From bad to worse

Good morning. The original Cat in the Hat suit worn by Mike Myers in the 2003 film is being put up for auction later this month, with bids starting at US$6,000. The costume — which is equal parts creepy and nostalgic — is expected to fetch a five-figure sale price. 

For anyone who takes Halloween extremely seriously (and has a lot of disposable income), this feels like a no-brainer. Guaranteed costume contest winner.

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Earnings to watch: Cineplex will kick off the week with its earnings call tomorrow, Air Canada will follow on Wednesday, and Canadian Tire will post its results on Thursday. Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, cloud computing firm CoreWeave and semiconductor company Applied Materials are both slated to report this week.

One of Canada’s worst-ever wildfire seasons has turned fatal. 

Driving the news: An 80-year-old woman was killed in a wildfire near Summerland, B.C. that doubled in size overnight and sparked one of the largest evacuations in the province’s history. Over 22,000 B.C. residents have already been forced to evacuate their homes, while nearly 10,000 more have been told to prepare to do so. 

Why it matters: The speed and scale of the B.C. blazes are the latest reminder of how volatile Canadian wildfire season has become. On July 7, the total area burned nationally was less than half the 10-year average. Just over a week later, ~300 new wildfires had sprung up — mostly in Ontario — and the total area burned hit 2.78 million hectares, well above the same 10-year average.

What’s next: With dry conditions and strong winds persisting, the fires in B.C. are expected to get worse before they get better.—LA

Iran rejects direct talks with the U.S. Iranian officials said a deal with Oman to define new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz was almost complete, but ruled out any direct talks with Washington over what they called repeated violations of the two countries' short-lived peace agreement. Trump downplayed Iran’s rebuke yesterday, saying that the U.S. was “low-keying it” and that they are only “semi-negotiating with them.” (Reuters)

Berkshire Hathaway is finally putting its $365 billion cash pile to use. Berkshire’s Canadian chief, Greg Abel, poured a net ~US$20 billion into stocks in the second quarter ($10 billion of which was spent on Alphabet shares), ending his predecessor Warren Buffett’s three-year stock-selling streak. Days after the Alphabet investment — which made the tech company one of Berkshire’s top five holdings — Abel bought homebuilder Taylor Morrison for $8.5 billion. (Financial Times) 

Victims of a $155 million Canadian crypto wallet hack are readying a lawsuit. 117 Partners, a U.S. firm that specializes in brokering claims for crypto investments gone wrong, has launched talks with Canadian law firms to sue Toronto-based crypto wallet maker Coinkite over a hack that led to the theft of over $150 million worth of bitcoin. Over 25% of losses from the crypto heist were from Canadian users. (Globe and Mail)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

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🇨🇦 Crunch time for trade talks. This is the final full week before August 19, the day Donald Trump says he will impose a new batch of tariffs on around $20 billion of imports from Canada, including some goods that have been exempt from previous tariffs because of CUSMA. While Mark Carney has said that “everything is on the table” in terms of retaliation should the tariffs go ahead, Canadian negotiators are reportedly offering concessions on a number of issues with the aim of avoiding that outcome.

🇺🇸 U.S. inflation data. The latest inflation print from south of the border arrives on Wednesday and will influence the Fed’s September interest rate decision. Despite inflation remaining elevated in the U.S., most analysts are still not forecasting a rate hike in September. A surprisingly bad jobs report last week bolstered that view. There’s also the matter of the immense political pressure new Fed chair Kevin Warsh will face to avoid starting a rate hike cycle in the months immediately before midterm elections, something the Fed has never done.

🚙 GM expected to begin talks with Unifor. The union representing workers at GM’s Ontario facilities will enter contract talks with the automaker this week. Unifor secured a three-year contract with Ford last month that included 3% pay hikes each year and investments of $1.2 billion in production facilities. Unifor said it expects talks with GM to be more challenging, however.

If you’re pals with the President of the United States, you apparently don’t need permission to start drilling for oil in other countries.

What happened: Greenland Energy, a Texas-based company set up last year, has brought oil drilling equipment ashore in Greenland, prompting a warning from the Arctic island’s government that it had not granted the company permission to drill in its territory. 

Why it matters: Greenland Energy’s drill-first, ask-questions-later approach could become a test of how rigorously Greenland — and Denmark, of which it is an autonomous territory — will defend its sovereignty against incursions by the U.S. 

What’s next: Greenland and its allies will need to decide whether to allow unwanted drilling by a Trump-linked operation to go ahead or risk antagonizing the White House — a dilemma Canadians can empathize with.—TS

🩸 20%. Decline in the Canadian Blood Services supply between June 1 and July 22, leaving the organization with less than eight days of stock for some blood types. The share of eligible Canadians donating blood has fallen by half over the past decade, from 4% to 2%.

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It’s a perfect morning to take on today’s mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who!