News from Reuters

CA-BUSINESS Summary

07/01/09

TSX falls hard on oil price, profit-taking

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index dropped 3.7 percent on Wednesday as oil and gold shares slid with commodity prices and profit-taking set in after six sessions of gains. Startling job losses in the United States and a warning from tech bellwether Intel Corp added to the gloomy investor sentiment and heightened fears of an extended recession.

Intel warns second time on quarter

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microchip maker Intel Corp on Wednesday issued its second revenue warning on the fourth quarter, saying demand for personal computers was even worse than it feared and sparking wide concerns about tech companies. Shares of the world's biggest maker of the central processing units (CPUs) at the heart of every PC dropped 6 percent, and stocks of other companies in the industry swooned as well.

Job losses may be modest in December

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian employers continued to lay off workers in December but the domestic labor market has yet to feel the full force of the U.S. recession, analysts said on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters forecast a December unemployment rate of 6.5 percent, the highest level since August 2006 and up from 6.3 percent in November.

Canada to see "pretty terrible" start to '09: panel

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian economy is in for a rough ride through the first half of the year and will see little or no growth in 2009 as the recession takes hold, top economists from Canada's largest banks said on Wednesday. The economy will also continue to shed thousands of jobs and the unemployment rate will move higher as fallout from the global financial crisis takes its toll.

Dollar slumps on oil, U.S. economic gloom

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar fell against the U.S. currency on Wednesday as the price of oil tumbled 12 percent on a buildup in inventory and as bleak U.S. employment data raised concerns about a deeper recession. Bonds were flat on the short end of the curve as the ADP private sector employment data showed U.S. employers cut more jobs in December than expected.

Oil drops largest percentage in 7 years on crude build

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices slid 12 percent on Wednesday, the largest percentage drop in seven years, after a U.S. government report showed crude inventories rose much more than expected in the world's top energy consumer. Crude oil stocks swelled by 6.7 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, more than seven times the 900,000-barrel increase analysts had expected.

Rogers stock drops after analyst's downgrade

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of Rogers Communications Inc fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday after an analyst downgraded the stock following the release of weaker-than-expected cable-TV subscriber results. David Lambert, an analyst at Canaccord Adams, cut his rating on the shares to "hold" from "buy" and reduced his 12-month target to C$35 from C$38.

Accounting scandal at Satyam could be India's Enron

BANGALORE (Reuters) - The head of Indian outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services resigned on Wednesday, disclosing that profits had been falsely inflated for years and sending its shares plunging nearly 80 percent. India's biggest corporate scandal in memory threatens future foreign investment flows into Asia's third-largest economy and casts a cloud over growth in its once-booming outsourcing sector.

Air Canada, WestJet say planes fuller in December

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canada's two major airlines said on Wednesday their planes flew with higher passenger loads in December as Air Canada cut capacity and smaller rival WestJet Airlines Ltd attracted more travelers despite a weak economy. Air Canada, the biggest national carrier, said its load factor, a measure of how crowded its planes flew, rose to 82.7 percent in December, up 3.4 percentage points from 79.3 percent in December 2007.

Union gears up for negotiations with GM and Chrysler

DETROIT (Reuters) - United Auto Workers bargaining teams are arriving this week in Detroit as the union gears up for negotiations with General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, which are mandated to cut labor costs under a $17.4 billion federal bailout. UAW leaders were converging for a series of internal meetings to prepare for talks with the automakers, who have until March 31 to wrangle steep labor-cost concessions from the UAW.

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