Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week

Thestar.com
March 4, 2019
Canadian Press

Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week:

Crypto in court

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday regarding a stay order protecting QuadrigaCX from lawsuits. The widow of the failed cryptocurrency exchange’s CEO asked that a chief restructuring officer be appointed to oversee what remains of the company, saying her role as director has drawn “unwanted” online commentary suggesting she is trying to hide assets.

Interest rate decision

The Bank of Canada will make an announcement regarding its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday. Cooling economic growth and a slowing rate of inflation have analysts expecting the central bank to leave the interest rate unchanged at 1.75 per cent.

Huawei drama

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei Technologies, will appear in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, where Canada’s authority to proceed with extradition to the United States will be discussed. Huawei said in February that it won’t abandon Canadian consumers, telecommunications companies and universities, even if the country’s government bans its 5G technology.

Jobs numbers

Statistics Canada will release its labour force survey for February and industrial capacity utilization rates for the fourth quarter of 2018 on Friday. The country saw a rush of 66,800 net new jobs in January in a gain fuelled by a hiring surge in the private sector, surprising analysts and economists, who had expected a gain of 8,000 jobs for the month.

Housing starts

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. will release preliminary housing start data for February on Friday. The federal housing agency previously reported that the annual pace of housing starts slowed in January, dropping less than was expected for the start of the year.