Everything You Need to Know on Wednesday: Poll Suggests Half of Canadians Have Negative Opinion of Latest Liberal Budget

Good morning mooers! Here are things you need to know about today's market:

● S&P/TSX 60 Index Standard Futures are trading at 1,325.50, down 0.01%.

● Poll suggests half of Canadians have negative opinion of latest Liberal budget

● Has the great Toronto condo boom finally hit a wall?

● VW hones in on manufacturing EV 'battery of the future' in Canada

Today, the Canadian dollar is trading at 73.01 cents US, a slight increase from Tuesday.

The S&P/TSX 60 Index Standard Futures (SXF) are currently trading at 1,325.50, which is down 0.01% from the previous close.

A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.

Just shy of half the respondents to Leger's latest survey said they had a negative opinion of the federal budget, which was presented last Tuesday.

Only 21 per cent said they had a positive opinion, and one-third of respondents said they didn't know or preferred not to answer.

Still, 65 per cent of those surveyed said the plan to spend $8.5 billion on housing, aimed at building 3.9 million homes by 2031, is good for the country.

Leger's poll of 1,522 Canadians last weekend can't be assigned a margin of error because online surveys are not considered truly random samples.

People in Alberta were most likely to say they had a very negative impression of the budget, with 42 per cent selecting that option compared to 25 per cent across the entire country.

More than half of the people who took the poll said they are in favour of the government's plans to spend more on energy efficiency, national defence and student-loan forgiveness for health care and education workers.

And 56 per cent said they think the increase to the capital gains tax inclusion rate — a move that's estimated to raise another $19.4 billion in revenue over the next four years — is a good thing.

The Liberals are billing the change as critical to their plan to improve generational fairness by taxing the ultra-rich.

Sales of new condos in Toronto plunged in the first quarter of 2024 as a rising inventory of unsold units and soaring construction costs put a damper on the once booming market.

A report from condominium research firm Urbanation this week showed sales of new condo units in The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) reaching levels reminiscent of the late 1990s in the first three months of the year, with just 1,461 new condo units sold. That marked a decline of 85 per cent from the sales peak recorded in the first quarter of 2022 and a 71 per cent drop from the 10-year first-quarter average.

At the same time, construction slowed dramatically, with only 2,361 new condominium units beginning construction, down 52 per cent from last year.

With completions jumping to a record high of 12,132 units, the total number of condos now under construction is at its lowest level in more than two years at 91,590 units.

One of the factors contributing to the decline in sales was the pullback in new project launches by developers. Only four projects totalling 958 units were brought to market in the first quarter, well below the numbers in recent quarters.

Volkswagen Group Canada Inc. plans to manufacture solid-state batteries at its planned gigafactory in St. Thomas, Ont., says chief executive Vito Paladino.

Volkswagen AG, which owns many brands, including Audi — where Paladino is also CEO for Canada — has long signalled its interest in solid-state battery technology, but lithium-ion batteries and lithium phosphate batteries are more prevalent today. Many, if not all, of VW’s EVs currently use lithium-ion batteries.

“As far as the technology, it is evolving fast. It is incredible,” Paladino said. “It’s tough to talk specifics because I know I’ll get myself into trouble, but what I will say is, and what we have reported, the solid-state battery will allow us to provide electrification in a more affordable way.”

Paladino made his comments in response to a question about consumer sentiment around EVs, saying climate change makes it necessary to move away from internal combustion engine vehicles. At the same time, he said “affordability” is still an issue for many people when it comes to EVs.

“The battery plant that we have in Canada will be solid-state batteries,” he said. “These batteries will have a cost benefit, but they’ll also have way more range and performance.”

Powerco Canada Inc. — VW’s battery manufacturing subsidiary — said in December that the site was ready for groundbreaking and that construction of the $7-billion St. Thomas gigafactory would begin this year with a goal of producing batteries by 2027.

Source: BNN Bloomberg, Financial Post, MT Newswire