(Illustration: Camille Charbonneau)
THE ESSENTIAL NEWS
• The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates on hold but will give direction at this week’s meeting. The US Federal Reserve begins a two-day meeting in which officials are expected to keep interest rates unchanged for now, while showing through new economic projections their estimates for how much rates will rise before the end of the year.
• The expansion of Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline will disrupt the flow of oil to the United States and drive up prices. The expansion of Canada’s Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline, which will nearly triple the flow of crude oil from Alberta to Canada’s Pacific coast starting early next year, will disrupt North American supplies by diverting barrels currently delivered primarily to refiners and exporters in the Midwest and Gulf Coast of the United States.
• India rejects Canada’s suspicions over its role in the assassination of a Sikh leader. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said authorities were “actively seeking credible allegations” linking agents in New Delhi to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, a concern India called “absurd.”
• UAW prepares for more strikes in US auto industry; Negotiations with Ford Canada expand. The United Auto Workers union said it would announce new strikes at U.S. factories on Friday if serious progress is not made in negotiations with the three Detroit automakers, as a Canadian union postponed the immediate start of a strike at automakers’ operations. Ford in Canada.
• Google is making a last-ditch attempt to overturn the $2.6 billion antitrust fine imposed by the EU. Alphabet’s Google has made a last-ditch effort at Europe’s highest court to overturn a $2.6 billion EU antitrust fine.
TRENDS BEFORE THE OPENING
HE futures of the main Canadian stock index were subdued as traders awaited domestic inflation data for more clues on the path of interest rates from the Bank of Canada. US stock index futures contracts rose slightly ahead of a two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting and as investors awaited Instacart’s debut on the Nasdaq to evaluate a possible recovery in the IPO market. HE European stocks rose slightly in a choppy market, with investors remaining cautious ahead of a series of central bank decisions this week, while the DAX German stocks lagged regional peers under the weight of weak industrial inventories. The average of the shares. Japanese Nikkei closed lower, with chip-related stocks leading the decline. HE gold price reached its highest level in two weeks, the American dollar having moved away from its six-month high, as markets prepare to receive a new round of economic forecasts from the Federal Reserve. HE oil price rose for the fourth straight session as weak U.S. shale production revived fears of a supply shortfall as a result of prolonged production cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
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HEADLINES TO FOLLOW
• Enbridge: The expansion of Canada’s Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline, which will nearly triple the flow of crude oil from Alberta to Canada’s Pacific coast starting early next year, will disrupt North American supplies by diverting barrels currently They primarily deliver to refiners and exporters in the Midwest and Gulf Coast. Its launch could add up to $2 a barrel to prices paid by Midwestern U.S. oil refineries along Canada’s main oil export route. Refineries that have benefited from lower oil prices, analysts say, include those of BP, Citgo Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, and Koch Industries’ Flint Hills Resources. Pipeline operator Enbridge, which transports most of the 3.8 million bpd of crude oil exported from Canada to the United States, expects flows on its Mainline network to decline by 300,000 bpd after the opening of TMX.
