Clinton bid a financial boon for strapped Democratic Party + MORE Feb 18th

Toronto-based company had $241.5-million in fourth-quarter earnings, up about 17 per cent from $206.6-million a year earlier

Investment board, Ohio-based Welltower to buy six housing properties

WASHINGTON – The number of people seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level since November, evidence that stock market turmoil and slow growth overseas haven’t caused U.S. businesses to cut jobs.
THE NUMBERS: Weekly applications for jobless benefits fell 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 262,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped 8,000 to 273,250. The overall number of people receiving aid increased, to 2.26 million, from 2.25 million the previous week.
THE TAKEAWAY: Applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the low reading suggests that employers are confident enough in future growth to hold onto their workers, and possibly hire more.
A rise in applications last month fueled concerns about greater layoffs. Yet those job cuts likely occurred among temporary employees hired over the winter holidays, and have now faded.
BIG PICTURE: Other recent reports have shown that consumer spending and manufacturing grew last month, adding to evidence that the economy is still growing despite recession worries on Wall Street…

TORONTO – The OECD has lowered its projections for Canadian, American and global economic growth over the next two years.
The Paris-based economics think-tank now estimates Canada’s economy will grow by 1.4 per cent in 2016, slightly more than the 1.2 per cent estimated for 2015 but less than the OECD’s previous estimate for this year of 2.0 per cent growth.
Canada’s economic growth is expected to pick up to 2.2 per cent in 2017, but that would be 0.1 per cent less than previously thought.
The OECD also expects U.S. economic growth over the next two years will be slower than the 2.4 per cent estimate for 2015.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development also lowered its outlook for global economic growth to 3.0 per cent in 2017 and 3.3 per cent in 2017 _ a decrease of 0.3 for both years.
It points to recent weak data from major economies including the United States and Canada as well as financial instability that’s reflected in the fall of equity and bond prices worldwide…

Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton isn’t yet the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, but she’s already good for its bottom line.
The Democratic National Committee began the presidential election year almost $1 million in the hole – a bad situation that would have been even worse without the millions of dollars in fundraising that Clinton’s campaign sent its way.
That kind of assistance makes Clinton unique in the 2016 presidential field. No one else, Republican or Democrat, is raising money for his or her party at this early stage, including her Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
While that money would benefit Clinton should she capture the nomination, it comes with short-term complications. Already, Sanders allies have complained that the party favours her, pointing to the initial scarcity of debates as one example.
Clinton’s party fundraising fuels that argument, and reminds primary voters that she is part of the moneyed political establishment that Sanders frequently decries…