Skip to main content

Featured

Stellantis May Abandon Brampton for Good: What It Means for Ontario Jobs

  Published August 18, 2026 With less than 24 hours left before Washington's 50% tariff deadline hits at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, the headlines are all about cement, wine, and dairy. But the real fight holding up a deal is happening in the auto sector — and this week it collided with a story much closer to home: Stellantis is weighing whether to walk away from its Brampton, Ont. assembly plant for good. Put those two stories together and you get a clearer picture of what's actually at stake for Ontario workers, renters, and taxpayers than any tariff-deadline countdown can show on its own. The Trade Deal Is Stuck on Auto Rules, Not Wine or Cement Canadian and U.S. negotiators have been in Washington for a week trying to head off Trump's Section 338 tariffs — a rarely used trade law that, unlike earlier rounds, doesn't recognize USMCA certificates of origin for the goods it covers. Autos, alcohol, and dairy are all on the list, but autos are the sticking point. Canada is pu...
Post a Comment
Read more

article

Labels

Asian shares rise after Wall Street gains; Tokyo slips

Asian markets were mostly higher on Thursday, following modest gains on Wall Street in a holiday-shortened week. Tokyo was an exception, as investors weighed the prospects of a policy shift by the Bank of Japan.

The Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4% to 33,539.62, while other major regional benchmarks rose more than 1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 2.7%, led by technology and property shares. The Shanghai Composite index gained 1.4% and South Korea’s Kospi added 1.6%.

U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices were mixed. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 4,781.58 on Wednesday, up 24% for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, to close at 37,656.52. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2% to 15,099.18, outpacing other major indexes with a gain of 44% this year.

Trading was subdued with two trading days left in the year. The S&P 500 is coming of its eight straight winning week and is hovering just below its all-time high set in January of 2022.

Investors are looking ahead to the next year, when the Federal Reserve is expected to start raising interest rates to combat inflation. The Fed has signaled that it will hike rates three times in 2024, but some analysts think it may need to move faster and more aggressively.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan is facing pressure to ease its ultra-loose monetary policy and raise its key interest rate from minus 0.1%. The BOJ has been keeping credit cheap to support the economy, but some economists argue that negative rates are hurting banks and consumers. The BOJ is waiting to see what kind of wage gains might come in 2024 as part of its strategy.

In other news, online food delivery company Meituan rose 6.8% in Hong Kong, despite a lawsuit filed against it by a U.S. company for allegedly selling counterfeit versions of Squishmallow plush toys. Ecommerce giant Alibaba gained 2.9%, even as a court in New York refused to dismiss the case. Shares in struggling developer Country Garden Holdings jumped 6.9%, as property stocks rebounded from recent losses.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment