By Musabbir Mazhar
Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B) shares are up 15% in the last 11 days, currently trading at $4.14 from $3.60 on Mar 7th. Yesterday, it was announced that the company would be a major supplier of locomotives for freight rail system in South Africa – this is one of SA’s largest infrastructure projects.
The total contract with Transnet Freight Rail – a state-owned South African rail transport company) is worth about $5.16 Billion CAD – Bombardier’s share was undisclosed. BBD is operating in South Africa since 1995 and this is one of the steps for BBD’s expansion in the region.
On Monday, 17th March – The S&P/TSX composite index closed slightly higher at 14,231. S&P 500 index went up to close at 1,858.
The non-farm payrolls in US came out at 175,000 for February – higher than the previous 2 months, while consensus estimates were about 145,000. The payrolls for Jan and December were 129,000 and 84,000 respectively. The job numbers have improved over the last couple of months but the low numbers – large reasoning of which can be attributed to bad weather conditions – is likely to show a slower growth in the 1st quarter in 2014.
The unemployment rate increased to 6.7% in February from 6.6% in January, at labor force participation rate of 63.0% same as January.
In the US, housing starts came out at 907,000 for February down from 909,000 in January; while the Building Permits rose by 73,000 to 1.018 Million – highest since November and higher than expectations for the month. This indicates that the recent slowdown in construction is likely temporary.
Bank of Canada Governor, Stephen Poloz came out today and his speech made it clear that slow growth in Canada is likely going to make BOC keep interest rates at the current low rate at least till the 2nd Quarter of 2015.
I$ Investing Street 
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