Canadian stocks are well off their initial lows and are within range of break even point again as crude oil has cut its earlier declines nearly in half and gold prices are now turning positive. Mining stocks are the best performers, while shares of healthcare companies have also turned positive in recent minutes.
Here's where the primary market gauges stand this morning:
- S&P/TSX Composite index down 36.60 (-0.32%) at 11,555.52
- S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index down 7.09 (-0.55%) at 1,288.99
Disappointing trade data out of Germany today and uncertain prospects over how Spain's banking crisis may be resolved has pressured global markets throughout much of the day. Closer to home, Canadian employment was unchanged in May following two months of strong gains. The nation's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.3%.
Compared with year-ago levels, Canadian employment is up 1.2% with 203,000 more people working. Nearly all of the growth was in full-time jobs, rising by 192,000. Total number of hours worked rose 1.3% over the same period.
In company news, shares of Ivanhoe Mines ( IVN ) are down about 0.3% in morning trading after the company filed final prospectus for a rights offering for all existing shareholders to purchase a proportional number of shares to their current stakes in the copper and gold miner.
The offering is expected to raise about US$1.8 billion in gross proceeds.
Business incubator coming here - Free Lance-Star
BY CATHY JETT
The Virginia Business Incubator Association is moving its headquarters to Fredericksburg on July 1.
The University of Mary Washington’s Center for Economic Development, which is located in the new office and retail building in Eagle Village off Jefferson Davis Highway, will handle its administrative duties.
Brian Baker, executive director for entrepreneurship and business development at UMW’s center, is on the association’s board of directors and was instrumental in bringing the office to Fredericksburg. Currently VT KnowledgeWorks, a subsidiary of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, has the contract but was unable to continue it.
“By having [Baker] there and being a part of us, we hope through his engagement in the community to get more members and offer more programs in the area that we would not have been able to do,” said William Bean, VBIA president and director of the Technology & Business Center at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg.
The association was created in 2000 as a non-stock corporation to promote, encourage and support the successful establishment and operation of small business incubation programs.
Business incubators are places that provide typical office space and trappings such as desks, filing cabinets and Internet access at no or low cost to new businesses. They usually have an incubation program to help clients develop business and marketing plans, and set milestones they must reach as they go from startup to a sustainable business.
The goal is to stimulate economic development activity in Virginia through the creation of new jobs, investment and business formation.
“Look at the statistics,” said Daniel Girouard, VBIA’s vice president and the asset manager for the City of Hampton’s Department of Economic Development. “Small businesses create the most jobs.”
Virginia’s Department of Business Assistance provided some initial funding and staff for the VBIA, but this was eliminated several years ago during state budget cutbacks. The number of incubator programs dropped from a high of about 45 to around 25 as a result.
“The programs are making a pretty strong resurgence,” Bean said. “One opened near NASA in Hampton, and our membership, 61, is the highest it’s been in four or five years.”
VBIA holds free roundtables around the state each year as well as an annual conference.
The roundtables provide training and education to create greater public awareness of the economic benefits of entrepreneurship and small business development. This year the focus is on the tools and techniques used to grow second-stage businesses and encourage entrepreneurship and small business development.
The next roundtables will be held Tuesday in Radford and Sept. 25 at UMW’s Center for Economic Development.
The 2012 annual conference, “Growing Your Own—Nurturing Entrepreneurial Skills & Small Business Potential,” will be held Oct. 22–23 in Charlottesville.
Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
cjett@freelancestar.com
European Commission hails fish stocks revival boost - The Independent
Twenty fish stocks in European Union (EU) waters are now considered to be within sustainable fishing limits, compared with only five in 2009, fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said.
The figures are rare good news after years in which fishermen have faced massive catch reductions in the name of conservation and on the promise of plenty tomorrow.
The EC has blamed successive years of enforced cuts on fleets routinely breaching catch quotas and delaying stock recovery.
Today, however, ahead of EU fisheries reform talks next week, Mrs Damanaki declared: "We are now seeing some improvements towards ending overfishing, but we need to go the extra mile and adopt Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform if we want to guarantee these improvements in the long term."
A commission "consultation document" looking at fishing opportunities for next year says efforts to halt overfishing are starting to work, thanks to reduced annual catch quotas in recent years.
The effectiveness of quota cuts allowed increases in the total allowable catch (TAC) for some stocks this year, says the report - with an estimated extra income for the fishing industry of 135 million euro (£109 million).
An EC statement said: "The figures show that following scientific advice when setting TACs helps fish stocks rebuild.
"As a result, fishermen are rewarded with higher catches and higher income, and the environmental impact of fishing is less."
It said the revival of stocks and the resulting income boost reinforced the need to reform the CFP to build on the benefits - because sticking to annual TAC limits alone would not be enough.
"Long-term management, a fully science-based approach and eliminating catastrophic practices such as discarding (dumping non-quota stocks caught in nets accidentally) are needed, as spelled out in the Commission proposals on CFP reform," the document added.
The EC says the scientific advice on which annual catch cuts are based is improving, with more and more stocks being assessed more accurately on the basis of the science.
The upbeat note came as lobby groups mounted a campaign against what they see as compromise proposals on EU fishing policy.
Birdlife Europe, Greenpeace, OCEAN2012, Oceana, Seas At Risk and WWF issued a joint statement warning that a proposed deal would not stop the depletion of fish stocks for another decade.
They said fisheries ministers were preparing to settle for a "lowest common denominator" deal "without any ambition to achieve sustainable fisheries or save fishing jobs".
The statement said: "Horse-trading to accommodate all member states has resulted in a significant weakening of the commission's reform proposal compared with July 2011.
"The required recovery of fish stocks by 2015 has been further delayed and the goal posts shifted.
"Ministers are only willing to commit to reduce fishing pressure progressively which would allow overfishing to continue for the next decade."
The groups claim only a quarter of fish stocks in EU waters are at sustainable levels.
"A 31 per cent decrease in fishing jobs since 2002 shows the bleakness of the European fisheries crisis which can only be remedied by a root-and-branch reform," the statement added.
PA
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