Here are five things you need to know this morning
Standing down: After a tumultuous weekend and Monday, it seems the U.S. has agreed to delay the implementation of tariffs on Canadian goods for a month, as Canadian officials have reportedly agreed to beef up border security and address the problem that this whole debacle is allegedly about. Among the measures will be Canada naming a new fentanyl czar and adding numerous known drug cartels to the official government list of terrorist organizations. Those moves are on top of the $1.3 billion worth of border investments that Ottawa announced back in December, Trudeau said in a social media post. There’s similar progress on the Mexican side where 10,000 National Guardsmen will be added to border resources. Trump, as he is wont to do, declared victory and formally delayed implementation of the planned tariffs until March 1.
China’s turn: The tariff can may have been kicked down the road in North America, but the trade war with China is official a live one, as the U.S. went ahead with 10 per cent tariffs this morning, a move that was swiftly followed by countermeasures from Beijing. Within minutes of the tariffs being in place, China rolled outa 15 per cent levy on energy imports, as well as a 10 per cent surtax on oil and agricultural equipment. It also said it would probe Google on antitrust grounds – a curious tactic considering Google Search hasn’t been available in the country since 2010.
Barrick Gold making some progress in Mali dispute: Barrick Gold is making progress in its dispute with the government of Mali, but advances are not coming as fast or as far as the company would like. That’s according to CEO Mark Bristow, who told Bloomberg in an interview that the military regime is trying to “shake some cash” out of the industry at the moment. Barrick shut down operations at the vast Loulo-Gounkoto complex last month after the government started seizing mined bullion as the two sides fight over who gets what share of the mine’s revenue. “We’re making progress, not as fast as I would expect, but I’m sure everyone is a little cautious,” said Bristow, who has an arrest warrant in the country.
TMX beats on earnings, raises dividend: We will be watching shares in Toronto Stock Exchange owner TMX Group today after the company put out earnings after the bell on Monday, numbers which showed the company’s revenue increase by 30 per cent to $393 million. That was well ahead of the $373 million that was expected. Growth was broad based across just about every business unit, with equities and fixed income trading, derivatives and analytics all showing double-digit growth. The company raised its quarterly distribution to shareholders by a penny from 19 cents a share to 20.
U.S. earnings: There are a slew of financial numbers from U.S. companies today, including Paypal, PepsiCo (both of which underwhelmed before the bell), Pfizer and Spotify (headed higher) but the most influential earnings of the day are likely to be from Google owner Alphabet. The shares were up about one per cent in premarket ahead of fourth quarter results this afternoon, numbers that are expected to show EPS grow to US$2.13 from $1.64 on revenue surging from $86.3 billion to $96.7 billion. We will listen closely to the company’s analyst call for details on its artificial intelligence (AI) plans.
