Daily Wrap-up: TSX closes flat, commodities slip on Brexit, Yellen

TSX closes flat, commodities slip on Brexit, Yellen... Business groups warn of risk from CPP expansion... 12 per cent revenue dip expected by CP... Digital payment startup goes live...

Steve Randall
TSX closes flat, commodities slip on Brexit, Yellen
Investors digested a speech from Fed chair Janet Yellen Tuesday in which she maintained a cautious tone on interest rate rises. Highlighting a slowdown of the US labour market and other risks globally, her words may make September the next possibility for a rise.

Meanwhile, polls continued to show that the Brexit vote could go either way Thursday and the uncertainty meant a reversal for commodities including oil, gold and silver.

The main index of the TSX ended the session flat while Wall Street and most European and Asian indexes closed higher.
 
The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 2.82 (0.02 per cent)
The Dow Jones closed up 24.86 (0.14 per cent)
Oil is trending lower (Brent $50.49, WTI $48.95 at 4.20pm)
Gold is trending lower (1267.80 at 4.20pm)
The loonie is valued at U$0.7813
 
Business groups warn of risk from CPP expansion
If proposals to expand the Canadian Pension Plan it could be bad for business.

That’s the view of groups including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce whose president Perrin Beatty warned in a statement that it “will basically be a form of payroll tax which, when it is in full force, will put further financial strain on Canada’s already struggling businesses and on the middle class.”

He said that businesses may have to cut back on job creation or investment in order to fund the additional premiums.

Mr Beatty is not alone in his fears. CFIB president Dan Kelly told the Globe and Mail: “It is tremendously disappointing to see that finance ministers are putting Canadian wages, hours and jobs in jeopardy and willfully moving to make an already shaky economy even worse.”
 
12 per cent revenue dip expected by CP
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd is expecting a 12 per cent drop in its second quarter revenue on the impact of the weaker loonie, the Fort McMurray fires and lower volumes of commodities using the railway. The railway’s earnings per share are expected to be $2.00, down 45 cents from a year earlier.
 
Digital payment startup goes live
A new name in payment services launched Tuesday as Canadian fintech startup nanoPay launched its MintChip app. The service was originally developed by the Royal Canadian Mint and enables consumers to send and receive cash between friends and family without charge.
 

LATEST NEWS