WTI oil price moves above Brent amid gloomy outlook from OPEC + MORE Dec 23rd

Oil prices rebounded from their six-year low on Wednesday after a fall in U.S. crude inventories, helping to lift both the TSX and the Canadian dollar.

Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (13,284.91, up 202.05 points):
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (TSX:FM). Miner. Up 88 cents, or 17.19 per cent, to $6 on 14.7 million shares.
Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B). Miner. Up 47 cents, or 9.29 per cent, to $5.53 on 9.4 million shares.
Twin Butte Energy Ltd. (TSX:TBE). Oil and gas. Up one cent, or 11.76 per cent, to 9.5 cents on 7.9 million shares.
Aura Minerals Inc. (TSX:ORA). Miner. Unchanged at eight cents on 7.4 million shares.
Baytex Energy Corp. (TSX:BTE). Oil and gas. Up 85 cents, or 22.61 per cent, to $4.61 on six million shares.
Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA). Oil and gas. Up 55 cents, or 8.44 per cent, to $7.07 on 5.3 million shares.
Companies reporting major news:
Heroux-Devtek Inc. (TSX:HRX). Aerospace. Up 13 cents, or 0.96 per cent, to $13.74 on 9,140 shares. The Quebec-based manufacturer says it has a new five-year agreement with an unidentified commercial aircraft customer that could be worth up to $100 million…

Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq stock market:
NYSE
Nike Inc. (NKE), down $3.14 to $128.71
The athletic apparel seller reported better-than-expected earnings in its latest quarter, but sales fell short of forecasts.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG), up $2.87 to $497.48
After an E. coli breakout the burrito chain is shaking up its cooking methods, such as dipping onions in boiling water.
Under Armour Inc. (UA), up $1.62 to $81.99
The sports apparel company named Chip Molloy as its next chief financial officer. Molloy was a former CFO at pet store PetSmart.
Lindsay Corp. (LNN) , up $6.44 to $74.94
The irrigation-equipment maker reported earnings for its fiscal first quarter that topped Wall Street expectations.
Chevron Corp. (CVX), up $3.54 to $93.81
Shares of oil and gas companies, including Chevron, rose as the price of crude moved higher.
Nasdaq
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY), down $2.35 to $48.97
Weak sales at the start of the crucial holiday shopping season pushed the home goods retailer to cut its third-quarter outlook…

(Illustration by Sebastien Thibault)
A study commissioned by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) now provides empirical proof that trailing commissions impact mutual fund sales to the detriment of investors.
“Unambiguous,” is how the report’s author Prof. Douglas Cumming, Ontario Research Chair at the Schulich School of Business, describes the findings. All that remains is for the CSA to finally ban trailing commissions, as other Western countries already have.
“There’s an urgent need to resolve this issue,” says Neil Gross, executive director of Fair Canada. “Now that [the CSA] has this data, they need to translate it into action.”
 Cumming’s research is based on detailed fund data obtained directly from manufacturers of publicly offered mutual funds in Canada. Key findings show that an increase in trailers corresponds with a decrease in fund performance, while a decrease in trailers corresponds with an increase in performance. As for the influence of past performance, Cumming found it’s considerably reduced when fund manufacturers pay sales and trailing commissions…

Two of Canada’s retirement funds say they do not believe divestment is a useful tool and that they, instead, believe engaging energy companies is the better course