Here are five things you need to know this morning:
Tariff tantrum: Canadian officials have readied a list of products that they are prepared to slap retaliatory import tariffs on if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump follows through on this threat to tariff Canadian goods after his inauguration next week. The list is so far preliminary, but officials say the annual value of the products on it would be in excess of $150 billion. That’s more than a third of the almost $490 billion worth of goods that Canada imported from the U.S. in the 12 months up until the end of November. By category, the two biggest types of imports are cars and car parts, at more than $80 billion, followed by in excess of $55 billion worth of consumer goods. Officials stress that the tariff list will only be brought in as retaliation if the U.S. moves first, but similar to an exasperated parent threatening to a toddler that they’ll turn the car around, one hopes both sides have the good sense to smarten up and realize nobody actually wants that. Provincial premiers met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday and were nearly unanimous in their resolve to work together to fight back, with the notable exception of Alberta, where Premier Danielle Smith is balking at the notion of putting export levies on any of the province’s energy exports.
New Zealand, Australia and U.S. accuse Canada of dumping cheap dairy: Speaking of trade fights we can’t afford, New Zealand, Australia and U.S. dairy companies are asking their governments to intervene to stop Canada from doing what they say is dumping low-priced milk products on world markets. Groups from the three nations have written to their trade and agriculture ministers raising concern over the impact of “Canada’s trade delinquency” on dairy markets, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand said. The group says Canada’s supply management system is “purposeful” in compelling producers to produce much more dairy than they need domestically and then “incentivize disposal onto world market.” The Australian Dairy Industry Council alleges that Canada intentionally produces surplus product and then exports it below the cost of production. Canada exported $500 million worth of dairy products in 2023, official data shows, the majority of which went to the U.S.
BP plans to cut 4,700 jobs worldwide: Oil major BP is continuing its turnaround with plans to cut up to five per cent of its global staff in the coming months. CEO Murray Auchincloss announced the news on Wednesday, adding that more than 3,000 contractor positions will be cut on top of the permanent roles. More cost cutting plans beyond jobs are planned as the company continues to try to repair its finances. It has hit pause on about 30 projects around the world since last summer to focus on the projects that make it the most money.
U.S. bank earnings continue: We’ll be watching shares in U.S. lenders today as more of them have posted quarterly results. Shares of Morgan Stanley are positive premarket after the company reported better than expected net revenue and profit. Revenue jumped 51 per cent to an all-time high for the full year. The numbers also look positive at Bank of America, where the lender beat on most metrics. Net interest income came in at US$14.36 billion, better than the $14.12 billion expected. Shares are slightly positive premarket.
Eight Capital winding down as Stifel swoops in: Canadian investment dealer Eight Capital Corp. is winding down its operations and many of its top staff are headed to Stifel Financial Corp., Bloomberg is reporting. Eight Capital, which has offices in Toronto, Calgary and Montreal, is a partnership, and the partnership voted to dissolve itself on Tuesday. About a dozen staff from Eight Capital including some senior bankers are poised to join the Canadian operation of Missouri-based Stifel.