Stocks are falling Monday as a new, potentially more infectious strain of the coronavirus has countries around the world restricting travel from the United Kingdom, raising worries that the economy is about to take even worse punishment.
The S&P 500 was 1.3 per cent lower in midday trading, putting it on track to fall for a second day from its record set on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 178 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 30,000, as of 11:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1 per cent lower.
It’s a busy day of trading, with plenty of forces pushing and pulling the market. Thin trading ahead of a holiday-shortened week may also be exacerbating moves, analysts said. Crude oil prices were also dropping on worries about disappearing demand, and Treasury yields slipped.
One big factor for the market is Congress, which finally appears set to act on a $900-billion relief effort for the economy. House and Senate leaders are planning to vote Monday on the deal, which would include $600 in cash payments sent to most Americans, extra benefits for laid-off workers and other financial support.
Economists and investors have been clamouring for such aid for months, and a recent upswing in momentum for talks had stock prices rising in anticipation of a deal. Analysts said some traders may be selling now to lock in profits, with the compromise all but assured and prices close to the highest they’ve ever been. Even after Monday’s drop, the S&P 500 is back only to where it was earlier this month.
Across the Atlantic, negotiators blew past a Sunday deadline set for talks on trade terms for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Investors have been fixed on the progress of those talks because a Brexit with no deal could cause massive disruptions for businesses on New Year’s Day.
Monday is also the first day of trading for Tesla since joining the S&P 500 index. The electric-vehicle maker surged so much this year, nearly 731 per cent as of Friday evening, that some critics say its price doesn’t make sense. But its inclusion in the benchmark index triggered $90.3 billion in trades, as the company instantly became the sixth-biggest in the S&P 500. Tesla slumped 5.4 per cent Monday.
The market’s focus, though, was centred nearly 3,500 miles to the east of Wall Street, where U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that he was placing London and the southeast of England in a new level of restrictions after scientific advisers warned they detected a new variant of the coronavirus. There is no evidence that the new strain’s mutations make it more deadly, but it seems to infect more easily than others.
Two COVID-19 vaccines have already been approved for the United States, and regulators around the world have also either approved or are considering usage of the vaccines. Hope that widespread vaccinations will nurse the economy back to some semblance of normal has been a big reason for surging prices across markets worldwide.
But for now, vaccinations are only for health care workers and other high-risk populations. It will be a while before a more widespread rollout can get life around the world closer to normal, and surging numbers of coronavirus counts and deaths in the meanwhile are setting the global economy up for a bleak few months.
The worries hit stock markets hardest in Europe, where France banned U.K. trucks from entering for a period of 48 hours. Other countries around the world also halted flights from the United Kingdom.
France’s CAC 40 fell 2.5 per cent, and Germany’s DAX lost 2.7 per cent. The FTSE 100 in London dropped 1.7 per cent.
All the new restrictions on movement also sent travel-related stocks on Wall Street to sharp losses. Cruise operator Carnival dropped 4.7 per cent, Norwegian Cruise Line fell four per cent and American Airlines lost 3.4 per cent.
Stocks of energy producers were also weak on worries that heightened travel restrictions could mean even fewer airplane seats filled and fewer miles driven by automobiles.
Losses were widespread, and the vast majority of stocks in the S&P 500 were dropping. The index fell as much as two per cent early in the morning.
Amid the few gainers was Nike, which rose 5.4 per cent after reporting stronger revenue and profit for its latest quarter than analysts expected.
Financial stocks were another rare source of resilience, after the Federal Reserve said Friday that the 33 largest banks look healthy enough to survive a sharp downturn. The Fed also permitted buybacks of company stock, with some limits.
Goldman Sachs rose 6.3 per cent after it said it expects to begin buying back its stock again next quarter.
In Asian stock markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.2 per cent after Japan’s Cabinet approved a record annual budget of 106.6 trillion yen ($1.03 trillion) for the coming fiscal year, which begins April 1.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.7 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi recovered from early losses to gain 0.2 per cent and stocks in Shanghai rose 0.8 per cent.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 0.92 per cent from 0.93 per cent late Friday.
The Ontario-wide lockdown will start on Boxing Day, Premier Doug Ford has announced.
The move will restrict non-essential retail and prohibit indoor dining right across the province starting at 12:01 a.m. the day after Christmas. The province-wide lockdown will last until January 9, 2021. After that date, restrictions will remain in effect until Jan. 23 for all public health unit regions in Southern Ontario.
Ford said the virus is spreading rapidly from areas with a high number of cases to those with fewer cases, and the province needs to preserve capacity in its health-care system.
“This difficult action is without a doubt necessary to save lives and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks,” he said. “Make no mistake, thousands of lives are at stake right now.”
The decision comes as the province records its seventh straight day of over 2,000 new COVID-19 cases. Toronto and Peel Region continue to have the largest number of cases.
The lockdown means no indoor organized public events or social gatherings, except with members of the same household. Weddings, funerals and other religious services can only have 10 people regardless if they are indoor or outdoor.
Essential businesses that remain open will have strict capacity limits. Indoor sports facilities, personal care services, including salons and casinos are all shut.
The province also announced it will offer a grant to some small businesses with a minimum of $10,000 to help offset losses.
Hours earlier, the province’s health advisers said the sooner a “hard lockdown” were implemented, the more new cases could be prevented.
“If we started on Dec. 21, instead of Dec. 28, it plays out significant reductions in cases under almost any scenario,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the province’s COVID-19 science advisory table.
Brown added that anything less than a four-week lockdown will not work, based on the experience of other jurisdictions.
When asked why the date had been pushed back two days from the original plan that saw the lockdown go into effect on Christmas Eve, Ford said they needed to give businesses that have not experienced a lockdown before time to prepare.
“[We need to] give them the opportunity to get ready to hunker down. We can’t do it overnight and leave these people with inventory, especially restaurants with food inventory.”
As for education across the province, both publicly-funded and private schools will move to remote learning heading into the new year.
Here in the GTA, elementary school students will take part in remote learning from January 4 to 8 and return to in-person learning on January 11. Secondary students will continue to learn remotely until January 24 and return to the classroom the next day.
The government says child care will remain open for the duration of the province-wide shutdown. But, during the time when elementary schools are operating virtually, “licensed child care centres and authorized recreation and skill-building providers will be prohibited from serving school-aged children.” Before and after school programs will also be shut down during the period of Jan 4 to 8.
The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), which had called for strict new restrictions, said it was disappointed the lockdown wouldn’t take effect sooner.
“The Dec. 26 implementation date sends a confusing message about what (residents) should and shouldn’t do at this crucial moment,” said CEO Anthony Dale.
Over the past several weeks, various medical organizations have pressed the government for stronger action in order to alleviate the growing strain on the health care system.
An association of GTA hospitals joined the OHA and the Ontario Medical Association in calling for stronger lockdown measures, warning that a surge in cases following the holiday season is expected to make the situation even worse.
The group says frontline health care workers are stressed and their efforts to battle the pandemic are being overstretched and is reaching a level that is “simply not sustainable for much longer.”
“We are seeing increasing numbers of staff becoming ill and not able to work – both with COVID-19 and other illnesses. While we are coping and planning for redeployment, we are seeing more illness and stress and hearing about the toll this is taking on people’s families,” the joint statement reads.
“We recognize that lockdown measures are challenging for many members of our communities, but we cannot afford to put patients and health care workers at further risk.”
To watch more:
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/12/20/all-regions-in-ontario-to-enter-lockdown-starting-christmas-eve-source/
The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association settled on a plan for the upcoming season Sunday.
The league and union agreed to a 56-game schedule that includes an all-Canadian North Division — for the 2020-21 season only — because of border restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The National Hockey League looks forward to the opening of our 2020-21 season, especially since the return to play in 2019-20 was so successful in crowning a Stanley Cup champion,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.
“While we are well aware of the challenges ahead, as was the case last spring and summer, we are continuing to prioritize the health and safety of our participants and the communities in which we live and play.”
The NHL wants to play games in the home arenas of participating teams, but is prepared to hold them in one or more “neutral-site” venues per division if necessary.
Approval from health officials in the five Canadian provinces with NHL teams is needed for the Canadian clubs to play at home.
TSN has reported B.C. hasn’t signed off on the plan.
B.C. health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a statement the province “continues to work with the NHL and the other provinces involved to find a safe solution for the return to league play. Discussions have been ongoing to ensure the proposal aligns with the restrictions in place across all provinces.”
The Canadian border remains closed to non-essential travel.
Infection rates are rising across the continent as North America faces the teeth of the pandemic’s second wave.
The NHL pulled off the resumption of its pandemic-interrupted 2019-20 season this past summer thanks to tightly-controlled “bubbles” in both Edmonton and Toronto.
There were zero positive tests for COVID-19, according to the NHL, but the setup wore on participants.
Players and coaches were separated from their families for more than two months in some cases.
There was little appetite — nor was it feasible practically or economically– for a similar setup in 2020-21.
The seven teams that didn’t take part in the summer restart — the Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and the three California teams — get extra time to prepare for their first games since mid-March.
Those seven start training camps Dec. 31, which is three days ahead of the rest of the teams.
“The players are pleased to have finalized agreements for the upcoming season, which will be unique but also very exciting for the fans and players alike,” NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said in a statement.
“During these troubled times, we hope that NHL games will provide fans with some much-needed entertainment as the players return to the ice.”
The league and PA agreed to an extension of the current collective bargaining agreement through 2026 in order to complete the 2019-20 campaign.
Players gave the thumbs up on a 10-per-cent salary deferral in 2020-21 and a deal on escrow — a consistent thorn in their sides that guarantees a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue with owners — that caps payments at 20 per cent in 2020-21 and decreases in subsequent years.
But the NHL reportedly came back to the players in November asking for more concessions due to a bleak economic outlook for the league’s US$4.8-billion business.
The NHL, which relies heavily on ticket sales, faces a shortened schedule and no clear indication if or when fans will be allowed into arenas.
The players reportedly balked at the request. The league subsequently backed off before the two sides began hammering out details of what this season could look like in terms of scheduling and divisions.
While the league is getting back on the ice, COVID-19 still looms large.
The NHL created an all-Canadian division of the seven franchises north of the 49th parallel because of border rules requiring a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the country for non-essential purposes.
That means the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens will only play against each other through the regular-season schedule and the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The other three divisions were also reworked.
Buffalo, Boston, New Jersey, the New York Islanders and Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington are grouped together in the East Division, as are Carolina, Columbus, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Nashville and Tampa Bay in the Central Division
Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Los Angeles, San Jose, St. Louis and Vegas make up the West Division.
Each team in the East, Central and West divisions will play every other team in its division eight times. Each North Division team will play every other team in its division nine or 10 times.
The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs.
The regular season concludes May 8 and the playoffs are expected to finish by mid-July.
The league hopes to return to its normal schedule for 2021-22 with September training camps.
– With files from national hockey writer Joshua Clipperton in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2020.
An online survey shows the majority of Canadians report feeling optimistic about the new year in light of the COVID-19 vaccines.
A report commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies and conducted by Leger says 70 per cent of those polled said they were somewhat optimistic about 2021, while 15 per cent reported feeling very optimistic.
Another 10 per cent said news of the vaccines left them feeling somewhat pessimistic about the new year, and five per cent said they felt very pessimistic.
Quebecers were slightly more positive overall, with 87 per cent reporting some level of optimism, compared with 84 per cent in the rest of Canada.
Those who described themselves as very optimistic were the most likely to say they will get immunized once a shot is publicly available.
More than 88 per cent of them said they would get the vaccine, compared with roughly 72 per cent of the somewhat optimistic respondents, 25 per cent of the somewhat pessimistic and just over six per cent of the very pessimistic.
The survey polled 1,528 Canadian adults between Dec. 11 and 13. According to the polling industry’s generally accepted standards, online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
Meanwhile, Canada surpassed 500,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 this weekend as vaccine rollout reached its final province.
The latest 100,000 cases were recorded across the country over just 15 days — the shortest growth period since the pandemic was declared in March.
It took six months for Canada to register its first 100,000 cases of the virus, another four to reach 200,000, less than a month to hit 300,000 and 18 days to hit 400,000.
Case counts remain high in several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, which account for the bulk of the country’s infections.
Ontario marked a sixth consecutive day with more than 2,000 new cases on Sunday, reporting 2,316. The province also saw 25 new deaths related to the virus.
The provincial government is expected to announce additional health measures Monday.
Quebec reported 2,146 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday and 21 additional deaths linked to the novel coronavirus.
All regions in the province of Ontario will be placed into the grey-lockdown stage starting Christmas Eve, sources confirm to 680 NEWS.
The move will restrict non-essential retail and prohibit indoor dining right across the province starting at 12:01 a.m. the day before Christmas.
A senior government source indicates the length of the lockdown will vary depending on region, so just how long the measures will remain in place is not clear at this point.
Premier Doug Ford has already confirmed that lockdown measures in both Toronto and Peel Region will be extended until January 4 and that Hamilton is set to join the grey-lockdown zone on Monday.
The premier is expected to announce additional measures at a 1 p.m. press conference on Monday after holding emergency meetings with health officials over the weekend.
The decision comes as various medical organizations have pressed the government for stronger action in order to alleviate the growing strain on the health care system.
An association of GTA hospitals joined the Ontario Hospital Association and the Ontario Medical Association in calling for stronger lockdown measures, warning that a surge in cases following the holiday season is expected to make the situation even worse.
The group says frontline health care workers are stressed and their efforts to battle the pandemic are being overstretched and is reaching a level that is “simply not sustainable for much longer.”
“We are seeing increasing numbers of staff becoming ill and not able to work – both with COVID-19 and other illnesses. While we are coping and planning for redeployment, we are seeing more illness and stress and hearing about the toll this is taking on people’s families,” reads the statement.
“We recognize that lockdown measures are challenging for many members of our communities, but we cannot afford to put patients and health care workers at further risk.”
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other members of his cabinet are meeting behind closed doors to discuss Canada’s response to a new strain of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu revealed the discussions in a message on Twitter this afternoon as a number of European countries closed their borders with the UK because of the new strain, which is allegedly more contagious.
Trudeau’s office later confirmed the meeting of the so-called Incident Response Group.
France, Belgium and the Netherlands are among the countries that have imposed travel bans to keep the strain from spreading.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet is calling for Ottawa to follow their lead and suspend flights from Britain.
The Trudeau government did not respond to questions from The Canadian Press about whether Canada was considering a travel ban.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2020.
The Ford government announced it is launching what it calls one of the largest recruitment and training drives in the province’s history to deliver improved care for seniors in Ontario’s long-term care homes.
On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford and Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care, said the province is investing up to $1.9 billion annually by 2024 and 2025 to create more than 27,000 new positions for personal support workers, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses in long-term care.
“We want more people working in long-term care to love what they do and thrive in their careers,” said Premier Ford.
“That’s why our new staffing plan will pursue innovative partnerships, like the one between George Brown College and the Rekai Centres, and more training opportunities for future nurses, personal support workers, and health care staff, so they can take pride in what they do and provide the care our loved ones need and deserve.”
Included as part of the plan, Ontario will accelerate and expand education and training in order to train the tens of thousands of new staff that will be required. This includes four hours of personal care per day for each resident.
They also announced the goal to improve working conditions for staff by coordinating with long-term care employers to increase full-time employment.
In late November, the Ford government received an open letter from over 4,000 loved ones with family members in long-term care homes across Ontario demanding immediate action from the province’s top officials to improve the quality of homes.
Families have said they want Bill-195 completely abolished, which allows long-term care homes to deploy untrained staff to any position they find reasonable, along with a complete phase-out of for-profit LTC’s.
Advocacy groups have accused the Ford government of introducing legislation that would make it significantly harder for residents and families to hold long-term care homes liable for failing to protect them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the province’s latest weekly epidemiological update, Ontario recorded a drop in new COVID-19 cases among residents at long-term care homes.
Ontario’s minister of tourism says the provincial government is creating a tax credit to help reinvigorate the travel industry in the wake of COVID-19.
Lisa MacLeod says that her ministry is in discussions with the finance ministry about the logistics but that it will be a 20 per cent return on every dollar spent.
She says that $150 million has been set aside to pay for the tax credit designed to encourage people to travel within Ontario.
The tax credit announcement was part of an ambitious white paper MacLeod unveiled today to help stimulate tourism, sports, and cultural industries in Ontario.
She also says that the provincial government will give an additional $100 million in funding to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, with a focus on community-based non-profit organizations.
MacLeod also outlined plans to redevelop Ontario Place along Toronto’s waterfront.
The City of Toronto has announced all their planned holiday camps and winter instructional programs have been cancelled due to COVID-19.
The camps were expected to begin on Dec. 21 to align with the winter break for schools. Just over 700 people had signed up for the camps at this point.
The city’s Learn-to-Skate, which had close to 450 registrations, and Instructional Ski programs have also been cancelled.
Registration had not yet begun on the ski programs.
Residents who registered for camps or programs will be issued an automatic refund.
City staff were able to run summer camps through their CampTO programming with COVID-19 measures in place, but the city says Toronto’s overall case numbers and daily case counts are much higher now.
Toronto is also reviewing operations at the Centennial Park and Earle Bales Park ski and snowboard centres and working to determine whether the ski hills will be opened.
More information on whether the city will be offering winter recreation programming is expected to be shared in January.
According to the province, Toronto recorded 737 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, and the region remains in the Grey-Lockdown category of Ontario’s COVID-19 response framework.
Mayor John Tory, along with other GTA mayors, have been calling for additional restrictions over the winter holidays.
As the NHL continues to work through discussions with five different provincial health authorities about its plans to stage the upcoming season, a fallback option looms in the background.
The possibility of playing entirely in the United States.
Sources say that’s the likely outcome if agreements can’t be reached to make the all-Canadian Division a reality for 2020-21.
While there’s nothing concrete to indicate that the necessary government bodies won’t eventually sign off on the NHL’s plans, that had yet to happen as of late Thursday afternoon.
The NHL would prefer to have each of its seven Canadian teams based out of its own city and arena for a 56-game regular season. The travel would be limited to within the country and would therefore be unaffected by any border issues.
However, the plan requires approval from health authorities in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. They need to be comfortable with the league’s protocols, which have been an ongoing point of discussion with the NHL Players’ Association.
Should that fail to happen, the NHL is willing to have the Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Jets, Maple Leafs, Senators and Canadiens play out of the U.S., if necessary.
That would follow what has happened in other sports. MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays were forced to play home games out of Buffalo last summer while the NBA’s Toronto Raptors have relocated to Tampa for the upcoming season.
On Thursday, Ontario’s minister of sport said the provincial government is examining how a Canadian division in the NHL might work.
Lisa MacLeod said that discussions about the league’s return-to-play plan are happening at Ontario’s public health table with the province’s chief medical officer of health, as well as officials from Toronto and Ottawa.
MacLeod said that she expects to join those conversations in the next few days, as will her federal counterpart Steven Guilbeault.
“In terms of (the NHL’s) direct proposal, I believe I’m going to be briefed on that in the next day or so,” said MacLeod.
MacLeod said she spoke to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday and is scheduled to again on Friday. She said she has also had conversations with the Ottawa Senators over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the Ontario Hospital Association today asked the Ontario government for a strict four-week lockdown in regions with high rates of COVID-19 positivity that would include Toronto and Ottawa.
Also, the mayors of Toronto and Mississauga, Ont., both said on Wednesday that they want a strict four-week lockdown to begin over the winter holidays to slow the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the GTA.
Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report
