{"id":3330,"date":"2018-04-03T05:08:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T09:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/?p=1568527"},"modified":"2018-04-03T05:08:15","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T09:08:15","slug":"five-things-you-should-know-before-starting-your-work-day-on-april-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/04\/03\/five-things-you-should-know-before-starting-your-work-day-on-april-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things you should know before starting your work day on April 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

A good early morning to you! And welcome back to the work world for those who had an extra-long weekend. Shari Kulha<\/a> here to help keep you up to date with the top business stories. It was the markets that led the news day yesterday, and there were other issues that could hit stocks down the road. Plus, Elon Musk proved entertaining, once again, if nothing else.<\/p>\n

SUGAR CRASH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlike most of us, the markets weren’t on a chocolate-bunny high<\/a>. The S&P 500 Index closed down more than 10 per cent from its January record. The Nasdaq 100 lost 2.9 per cent; Intel had its worst day in two years. The Dow nosedived to start the second quarter, as Trump returned to criticizing Amazon, and China lashed out with retaliatory tariffs. Investors fear the nascent but escalating trade war will harm world economic growth. <\/p>\n

ANOTHER THINK COMING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of which, China slammed U.S. goods with tariff hikes<\/a> of up to 25 per cent on 128 U.S. products, from frozen pork and wine to certain fruits and nuts in their tit-for-tat trade battle. Chinese tabloid Global Times said that if the U.S. thought China would not retaliate or would only take symbolic countermeasures, it can now \u201csay goodbye to that delusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘NO SURPRISE’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our competitiveness is in trouble when even investors in renewable energy<\/a> are leaving because they like lower U.S. taxes even more. As Claudia Cattaneo<\/a> writes, NextEra Energy Partners said the sale of its green assets in Ontario was specifically motivated by U.S. tax reform. One market strategist said this should surprise no one and is likely the first of many deals of this sort to come. Separately, RBC CEO Dave McKay says the government needs to step in to stop the investment outflow<\/a>, which is happening in “real time.”<\/p>\n

EAST FREAKS WEST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Emily Jackson<\/a> reports that Chinese tech giant Huawei is facing increasing scrutiny<\/a> in the West, where lawmakers have expressed concerns Beijing could use Huawei\u2019s telecom equipment to spy on networks or access critical infrastructure. Last month, three former national security agency leaders urged Ottawa to follow the U.S. lead and limit ties with the company, and the U.K. set up a facility where cybersecurity experts check Huawei software and hardware for flaws that could be exploited for spying. There are past ties between Huawei\u2019s leadership and the Chinese Communist Party and military.<\/p>\n

REALLY, MUSK YOU?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first ominous tweet started with the words “Despite intense efforts to raise money, including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter Eggs…” and continued on with worse news. Elon Musk’s April Fool’s Day prank<\/a> probably didn’t go over well with investors. He made light (very light!) of the company’s troubles, and even included a selfie of himself, with weekend stubble no less, slumped against a Tesla. The tweets were in odd taste, given recent analyst reports that warned of serious financial strains on the company. The shares had their worst month in seven years. No joke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A handful of the top business stories we’re tracking in Financial Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3331,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions\/3331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}