr. La Flèche said on Wednesday that the company will “vigorously” oppose certification.“Allegations that the food industry’s culture is such that these practices may be generalized, or that the governance is somehow deficient, are simply not true, damage the reputation of our company, all its employees and the industry, and should stop,” Mr. La Flèche said.

Nuvei Corp. NVEI-T -39.43%decrease, which processes digital payments and is one of Canada’s best-known financial technology companies globally, watched its shares plummet 39 per cent to a record low Wednesday after slashing its revenue outlook for the rest of the fiscal year – and for the near future.Nuvei’s shares, which closed at $24.30 Wednesday, are now down 86 per cent from their pandemic peak, echoing a similar fall from grace by industry peer – and Canada’s own – Lightspeed Commerce Inc LSPD-T -1.19%decrease.Founded in Montreal in 2003, Nuvei manages payments across a variety of sectors, including online retail and travel, but its largest block of revenue comes from online gambling and sports betting companies. The company was worth more than $20-billion at the height of the pandemic stock market bubble, but like many technology stocks, Nuvei’s share prices started to tumble in the fall of 2021.After a deep sell-off, the shares seemed to stabilize in recent months and Nuvei started marketing itself globally as a leading payments player, signing a multiyear sponsorship agreement in February with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team. Its logo is now front and centre on driver Lewis Hamilton’s helmet.Two months later, in April, Canadian actor and budding businessman Ryan Reynolds publicly announced that he had invested in the company and formed a creative partnership with Nuvei, though details were scarce.None of that has benefited Nuvei’s shares in the near term. It hasn’t helped that in late April, short seller Spruce Point Capital Management bet against its stock and publicly criticized the company. Before Wednesday’s earnings report, Nuvei’s shares had fallen 28 per cent since the short-seller report was released.As for the latest earnings, not only were Nuvei’s quarterly earnings lower than expectations, with adjusted earnings 15 per cent lower than analyst estimates, but the company trimmed its revenue outlook for the second half of the fiscal year and also lowered its medium-term sales guidance to 15 per cent to 20 per cent annually, down from more than 20 per cent annually.Nuvei attributed the slower growth to longer-than-anticipated lag times in connecting new clients to its technology platform once they’ve signed contracts, as well as a decision to end its relationship with a top 10 client for reasons that were not disclosed.Asked on a conference call why the client was cut off, chief executive officer Philip Fayer would only say the unnamed company “was no longer a fit for Nuvei.”Before Wednesday’s slump, Nuvei’s shares had also struggled because of a sector-wide chill after the sale of industry giant WorldPay in July. The company was acquired by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Information Services Inc. at a US$43-billion valuation in 2019, a time when payments companies were garnering extremely frothy valuations.Fidelity National recently took a US$17.6-billion writedown on the business and also sold 55 per cent of it at a valuation that was less than half what it had originally paid.The sale price amounted to only 9.8 times expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in fiscal 2023, and the low multiple has limited the valuations of some rivals.