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CA-BUSINESS Summary

26/11/09

Canadian consumer confidence drops in November

TORONTO (Reuters) - Consumer confidence in Canada fell in November for a second consecutive month, highlighting how fragile the perception of an economic recovery is at this time, the Conference Board of Canada said on Thursday. The consumer confidence index dropped 5.7 points in November from October to 79.0, which is below pre-crisis levels. Consumers generally were more pessimistic in November than in October about their financial situation.

TSX drops on commodity pressure, Dubai worry

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index fell hard on Thursday morning as resource stocks were knocked lower by retreating oil and gold prices, while debt worries in Dubai made waves across financial markets. The price of gold fell from a record high hit earlier as the U.S. dollar rebounded, while oil fell toward $77 a barrel, in line with falls across financial markets.

Dubai debt difficulties hammer stocks

LONDON (Reuters) - Debt problems in Dubai struck financial markets hard on Thursday, sinking global stocks, lifting safe-haven bonds and driving the dollar higher. Gold climbed to a new record high but fell back as the dollar rose. European shares had their worst daily loss in seven months.

Magna seeks $600 million as Porsche drops deal: report

VIENNA (Reuters) - Canada's Magna International wants at least 400 million euros ($600 million) in compensation from sports car maker Porsche for cancelling a contract, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Austrian newspaper WirtschaftsBlatt quoted an "involved person" as saying that the compensation was for development work already done by Magna, which was due to assemble Porsche's Boxster and Cayman models from 2012 in its Austrian factory.

Rogers laying off 3 percent of workforce: report

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Rogers Communications is cutting about 900 jobs in Canada in a bid to streamline the organization, the Canadian Press reported on Thursday. CP quoted Rogers spokeswoman Terrie Tweddle as saying the media and telecoms company was laying off about 3 percent of its 30,000 workers.

Bombardier to chop more jobs as jet orders drop

TORONTO (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc announced another round of job cuts at its aerospace division on Thursday, slashing 715 jobs in the Montreal area due to a lack of new orders for its CRJ regional jets. Bombardier, the world's No. 3 planemaker and No. 1 trainmaker, has seen the market for its narrow-body regional airliners and business jets freeze up because of the soft global economy.

German state calls Opel job cuts "unacceptable"

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The premier of the German state of Hesse that is home to carmaker Opel's headquarters in Ruesselsheim warned General Motors that any plans to cut 2,500 jobs there were "completely unacceptable." Roland Koch said that the interim head of Opel, Nick Reilly, had told him just 24 hours earlier that GM's restructuring plan would "in principle" orient itself on job cuts agreed with Canada's Magna , whose plan to buy Opel fell through.

Canadian Energy to buy U.S-based Champion Drilling

(Reuters) - Canadian Energy Services said it would acquire U.S.-based Champion Drilling Fluids Inc in a deal valued at about $16.7 million to strengthen its foothold in the United States. Canadian Energy, which makes drilling fluid systems for the oil and natural gas industry in western Canada and the United States, said it would pay $10.4 million in cash and $6.3 million in certain debentures as part of the deal.

EnCana shareholders approve company split

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - EnCana Corp's investors on Wednesday approved a plan to split Canada's No. 2 independent petroleum producer into independent oil and natural gas businesses, completing a move first mulled more than a year ago but delayed by the financial crisis. Shareholders voted 99 percent in favor of the transaction, through which EnCana will spin off its oil sands operations into a new company called Cenovus Energy Inc and retain its natural gas production business, the largest in Canada.

Canadian dollar at 1-week high on Russia central bank comments

LONDON (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar rose to a one-week high against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday after the Russian central bank said it was preparing to invest some of its foreign exchange reserves in the Canadian currency. "Technical preparations are underway for operations with Canadian dollars. Then there could be a couple of other currencies and this will be it," Russian central bank official Sergei Shvetsov said.

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