These are stories Report on Business is following today. Get the top business stories through the day on BlackBerry or iPhone by bookmarking our mobile-friendly webpage.
Christmas in July Some U.S. retailers are trying to get shoppers to buy early for Christmas - really early - by selling Santa in July. Retailers, The Associated Press notes today, ran Christmas promotions in September during the recession, trying to lure shoppers into the stores. Now, Sears, Toys R Us and Target are all promoting "Christmas in July" online. Toys R Us and Sears had success with this last year, the news agency said, and Target is getting in on it this year, launching a one-day online sale Friday.
"We really wanted to create that sense of excitement, that sense of urgency," said a Target spokeswoman told the news agency.
Some retailers think July is too far ahead. "Customers don't like it when you push Christmas too early," Mike Boylston, J.C. Penney's chief marketing officer, told AP.
Onex, CPPIB eye Tomkins Here's something a bit different. Onex Corp. and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board are teaming up to consider a bid of £2.9-billion, or about $4.5-billion (U.S.), for British auto parts company Tomkins PLC. Tomkins said today that due diligence by the Canadian suitors is at an advanced stage. In a twist of sorts, Onex and CPPIB have the right to reduce the offer price if the board agrees, Tomkins said. Reuters noted that the move by the Canadian group is the latest example of North American suitors tryingt to take advantage of the softness of the pound.
Lockout sidelines Port of Montreal Shippers at the Port of Montreal have locked out about 900 longshoremen, halting virtually all operations but for grain silos. The Maritime Employers Association, which represents ship owners, operators and agents, stevedoring contractors and terminal operators, said last night it was taking the action given the union's "refusal to acknowledge the urgency of the matter as well as the need to radically amend the collective agreement." Union "pressure tactics," it said, were begin to affect the port's operations. The union said the lockout was "incomprehensible."
Mystery cocoa buyer identified A British hedge fund manager has made a massive bet on cocoa, buying up more tha 240,000 tonnes of beans last week, an amount reports said is the equivalent of "the whole of Europe's cocoa." The buyer wasn't identified on Friday when the trade, the biggest in about 14 years, was made and sparked a jump in the price to the highest since 1977. But reports today identified him as Anthony Ward, co-founder of Armajaro Holdings. The New York Times said the hedge fund now owns enough cocoa to turn out 5.3 billion quarter-pound chocolate bars and, according to Reuters, has sparked fears of a supply crunch in September. Cocoa production has fallen shy of demand for four years running, The Financial Times said, and low supplies could push up prices that already have jumped dramatically.
Armajaro purchased July cocoa futures and held them until they expired Thursday, taking control of the beans, The Financial Times said. Mr. Ward, dubbed "Choc Finger" by Britain's tabloids, is known to be bullish on cocoa. He would not comment, reports said, but the amount is said to be equal to 7 per cent of global annual production.
Hungary now test case Hungary is now seen as a test case in Europe's austerity drive. Talks over bailout money between Hungary's government and the International Monetary Fund and EU collapsed on the weekend as the lenders pushed the country to cut deeper. Hungary has to adhere to tough targets in order to get the €20-billion loan from the IMF, EU and World Bank, but talks were suspended Saturday when the lenders said they had several questions yet to be answered. Hungary's currency, the forint, declined in trading today.
"On a week when the results of the European bank stress tests are due, and on the back of the single currency's best week in over a year, the last thing the politicians needed was something to puncture that mood, however Hungary provided it after the IMF and the European Union withdrew a €20-billion financing deal over the weekend in response to concerns over the Hungarian governments budget plans," CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said today.
"If a warning were needed of the problems facing Europe this is a stark reminder and will do nothing to assuage investor concerns about the problems Europe has with respect to sovereign debt ... Anyone who thinks that the euro's problems are now over only needs to look at Hungary and the recent rally actually does nothing to resolve these problems in the peripheral countries, as it makes them all less competitive from an export point of view."
The Reuters news agency said the developments in Hungary are the greatest challenge to date of the austerity drive that has seen several governments, from Greece to Germany, cut deep. "The real driver here is the EU," Preston Keat, head of research for political risk consultancy Eurasia Group," told Reuters. "They are the ones who are pushing so hard for austerity - more so than the IMF. They are trying to signal to other EU countries that this is a new era regarding budgets and public finances."
Cat:e528746c-3414-401a-b14b-50247e3bdf01Forum:2d13dc33-9921-4d4a-815f-e809277631e4
Markets eye Europe's banks The bank stress tests in Europe are fast becoming the issue of the week as markets await the results on Friday. The EU has said it will publish the results of checks on more than 90 banks on an individual basis. "The goal of these tests is to restore investor confidence, by highlighting strengths and weak spots as well as forcing action," Scotia Capital economists Gorica Djeric and Derek Holt said today. "Banks and government officials in a number of the region's countries have already made statements saying that they saw no major cause for concern. So far, not only has there been limited information released on the methodologies used, but the EU finance ministers themselves are vetting these measures, which does not seem to minimize the issue of contradicting incentives."
Foreigners pile into Canadian securities Foreign investors are loving Canada. International investors snapped up a record $23.2 billion in Canadian stocks and bonds in May, Statistics Canada said today, eclipsing the previous high of $21.4 billion set in April of 2004. Driving May's showing were federal government bonds. Foreign buyers acquired $15.2-billion of bonds, among them $11.5-billion in federal paper covering a wide range of maturities, the federal statistics gathering agency said. "Geographically, U.S. investors dominated while investors from the United Kingdom and Asian countries also made large contributions to the inflows over the month," it said.
Canada's relatively stronger economic outlook compared to its peers, and its fiscal standing, have been pulling in foreign investors.
China becomes world's biggest energy consumer Already the world's biggest car market and the engine of global economic growth, China has become the biggest consumer of energy in the world, new numbers from the International Energy Agency show. The Paris-based group says China consumed almost 2.3-billion tons of oil equivalent last year, outpacing the United States by about 4 per cent, The Wall Street Journal quoted the agency as saying. Oil equivalents include oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear and renewable energy.
The United States had been the biggest consumer for more than 100 years, and is still the largest on a per-capita basis. "The fact that China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest energy consumer symbolizes the start of a new age in the history of energy," IEA chief economist Fatih Birol told the newspaper.
Calgary takes top spot for parking rates Calgary again holds the honour for Canada's most expensive city in which to park. A Colliers International survey put the median price for a parking spot at $453.38 a month, well above the Canadian rate of $224.10. Rounding out the top five were Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver. "Parking garages are one of the only commercial real estate subsectors that seemed to remain stable even during an economic turmoil," said Wayne Duong, director of research with Colliers International in Canada.
From today's Report on Business
- Bank of Canada poised to raise interest rates
- Canada expected to follow U.S. as economy slows
- At the Top: Out of retirement, into the fray
- The tyranny of the capital markets
And, read our Streetwise blog and Your Business section