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Stocks limped to the finish on Friday, with uncertainty over how well North American markets were going to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, or how soon.

The TSX toppled 49.94 points, to close Friday and the week at 16,197.78. On the week, the index fell 24.68 points.

The Canadian dollar fell 0.26 cents to 75.78 cents U.S.

Gold stocks led the downfall Friday, with OceanaGold sliding 16 cents, or 5.8%, to $2.60, while Wesdome Gold Mines dropped 59 cents, or 4.5%, to $12.57.

Among communications issues, Corus Entertainment slumped 26 cents, or 8.2%, to $2.91, while Rogers Communications backpedaled 86 cents, or 1.6%, to $51.86.

In real-estate, Artis REIT gave back 24 cents, or 2.7%, to $8.58, while Allied Properties REIT lost 88 cents, or 2.3%, to $37.26.

Tech stocks led the brief parade of winners, as Absolute Sofware picked up 95 cents, or 7%, to $14.61, while Sierra Wireless … Read the rest

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Stocks fell on Friday to end a volatile week as investors continued to dump shares of high-flying tech companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 244.56 points to 27,657.42.

The S&P 500 dipped 37.54 points, or 1.1%, to 3,310.47.

The NASDAQ ditched 117 points, or 1.1%, to 10,793.28.

The major averages fell for a third straight week, notching their longest weekly losing streaks since last year. The Dow posted a slight week-to-date loss. The S&P 500 lost 0.7% and the NASDAQ dropped 0.6% over that time period.

Shares of Apple dropped more than 3% on Friday. Microsoft dropped 1.2%, and Alphabet pulled back 2.4%. Netflix dipped 0.1%. Facebook fell 0.9%.

Big Tech was also down broadly week to date. Facebook and Amazon have each dropped more than 5% this week. Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft are also down sharply over that time period.

For the month, all six stocks are … Read the rest

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eResearch Corp. (www.eresearch.com) published an updated Research Report after EQ Works (TSXV: EQ ; OTC: CYPXF) released its second quarter of 2020 financial statements.

EQ Works (“EQ”) enables businesses to understand, predict, and influence customer behavior. Using unique and third-party data sets, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, EQ creates actionable insights for businesses to attract, retain, and grow customers.

EQ’s proprietary SaaS platform mines insights from location and geospatial data, enabling businesses to close the loop between digital and real-world consumer actions. EQ is one of the largest providers of location-based data in Canada with over 1 petabyte of data and growing at 7 terabytes daily.

Revenue in the second quarter was C$1.73 million, a decrease of 22%, compared to C$2.21 million in the same quarter in 2019, but in-line with our estimate of C$1.77 million. Advertising revenue in the quarter was negatively impacted by the outbreak of … Read the rest

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Uber (NYSE:UBER) wants to become part of the ‘net-zero’ emissions alliance by switching over its fleet to electric vehicles. All of its rides could take place in EVs by 2030 in the US, Canada, and Europe; and the rest of the world by 2040. That will mean quite a lot is being asked of its driver network, who own these vehicles.

Uber’s new pledge is to put $800 million initially into its plan to offer rides exclusively in electric vehicles by 2030 in US, Canadian and European cities, and to be entirely free of emissions by 2040. Drivers will be getting $1.50 more per ride for going electric, and fares will go up for riders choosing an EV.

Uber wants to catch up with its top competitor, Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT), on bringing EVs to ride-hailing, ride-sharing customers. They’re hoping it will be as big a move as 2011 when Uber first … Read the rest

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Batteries are a hot area of research, and it has only been getting hotter as the EV space begins to fill up with companies eager to stake their claim in what many continue to see as an EV revolution. It is, however, more of an evolutionary process. The latest stage in that evolution was recently unveiled by GM (NYSE:GM): wireless batteries. Typically, an electric vehicle’s battery is connected to the car’s onboard management system through wires, and there’s a lot of them. GM has dispensed with that in its Ultium battery packs. Instead of wires, the battery connects to the onboard management system via antennas in a way similar to how Bluetooth works, IEEE Spectrum magazine writes after an exclusive look at the new batteries.

The first huge advantage of this technology over regular batteries is that the battery can be used on any sort of electric vehicle: “GM can … Read the rest

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After shocking the oil industry with last week’s extension to a coastal drilling ban offshore Florida, Georgia, and a handful of other states, the Trump Administration said on Monday that is has rejected nearly the vast majority of retroactive biofuel waiver petitions that were pending review, according to a Reuters report.

Biofuel waivers are often given to oil refiners who are otherwise tasked with blending ethanol into their gasoline every year—or purchase tradable credits from refiners that blend with ethanol.

Refiners—especially small ones—have long argued that the requirements are cost-prohibitive. If they can prove economic hardship, they can be given a waiver.

The corn industry, on the other hand, argues that the federal government is in Big Oil’s pocket, and that it doesn’t take seriously enough the biofuel industry. The push-pull between the oil lobby and the corn lobby has created a massive political divide that is evident election after … Read the rest

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In a three-way phone call on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, U.S. President Trump announced that Bahrain became the next Arab Gulf State to join the historic peace deal that Israel closed with the UAE on August 13th.

Addressing reporters on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump already hinted at the participation of another nation in the peace deal. While some analysts expected Saudi Arabia to be the next Arab nation to normalize relations with Jerusalem, there were already some signals that Bahrain would be the next nation to establish relations after the country opened its airspace to Israeli flights.

Shortly after the phone call, U.S. President Trump announced the ‘’Historic Breakthrough’’, saying that it is ‘’the second Arab country to make peace with Israel in 30 days!’’

Trump also tweeted the joint statement in which the two nations agree … Read the rest

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The TSX ended a volatile session Friday slightly on the upside, as health-care losses put the brakes on any growth exhibited by consumer staples. The index ended up for a holiday-shortened week at pretty much the same spot at which it ended the week before.

The TSX gained 37.14 points to close the day and the week at 16,222.46. The gain on the week, however, was but 4.45 points.

The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 75.82 cents U.S.

Health-care stocks dragged down the market much of the day, with Aurora Cannabis scaling back 60 cents, or 6.2%, to $9.16, while Cronos Group dipped 14 cents, or 2%, to $6.83.

Among techs, Lightspeed POS fell short $1.99, or 4.8%, to $39.88, while Shopify went downward $30.92, or 2.5%, to $1,202.96.

In real-estate, Colliers International Group settled $1.36, or 1.6%, to $86.46, while Brookfield Property Partners fell 32 cents, or 2.3%, to … Read the rest

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Monday

U.S.

Featured Earnings

Aspen Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASPU) (Q1) EPS estimates loss of four cents, compared to a loss of 11 cents, in the prior-year quarter.

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) (Q3) EPS estimates of $1.51, compared to $1.59, in the prior-year quarter.

Investcorp Credit Management BDC, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICMB) (Q4) EPS estimates of 19 cents, compared to 22 cents, in the prior-year quarter.

Canada

Featured Earnings

Charlotte’s Web Holdings Inc. (T.CWEB) (Q2) EPS estimates for loss of six cents, compared to a loss of 15 cents in the prior-year quarter.

Tuesday
U.S.

Economic lookahead

Import Price Index (Aug.)

Industrial Production Index (Aug.)

Featured Earnings

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRL) (Q4) EPS estimates for loss of 76 cents, compared to $2.70 in the prior-year quarter.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) (Q1) EPS estimates of $2.52, compared to $3.05, in the prior-year quarter.

Canada

Economic lookahead

Monthly Survey of Manufacturing (July) Manufacturing sales … Read the rest

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t was evident to anyone with even half a brain that the last Saudi-instigated oil price war would end in abject failure for the Saudis, just as the previous 2014-2016 effort did and for the very same reasons.

For Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), one of the masterminds behind the oil war – the economic and political problems that his country now face appear to come a very distant second to preserving whatever he thinks is left of his own reputation, with the most obvious public manifestation of this being the aftermath of the internationally-shunned omni-shambolic initial public offering (IPO) for hydrocarbons giant, Saudi Aramco (Aramco). Consequently, in order to stand by one of the inducements required to inveigle anyone to buy the shares – in the triple-locked guaranteed dividend payout – swingeing cuts to key projects for Saudi Arabia are now being announced.

Despite the 50 per cent … Read the rest