The gathering clouds over Home Capital (HCG.TO) - along with the potential fallout for sizzling home prices - is at the top our agenda on BNN today.
S&P has slashed its rating on the home lender to 'B+' from 'BBB-' - Raymond James says that while the downgrade doesn’t officially prevent the company from attracting savers to its offerings,“it increases the perception of risk with these
Products, which may in turn put even further upward pressure on access to funding.”
Savers have pulled about $1 billion out of the company in the past month.
LOOKING BACK AT TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS
Investors are totting up the scorecard on U.S. President Donald Trump, assessing his performance on the “action plan” for his first 100 days in office, unveiled at a rally in in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. last October.
The Economist says achieving all of the goals “was always a tall order” but Trump has delivered on pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and endporsing construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. It notes that “the President even seems intent on building his border wall with Mexico, although the financing is still hazy. Mexico, he now claims, will pay for the barrier “at a later date…in some form’.”
At 9:05 a.m. ET, we’ll hear from Derek Burney, once the right-hand man to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Canadian ambassador to the United States. He told us in January that if Washington wants to revisit the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada should be ready to respond with a shopping list of its own, including easier movement across the border for professionals.
Mind you, not everyone thinks it’s fair to judge a president by the traditional 100-day yardstick, especially when Congress can block initiatives.
Jon Schaff, a political-science professor at Northern State University in South Dakota, says “productivity in the first 100 days rarely says anything about the occupant of the White House.”
He joins us at 4:15 p.m. ET.
U.S., CANADIAN GDP
Meanwhile, as markets weigh Trump’s performance, the U.S. economy was a little shaky in Q1. Growth was just 0.7 per cent lagging the forecast of 1.1 per cent. Canadian GDP was flat, matching estimates.
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EARNINGS CONTINUE
Uranium prices have been drifting lower, with the energy metal trading at less than US$23 per pund this week, down from more than more than $30 in early 2016.
Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel insists that prices are “unsustainably weak.” The miner, which posted an adjusted loss of 7 cents a share in its latest quarter, has seen shares its drop 14 per cent in a year to trade at just over $14. Gitzel is on BNN at 2:30 p.m. ET.
On a happier note, shares in gold producer Agnico Eagle Mines are up 13 per cent in the past 12 months. Analysts are hailing the miner’s performance in its latest quarter - profit per share was almost three times higher than consensus.
Every morning Commodities host Andrew Bell writes a ‘chase note’ to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins by heading to www.bnn.ca/subscribe.