Live news: TC Energy to discuss selling pipeline stake to Indigenous groups

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TC Energy to discuss selling pipeline stake to Indigenous groups

The gathering will be in Edmonton and 72 communities from provinces including Alberta and British Columbia have been invited to attend, the people said, citing a letter the company sent last month.

“We want to create mutually beneficial partnerships with indigenous communities. Potential ownership in our projects and assets means that indigenous communities can share in Canada’s resource economy,” Calgary-based TC said in an emailed statement, without providing more details.

The NGTL system gathers and transports gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta and British Columbia to both domestic and export markets. The company says the roughly 24,600-kilometre system handles about a tenth of North America’s natural gas supply.

Bloomberg

12:38 p.m.

Midday markets: Inflation anticipation keeps Wall Street in tight range, TSX rises

Stocks, bonds and the U.S. dollar saw small moves, with investors awaiting Thursday’s inflation data for clues on the United States Federal Reserve outlook.

The S&P 500 edged higher rising 0.26 per cent. U.S. 10-year yields hovered near four per cent. Bitcoin traded around US$45,000 before a Securities and Exchange Commission decision on the approval of exchange-traded funds holding the digital asset. Oil whipsawed as a surprise buildup in U.S. stockpiles undercut the threat to supplies from Red Sea escalations.

Inflation is expected to end the year around the Fed’s two per cent target, and the upcoming consumer-price index will probably give a taste of the disinflation trend. Ahead of that, New York Fed president John Williams is due to speak.

“We’re seeing a plausible path to inflation continuing to ease gradually, an end to Fed rate hikes, and a re-acceleration of economic growth in the back half of 2024,” said Arthur Hogan at B. Riley Wealth.

Strength in the technology stocks helped Canada’s main stock index move higher in early-afternoon trading. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.12 per cent at 20,998.13.

Bloomberg, The Canadian Press

11:47 a.m.

Fear of recession, inflation are top concerns for global CEOs

The C-Suite outlook for 2024 also found that almost a third of the chief executives surveyed said their company was not prepared to handle either of these threats.

Global political instability, higher borrowing costs and labour shortages also made the top five concerns — “all of which feed inflation and contribute to the higher costs of doing business.”

Higher borrowing costs have risen steadily in the ranking as a concern, jumping from 25th globally in 2022 to 10th in 2023 to fourth in this year’s survey.

Chief executives ranked attracting and retaining talent and accelerating the pace of the digital transformation as their top two internal issues.

The survey of 1,247 executives was conducted between October to December 2023.

Financial Post staff

10:20 a.m.

U.S. takes over top spot as world’s biggest exporter of LNG

The U.S. exported 91.2 million metric tons of LNG in 2023, a record for the country, according to data through Dec. 31 compiled by Bloomberg. The expanded output was due to last year’s restart of Freeport LNG in Texas, which had been shuttered for months following a June 2022 fire and explosion. Qatar, the top LNG supplier in 2022, saw its volumes shrink, with a 1.9 per cent decline dropping the nation into third spot for shipments of the super-chilled fuel. Australia ranked second, with exports that were little changed from 2022.

This year, two new LNG projects in the U.S. are due to start production: Venture Global LNG Inc.’s Plaquemines facility in Louisiana and Golden Pass in Texas, a joint venture between Exxon Mobil Corp. and QatarEnergy. At full capacity, the two projects would add another 38 million tons a year from the U.S.

Bloomberg

10:10 a.m.

Markets open: Wall Street waits for U.S. inflation numbers

Wall Street is drifting Wednesday ahead of a report that could help bolster or dash the hopes that sent stocks surging into the end of last year.

The S&P 500 was 0.12 per cent higher in early trading, a day after barely budging. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.07 per cent, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.04 per cent higher.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.05 per cent.

The Associated Press

7:30 a.m.

SEC’s X account was hacked, sparking spike in Bitcoin

The incident, one of the most consequential breaches in years on the platform formerly known as Twitter, began with a post on the SEC’s official verified account, which inaccurately shared that the regulator had approved spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds — a decision that had been anticipated for later this week. The price of Bitcoin quickly shot up more than 2.5 per cent as news of the post spread online and via media outlets, including Bloomberg News, that were watching the SEC’s feed for such an announcement.

Within minutes, SEC Chair Gary Gensler jumped in from his own X account to clarify that the SEC’s post was inaccurate, even while the message remained up on X for roughly 30 minutes. “The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted,” Gensler wrote on X. Bitcoin’s price tumbled.

A SEC spokesperson confirmed that there was “unauthorized access to and activity on the @SECGov x.com account by an unknown party for a brief period of time.”

“The account is secure and we are investigating the root cause,” said Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, in a statement.

Bloomberg

Stock markets before the opening bell

Stocks are trading in a narrow range this morning as investors wait for tomorrow’s inflation report from the United States. Futures for the Nasdaq are up slightly but the S&P 500 is down.

Weakness in financial stocks Tuesday weighed on Canada’s main stock index, which lost more than 100 points at the close, while U.S. markets were mixed.

Government bonds rose, with benchmark Treasury yields dipping back below 4 per cent for the first time in almost a week.

Bloomberg, Canadian Press

What to watch today

Additional reporting by The Canadian Press, Associated Press and Bloomberg