Bank of Canada chief: inflation likely to tip 8% as soon as next week
The Bank of Canada expects inflation to go “a little over” 8%, as soon as next week when June’s data is released, and stay in that range for a few more months, Governor Tiff Macklem told a business group in a webcast transcript released late Friday.
BEFORE THE BELL
Canada’s main stock index futures rose as metal prices got a fillip from China’s pledge for economic support, while receding bets of a super-sized Federal Reserve interest rate hike improved sentiment globally. Wall Street futures and European shares were in the green. Chinese and Hong Kong shares ended higher after government stepped up efforts to ease property market woes. Gold prices rose as the U.S. dollar weakened. Oil prices jumped as tight supplies eased demand concerns.
STOCKS
Winpak Ltd. (TSX: WPK), is expected to show a rise in quarterly revenue when it reports results on July 20 (estimated). The Winnipeg Manitoba-based company is expected to report a 20.3% increase in revenue to $293.425 million from $243.97 million a year ago, according to the mean estimate from 4 analysts, based on Refinitiv data. Refinitiv’s mean analyst estimate for Winpak Ltd is for earnings of 48 cents per share. For the same quarter last year, the company reported earnings of 44 cents per share. The current average analyst rating on the shares is “buy” and the breakdown of recommendations is 2 “strong buy” or “buy,” 2 “hold” and no “sell” or “strong sell.” The mean earnings estimate of analysts was unchanged in the last three months.
ECONOMIC EVENTS (EST)
0815 House Starts Annualized for June: Expected 266,600; Prior 287,300
COMPANIES REPORTING
July 18:
PrairieSky Royalty Ltd: Expected Q2 earnings of 40 Canadian cents per share
July 19:
No major companies are scheduled
CORPORATE EVENTS
No major events are scheduled
EX-DIVIDENDS
Sandstorm Gold Ltd: Amount C$0.02
• Bank of America posts drop in quarterly profit as dealmaking slumps
Bank of America reported a drop in second-quarter profit, hit by a slump in investment banking revenue as underwriting activity stood at a fraction of last year’s record levels.
• Big U.S. banks see loan growth slowing as outlook for demand, economy darkens
U.S. bank executives said they’re optimistic on loan growth as demand for borrowing from retail and business customers bounced back in the second quarter from the lows of the pandemic, but warned demand could weaken later this year if the worsening economic outlook starts to hurt consumer confidence.
• U.S. chip industry split over CHIPS act benefits to Intel -sources
Several U.S. semiconductor firms are deliberating whether to oppose a package of chip industry subsidies if the final language of the legislation awaiting a vote in the Senate disproportionately benefits manufacturers like Intel, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
• Air industry braves blistering heat as Farnborough returns
Aviation bosses gathered for the return of the Farnborough Airshow, aiming for a display of confidence after the devastation of COVID-19, even though the only records likely to be broken at the event are for sweltering temperatures.
• Top U.S. energy envoy expects further steps from OPEC producers on supplies
Major crude oil producers have spare capacity and are likely to boost supplies following President Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East, a senior U.S. energy envoy said on Sunday.
PRE-OPEN
Wall street futures extended gains from the previous week ahead of another round of earnings from big U.S. banks and on scaled-back bets of an aggressive interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. European indexes were trading higher. Chinese and Hong Kong shares ended in the green after government stepped up efforts to ease property market woes. The euro firmed against the dollar while gold prices rose. Oil prices jumped as tight supplies eased demand concerns. IBM is expected to report second-quarter earnings after markets close.
STOCKS
• Bank of America Corp: The bank reported a drop in second-quarter profit, hit by a slump in investment banking revenue as underwriting activity stood at a fraction of last year’s record levels. Wall Street investment bankers, who were neck-deep in deals last year, have seen activity slump in the first half of 2022 amid volatility in the capital markets, geopolitical tensions and a risk-off sentiment that has swept across markets globally. With stock market listings on ice and companies slamming the brakes on dealmaking, Bank of America’s investment banking fees fell 47% to $1.1 billion in the reported quarter.
• HDFC Bank Ltd: India’s largest private lender said on Saturday its net profit for the three months to June rose 19% from the same period a year earlier, as provisions for bad loans dropped and loan growth picked up. Net profit for the fiscal first quarter rose to 91.96 billion rupees from 77.3 billion rupees a year earlier, the lender said in a regulatory filing. Analysts on average had expected the bank to report a profit of 94.9 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data. The bank’s gross non-performing loan ratio, a measure of asset quality, improved to 1.28% in the quarter from 1.47% during the same period a year ago.
• GSK Plc: In a long scripted overhaul of its business, British drugmaker GSK spun off its consumer health business in the biggest listing in Europe for more than a decade. The new company, Haleon, becomes the world’s biggest standalone consumer health business, home to brands including Sensodyne toothpaste and Advil painkillers. With the split complete, all GSK shareholders receive one Haleon share for each GSK share they own. Pfizer will retain its 32% stake in Haleon, which it intends on selling off over time. GSK will hold up to 13.5% in Haleon, while the remaining 54.5% will be owned by GSK shareholders. After close of trading on Monday, GSK will consolidate its share price to ensure the company’s earnings per share and share price can be compared with previous periods, it has said.
• Coca-Cola Co: Hong Kong-based conglomerate Swire Pacific said it would buy the packaging and distribution operations of Coca-Cola in Vietnam and Cambodia, marking its expansion into the southeast Asian beverages market. Swire Pacific will pay $1.02 billion in cash for Coc a-Cola Indochina, which packages and distributes the beverage in the two southeast Asian countries. The firm is buying Coca-Cola Indochina through its Swire Beverages and Swire Coca-Cola units, from Coca-Cola (Japan), which is ultimately owned by the Coca-Cola.
• Amazon.com Inc: The tech giant, seeking an edge amid a deteriorating cost of living crisis, will match UK grocery market leader Tesco’s prices on hundreds of products, it said. The new scheme from Amazon Fresh, which delivers groceries to Amazon Prime members, will match its prices to Tesco Clubcard deals on everyday items, including meat and fish. “We know that our customers are looking for ways to save on their weekly grocery shopping,” Russell Jones, Amazon Fresh director said.The company is pausing the construction of six new office buildings in Bellevue and Nashville to reevaluate the designs to suit hybrid work, the tech giant said on Friday. The pausing and delay of construction will not affect Amazon’s hiring plans, a company spokesperson said, reiterating the firm’s proposal to create 25,000 jobs in Bellevue and another 5,000 in Nashville.
• BHP Group Ltd: The global miner is likely to reconsider its investment plans in Chile, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, if the government moves ahead with mining tax hikes, according to a report on Sunday. The company was quoted by El Mercurio newspaper as saying in a statement that higher taxes would make Chile more expensive than other top mining jurisdictions like Australia, Canada and neighboring Peru. “We have serious concerns with regards to the new royalties,” the company said. “If the proposed royalty (hike) materializes, we would have to reevaluate our investment plans for Chile.” In April, BHP said it was willing to invest another $10 billion in Chile over the years, but only if the regulatory and fiscal conditions were appropriate.
• Boeing Co & Delta Air Lines Inc: Delta Air Lines will buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets worth about $13.5 billion at list prices and has options to buy another 30, the U.S. carrier said. Delta, which made the announcement at the Farnborough Airshow, said it would start taking MAX 10 deliveries in 2025. With the new order, Delta’s Boeing 737 fleet will expand to more than 300 total aircraft and will be its second-largest fleet family behind the Airbus A320. Germany’s Lufthansa is also likely to firm up a deal for around 10 large Boeing freighters, including seven of the recently launched cargo version of the 777X, sources said. Separately, the planemakersdefense chief said on Sunday it had learned lessons from a contract to supply the U.S. presidency with new Air Force One aircraft, which has cost the planemaker almost $1 billion in charges and is up to three years behind schedule. Separately, Boeing expects to see a pick up in new orders for its 787 Dreamliner model once it restarts deliveries of the plane, Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal said on Sunday. Additionally, the planemaker on Saturday said it is “disappointed” that the union representing nearly 2,500 employees at it’s facilities in the St. Louis area has recommended rejection of management’s contract offer.
• Coinbase Global Inc: The major U.S. crypto exchange has won approval from Italian regulators to continue to serve customers in Italy, it said in a blog. Coinbase said it had met requirements from the Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM), which oversees financial agents and credit brokers in Italy and implements anti-money laundering controls. The OAM says on its website it can collect and share with anti-mafia and anti-terrorism investigators in Italy data provided by crypto firms on their clients and operations. “We are in the process of strengthening our presence across Europe,” Nana Murugesan, Coinbase’s vice president for international and business development, said on the blog. “Our goal is to grow our customer base by launching the Coinbase suite of retail, institutional, and ecosystem products.”
• Eve Holding Inc: The electric aircraft unit of Brazil’s Embraer, on Sunday announced its first deal to provide a software for air traffic management, and is in talks with other potential customers in the sector. The company signed a letter of intent with UK-based Halo Aviation Ltd to develop and launch its air traffic solution, with operations expected in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Halo had ordered 200 electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles from Eve last year, in a bid to enhance the development of the so-called Urban Air Mobility sector. Eve and Halo did not disclose how much the deal was worth.
• HSBC Holdings Plc: The bank is set to speed up its exit from non-core markets and deploy additional capital in Asia, in a bid to push back against a breakup proposal put forward by its biggest shareholder, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd called on the bank in April to explore strategic options such as spinning off its mainstay Asian business to unlock greater shareholder value. In response, HSBC hired advisers including London-based investment bank Robey Warshaw to assist on a review of its strategy but has not directly commented on Ping An’s demands. The outlines of its plan to push back, reported here for the first time, are the result of that review, according to the sources. During its earnings announcement on Aug. 1, HSBC is expected to argue that the bank’s future depends on its global network of clients and services, the sources said.
• Starbucks Corp: The company is not in a formal sale process for its UK business, a spokesperson said in a statement after The Times reported earlier on Saturday that the coffee chain is exploring a sale of the UK operations. According to the Times report, Starbucks has not initiated a “formal sales process” of its UK business and continues to “evaluate strategic options” for its company-owned international operations. The company faces rising costs and competition from rivals like Pret A Manger, Tim Hortons and Costa, the newspaper said. Starbucks, which has been dealing with recent unionization efforts of its U.S. workforce, is looking for a permanent CEO while Howard Schultz would remain interim CEO until the end of March.
• Stellantis NV: The automaker and Guangzhou Automobile Group will end their loss-making joint venture producing Jeep vehicles in China, the carmakers said, only four months after the European carmaker said it would raise its stake in the business. The U-turn comes after GAC reprimanded the world’s No.4 carmaker in January for announcing plans to raise its stake to 75% from 50%, stating the two parties had not yet signed a formal agreement. “The Jeep brand will continue to strengthen its product offering in China with an enhanced electrified line-up of imported vehicles,” Stellantis said. Stellantis will recognise a non-cash impairment of around 297 million euros in its first half-year results, the company said.
• Twitter Inc: Elon Musk filed a motion on Friday opposing the social media company’s request to fast-track a trial over his plan to terminate his $44 billion deal for Twitter. Musk’s lawyers, in papers filed with the Delaware Chancery Court, said Twitter’s “unjustifiable request” to rush the merger case to trial in two months should be rejected. It is the latest move in what promises to be a major legal showdown between Twitter and Musk. The San Francisco-based company is seeking to resolve months of uncertainty for its business as Musk tries to walk away from the deal for what he says is Twitter’s “spam bot” problem. “Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad defendants into closing,” Musk’s filing said.
ECONOMIC EVENTS (EST)
1000 NAHB Housing Market Index for July: Expected 66; Prior 67
COMPANIES REPORTING
Charles Schwab Corp: Expected Q2 earnings of 91 cents per share
Goldman Sachs Group Inc: Expected Q2 earnings of $6.58 per share
International Business Machines Corp: Expected Q2 earnings of $2.27 per share
Prologis Inc: Expected Q2 earnings of 62 cents per share
CORPORATE EVENTS (EST)
0800 Synchrony Financial: Q2 earnings conference call
0830 Bank of America Corp: Q2 earnings conference call
0930 Goldman Sachs Group Inc: Q2 earnings conference call
1200 Prologis Inc: Q2 earnings conference call
EX-DIVIDENDS
PS Business Parks Inc: Amount $0.21
Euro STOXX 50 futures were up 18 points at 3,490.0, FTSE futures added 23.5 points to 7,141.5, and German DAX futures were higher 41 points at 12,900.0, by 0430 GMT.
Asian shares rose following a much-needed bounce on Wall Street, but nerves are stretched ahead of a near-certain interest rate hike in Europe and another round of corporate earnings reports.
Oil prices extended gains, propped up by a weaker dollar and tight supplies that offset concerns about recession and the prospect of widespread COVID-19 lockdowns in China again reducing fuel demand.
MARKET SNAPSHOT AS OF 0430 GMT
S&P 500 Index Mini Futures: 3,879.75; up 0.38%; 14.75 points
DJIA Mini Futures: 31,316.00; up 0.22%; 69 points
MSCI Asia, Ex-JP: 514.52; up 1.46%; 7.38 points
EUR/USD: $1.0090; up 0.01%; 0.0001 point
GBP/USD: $1.1884; up 0.25%; 0.0030 point
USD/JPY: 138.32 yen; down 0.17%; 0.23 point
Spot Gold: $1,714.53; up 0.45%; $7.75
U.S. Crude: $97.85; up 0.27%; $0.26
Brent Crude: $101.78; up 0.61%; $0.62
10-Yr U.S. Treasury Yield: 2.9097%; down 0.011 point
10-Yr Bund Yield: 1.1300%; down 0.05 point
GLOBAL TOP NEWS
The five Conservative contenders still vying to be Britain‘s next prime minister clashed over tax cuts in a second televised debate on Sunday, with the two frontrunners – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – stepping up their battle on the economy.
New Zealand‘s consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in three decades, beating forecasts and raising the prospect of an unprecedented 75 basis point interest rate hike at the central bank’s policy meeting next month.
Boeing will seek to shore up its troubled 737 MAX 10 and 777X jetliners with orders officially worth over $15 billion from Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa this week, as the aerospace industry swelters at its largest event since COVID-19.
EUROPEAN COMPANY NEWS
An association of EDF employee shareholders announced on Sunday their plan to sue the French state regarding its nationalisation of the power giant.
Ailing Scandinavian airline SAS and striking pilot unions will resume negotiations on Monday, public broadcaster NRK said, after failing to reach new collective agreements over the weekend.
HSBC Holdings is set to speed up its exit from non-core markets and deploy additional capital in Asia, in a bid to push back against a breakup proposal put forward by its biggest shareholder, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
TODAY’S COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Nordea Bank Abp Q2 2022 Earnings Call
ECONOMIC EVENTS (All times GMT)
Vice President, Market Maker, Issuer Services