More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Canada's main stock index edged higher Monday on a light trading day as investors awaited critical new U.S. inflation data expected later this week.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 49.04 points at 19,669.17.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 29.07 points at 32,832.54. The S&P 500 index was down 5.13 points at 4,140.06, while the Nasdaq composite was down 13.10 points at 12,644.46.
Inflation, and how far central banks are willing to go to tame it, is still the biggest story influencing financial markets this year. For that reason, Monday was a relatively quiet day in advance of the highly anticipated U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data report, which is expected to be released Wednesday and will show how much inflation rose in the U.S. for the month of July.
Mona Mahajan, senior investment manager with Edward Jones, said she expects the report will show a slight bump in the U.S. core inflation reading, from 5.9 per cent in June to a possible 6.1 per cent for July. Any number that comes in ahead of that would provide potential rationale for the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep up a heightened pace of interest rate increases, while a lower number might soothe markets by indicating that inflation has already peaked.
“I think after this nice rally we've seen in U.S. and Canadian markets, any hint of a disappointing CPI report may be a catalyst to the downside,” Mahajan said. “But on the other end, if we get a nice move downward, it may extend the rally further.”
This week's U.S. inflation data will be coming on the heels of what was a surprisingly hot U.S. jobs report released last week. While Canada actually lost 31,000 jobs in July, the U.S. added 528,000 jobs in the month, more than double the 250,000 economists had expected.
The rapid pace of job growth south of the border is the reason a majority of analysts now expect the U.S. Federal Reserve will announce a 75-basis-point interest rate increase at its September meeting, Mahajan said, likely followed by two additional 25-basis-point increases thereafter.
She said markets no longer expect to see any potential reduction in interest rates until mid-next year, at least.
Commodity prices got a bit of stability Monday after last week's downward slide. In Canada, the mining sector got a boost from higher gold and copper prices as well as strong second-quarter earnings from Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp, which saw its profits for the quarter surge almost 20 per cent since last year.
The December gold contract was up $14 at US$1,805.20 an ounce and the September copper contract was up three cents at US$3.59 a pound.
The September crude contract was up $1.75 cents at US$90.76 per barrel, after falling last week to below $90 per barrel for the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
The September natural gas contract was down 48 cents at US$7.59.
Second-quarter earnings continue to roll in this week both north and south of the border. So far, the earnings season has been better than many analysts expected, an indication that inflation hasn't yet had a significant impact on company profits.
But Mahajan pointed out that second-quarter earnings reports are a lagging indicator that don't reflect the full impact of recent central bank hikes.
“Keep in mind that earnings are backward-looking,” Mahajan said. “In Q2, we hadn't really gotten any real quantitative tightening in play yet, and we still saw a bit of softening (in profits) across the board. So we think while earnings have generally held up well, we could see further softening ahead given that lag time impact.”
The Canadian dollar traded for 77.78 cents US compared with 77.32 cents US on Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 8, 2022.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”