Shares in Cameco up after Kazakhstan plans uranium production cuts + MORE Dec 4th

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are having second thoughts about a 2015 campaign promise out of concern that expanding the popular Home Buyers’ Plan would throw fuel on overheated housing markets.
An internal document suggests high housing prices are a key reason the Liberals don’t appear to be in a hurry to fulfil an election pledge that would enable Canadians to dip back into their registered retirement savings to help pay for a home.
The detail surfaces as policy-makers consider new measures aimed at cooling real estate markets and to slow rising household debt loads, which have climbed to historic levels.
READ: Can I use the HBP a second time?
During the election campaign, the Liberals promised to expand the Home Buyers’ Plan to allow those affected by major life events — death of a spouse, divorce or taking in an elderly relative — to borrow a down payment from their RRSPs without incurring a penalty.
The current plan enables first-time buyers to borrow up to $25,000 tax-free from their RRSPs to put towards the purchase of a home…

Manulife Financial Corp. has been debating what to do with certain parts of John Hancock, its struggling U.S. business

TORONTO _ Health care services company McKesson Canada has acquired retailer Well.ca, which sells health, wellness, natural and baby products online.
Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.
McKesson says the deal brings online commerce capabilities and digital experience to McKesson Canada’s retail assets, including the Rexall Drug Store chain.
Well.ca and McKesson Canada have been working together since the retailer started in 2008.
It is expected to operate as a distinct business within McKesson Canada and remain headquartered in Guelph, Ont.
McKesson Canada is a subsidiary of U.S.-based McKesson.
 
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TORONTO _ Shares of Canadian miner Cameco Corp. (TSX:CCO) soared in trading Monday after a rival uranium producer announced plans to cut production.
Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazatomprom announced it plans to reduce uranium production by 20 per cent for three years, starting in January.
Kazakhstan is one of the world’s largest uranium producers.
Shares of Saskatoon-based Cameco were up $1.69 at $13.73 in afternoon trading. The stock hasn’t closed above $14 since late April.
Uranium prices have struggled since the earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011.
Cameco announced plans last month to temporarily suspend operations at its McArthur River mine and Key Lake milling operation in Saskatchewan by the end of January.
 
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The Bank of Canada expects higher interest rates in 2018, a year when almost half of mortgages are up for renewal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Time to get ready for a return of the popularity of the five-year mortgage? Twenty years ago, in the mid-1990s —conventional wisdom still held where most home buyers and mortgage holders opted for five-year-closed mortgages as a hedge against the ominous threat of rising interest rates. The security of locking in a constant, predictable mortgage payment for the long term was more valued than hunting for the lowest possible variable rate mortgage.
Times changed, of course, as everyone piled into short rates that floated. Why? Because for the past few decade they have floated down. Super-low-rate variable mortgages became the preferred salve for new homebuyers and helped drive the boom in real estate prices because buyers could afford more house and carry more debt.
But 2018 doesn’t bode well for borrowers and mortgage holders. Not only will a more stringent stress test be put in place for those seeking or renewing a mortgage, but the Bank of Canada’s November Financial System Review, issued this week, raised a few complicating factors; nearly one in two Canadian mortgage holders is set to renew their mortgage in the next 12 months and will face even higher rates when they do it…