Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The following is a glance at the news moving markets in Canada and globally.

• Crude oil was down hard on Friday as the United States and Iran indicated there could be an end to their war, as it approaches its ninth week. After Israel and Hezbollah reached a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon on Thursday, Iran announced the Strait of Hormuz is now open. U.S. President Donald Trump then posted “THANK YOU” on Truth Social. On the chance of Iran-U.S. talks starting as soon as the weekend, West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude tumbled by more than US$10 per barrel in mid-morning trading.

• Dominic Leblanc, Minister of Canada-U.S. Trade, told the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade on Thursday that Canada is pressing the U.S. for a wider trade agreement. Leblanc said that would be better than a series of one-off deals. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recently issued a report targeting trade issues with Canada, which included Canada’s dairy system.

• The European Union’s trade surplus with the rest of the world plummeted by 60 per cent in February, said Eurostat, on Friday. As well, the EU’s statistics agency said exports to the U.S. in February fell by 26.4 per cent and imports from the U.S. were down 3.2 per cent. Eurostat said the declines were due to tariffs the EU and the U.S. have imposed on each other.

• China and Vietnam agreed on Friday to hold demarcation talks regarding a disputed area of the South China Sea. This came as Vietnamese President To Lam wrapped up a four-day visit to China, which included meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Also, China criticized Japan on Friday for sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait, which the former sees as its territorial waters.  

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Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The following is a glance at the news moving markets in Canada and globally.

• A key Pakistani mediator said on Thursday that the United States and Iran could soon resume talks regarding the Middle East war. Reports said a breakthrough was made on “sticky issues” that could see the belligerents return to the bargaining table within days. Iran indicated it’s willing to extend the two-week ceasefire that ends April 22, however its nuclear program remains a major stumbling block. The U.S. said it could resume its attacks if an agreement is not reached.

• The U.S. was just short of becoming a net crude exporter for the first time since 1943, reports said on Thursday. The gap between crude imports and exports narrowed to 66,000 barrels per day, as exports hit a seven-month high of 5.2 million BPD. With the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, about 20 per cent of the world’s crude supply cannot reach its buyers, forcing several countries to turn elsewhere including the U.S.

• Europe has about six weeks of jet fuel left, warned Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency on Thursday. The Middle East war is the main reason for the severe shortage, as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. Birol added that Japan, South Korea, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh are also heading towards energy crises.   

• China’s economy is growing a little bit faster than expected, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday. The NBS pegged growth at five per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, compared to pre-report forecasts of nearly 4.9 per cent. The increase came despite the impact the Middle East war is having on China’s economy.  

• Slightly more than 124,000 new vehicles were sold in February, down 0.9 per cent from the previous February, Statistics Canada reported on Thursday. Of those sales, new car passenger cars dropped 3.8 per cent while those for new trucks slipped 0.5 per cent. New zero-emission vehicle sales jumped 47.2 per cent at more than 12,600.

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Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The following is a glance at the news moving markets in Canada and globally.

• Middle East tensions increased on Wednesday, as Iran threatened to blockade the Red Sea should the United States continue its blockade of Iranian ports. It’s believed that Iran would rely on regional allies such as the Houthis in Yemen to carry out the blockade. The latest tit-for-tat comes as the United States-Iran ceasefire deal became more shaky ahead of its April 22 expiry.

• U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that talks with Iran could resume within a couple of days. Negotiations to resolve the Middle East war over the weekend ended without an agreement and Trump quickly ordered a naval blockade of Iran. Reports said Iran has been willing to suspend its uranium enrichment program but failed to agree with the U.S. on a timeframe.

• On Wednesday, President Trump said he will remove Jerome Powell, the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, should Powell attempt to remain a board governor after his term as chair expires on May 15. Powell’s term on the board does not expire for another two years. Trump continued to blame Powell for alleged cost overruns in renovations to the Fed’s headquarters, demanding the investigation continue.

• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday his government will suspend the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline and diesel from April 20 to Sept. 7. That’s expected to lower gas prices by 10 cents per litre and trim diesel prices by four cents. Since the U.S. started the Middle East war in February, pump prices in some parts of Canada have soared by 40 cents per litre.

• Statistics Canada reported on Wednesday that manufacturing sales in February improved 3.6 per cent from January at C$71.2 billion. StatCan also said wholesale sales (excluding petroleum, petroleum products and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain) were up two per cent in February at C$86.8 billion.

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Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The following is a glance at the news moving markets in Canada and globally.

• Four commercial vessels travelling to or from Iran passed through the Strait of Hormuz without repercussions on Tuesday, after United States President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of Iranian ports. Trump imposed the blockade after weekend talks with Iran in Pakistan failed to reach an agreement. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the blockade is “dangerous and irresponsible behaviour.”

• The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the Middle East war could push the global economy into a recession. Should oil, gas and food prices continue to spike and remain high for the next two years, global economic growth might fall below two per cent.

• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney secured a narrow majority after his Liberal Party won three byelections on Monday. The Liberals now have 174 of the 343 seats in the House of Commons. Carney said his government will now act quickly to push through the Liberals’ agenda while seeking perspectives from the other parties.

• The gap between the rich and poor in Canada became a little bit wider in 2025, Statistics Canada reported on Monday. The income gap, which measures the disposable income of the top 40 per cent households with those of the bottom 40 per cent bumped up to 46.7 per cent from 46.4 per cent in 2024.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued its crop progress report on Monday. For the week ending April 12, soybeans planted were reported for the first time this year at six per cent seeded. Corn planted moved to five per cent done and spring wheat planted reached six per cent finished. Winter wheat rated 34 per cent good to excellent, down one point on the week.

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Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The following is a glance at the news moving markets in Canada and globally.

• Crude oil prices were back on the rise Monday morning, after the United States and Iran failed to reached an agreement over the weekend during talks in Pakistan. The nearby contracts for West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude exceeded US$100 per barrel. Also, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a naval blockade of all Iranian ports until vessels in the Strait of Hormuz can freely transit.

• Voters in three federal constituencies are headed to the polls on Monday in byelections that will likely hand Prime Minister Mark Carney a majority government this evening. The Ontario ridings of University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest are considered to be safe Liberals seats. The Quebec constituency of Terrebonne is expected to be a tight race between the Liberals and Bloc Québécois.

• Statistics Canada reported on Monday that the value of all building permits in February dropped to C$12.1 billion compared from C$13.2 billion in January. The non-residential sector fell by C$1.3 billion while the residential sector bumped up C$135.6 million.

• Hungary will have a new prime minister after the 16-year rule of Viktor Orbán and his hard-right, anti-European Union/pro-Russia Fidesz party came to an end in Sunday’s election. Running on an anti-corruption platform, Péter Magyar led the centre-right/pro-EU Tisza party to 137 of 199 parliamentary seats.  

• Lafarge, along with eight former employees, were found guilty on Monday by a French court of financing terrorism in Syria. The court said the cement manufacturer paid about US$5 million to three terrorist groups, including ISIL, during the Syrian Civil War. The payment was said to have been made to keep open Lafarge’s cement facilities in Syria. Included in the ruling, former Lafarge CEO Bruno Lafont was sentenced to six years in prison and fined US$1.3 million.

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• Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.7 per cent in March, reported Statistics Canada, with the country adding 14,000 jobs.
• Annual inflation in the United States jumped to 3.3 per cent in March from 2.4 per cent the previous month, reported the U.S. Labor Department. Consumer prices rose 0.9 per cent in March from February, marking the largest monthly increase in four years.
• The Artemis II mission around the moon is set to conclude tonight, as the four astronauts expected to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California early this evening. The spacecraft will reach speeds nearing 40,000 kilometres per hour while heating to 3,000 Celsius.
• Prime Minister Mark Carney broke ground on a port expansion project near Montreal on Thursday, marking the first of the Liberal government’s fast-tracked nation-building projects to get underway. The Port of Montréal’s expansion, located in an industrial area on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, will include integrated rail, road and marine infrastructure, enabling more goods to ship through the St. Lawrence gateway.

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• Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was at less than 10 per cent of normal volumes on Thursday, as the two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran remained shaky. Vessels must co-ordinate with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). More than 180 tankers carrying approximately 172 million barrels of crude oil and refined products remain stranded in the Persian Gulf, reported ship tracker Kpler.
• Israel continued its attacks on Lebanon, including strikes on commercial and residential areas of Beirut killing 182 people on Wednesday. The U.S. and Israel have said the ceasefire with Iran does not extend to the Israeli conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
• Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to “explore a comprehensive solution” to their weeks long conflict, said the Chinese government who mediated recent talks. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting between the neighbouring countries, with Afghanistan and Pakistan now saying they won’t “take actions that would escalate or complicate the situation,” according to a Chinese official.

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     – The United States, Israel and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday, hours before the U.S. were to launch a large-scale attack on Iran. One of the terms of the 10-point plan brokered by Pakistan was Iran facilitating safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. As a result, crude oil prices fell by US$18 to US$21 per barrel since the announcement. However, Israel continued to attack Lebanon in its war against Hezbollah and the fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs remain unclear.

     – The Artemis II spacecraft, which is carrying Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, is pointed towards Earth and its crew is preparing to land in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, Calif. on Friday at around 7 p.m. CDT, NASA said on Tuesday. A NASA spokesperson added that the crew is packing all of the science equipment, cameras, tablets and reference material before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. The mission broke the record for the farthest distance humans have flown from Earth at 406,771 kilometres, beating the previous record of 400,171 km set by the Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970. The Artemis crew also had a call with astronauts on the International Space Station, which is 400 km above Earth.

     – John Deere settled a class-action lawsuit on Tuesday, establishing a US$99 million settlement fund for farmers over costs and access to repairs. John Deere also agreed to make “the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair” of large agricultural equipment, including tractors, combines, and sugarcane harvesters for 10 years. The settlement fund covers eligible plaintiffs who paid Deere’s authorized dealers for repairs to large agricultural equipment from January 2018. The company is also facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, accused of forcing farmers to use its authorized dealer network and driving up their costs for parts and repairs.

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• As a deadline looms for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, United States President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Tuesday morning that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” Trump added “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
• World markets were showing volatility ahead of Trump’s deadline, with crude oil higher in early activity. The U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran, who promised retaliation.
• The crew of Artemis II completed their trip around the Moon, breaking the record for the farthest distance humans have travelled from Earth. The capsule is now on its way back home and is expected to land on Friday.

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• Canada’s merchandise trade deficit widened to C$5.7 billion in February from C$4.2 billion the previous month, marking the largest deficit since August 2025, reported Statistics Canada. Imports were up 8.4 per cent on the month to a record high of C$72.1 billion, while exports increased by 6.4 per cent to C$66.3 billion.
• A major petrochemical plant in Iran’s South Pars natural gas field was attacked by Israel on Monday, said Israeli officials. A deadline from the United States for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz is set for later Monday, with President Donald Trump threatening to bomb power plants. Iran responded to the Israeli attack with missile fire on Israel and neighbouring Gulf countries.
• The Artemis II is set to conduct its flyby of the moon on Monday, with the crew of four astronauts, including Canadian Jeremy Hansen, becoming the most distant humans from earth in history.

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