Energy & Commodities
U.S. natural gas futures surged more than 13% on Wednesday as temperatures drop and forecasts call for more winter weather ahead.
The contract for February delivery advanced 13.3% to $4.818 per million British thermal units, the highest level since November.
“The heating demand outlook for [the] eastern-third of the U.S. has strengthened materially for this weekend and for the last week of January,” said Again Capital’s John Kilduff, noting that this Saturday could see record natural gas demand due to a cold blast forecast for Friday.
“The weather has gone from being a non-factor or bearish factor all season to being meaningful, again, for prices and demand,” he added.
After surging for much of 2021, natural gas prices dropped 36% during the fourth quarter following warm temperatures and as the omicron variant sent jitters through the market.
Still, the contract posted a 47% gain for 2021, and is already up nearly 30% for 2022…read more.

Initial public offerings from Copperleaf Technologies Inc. (TSX:CPLF), Thinkific Labs Inc. (TSX:THNC) and Telus International (Cda) Inc. (TSX:TIXT) helped make B.C. the go-to centre for IPOs in Canada last year.
The West Coast was home base for 90 out of the 171 IPOs across the country, according to a report released Wednesday by Toronto-based CPE Analytics.
Overall 2021 was a recording-setting year for Canadian companies, both in terms of the number of IPOs as well as the $10.18 billion raised by going public.
Despite B.C. dominating in sheer volume, Ontario companies led all provinces with the amount of dollars raised: $6.69 billion from that province’s 55 IPOs.
B.C., meanwhile, raised $2.2 billion — the second most out of all the provinces — from its 90 IPOs (52 of which were capital pool companies)…read more.

Quebec has become the first province in Canada to announce a financial penalty for residents who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Adult Quebecers who won’t get vaccinated and don’t have a medical exemption will be forced to pay a health “contribution,” Quebec Premier Francois Legault told reporters on Tuesday. Legault said the amount of the penalty hasn’t been decided but will be “significant.”
About 10 per cent of adult Quebecers aren’t vaccinated, but they represent about half of all patients in intensive care, Legault said, adding that the unvaccinated should be forced to pay for the extra burden they are placing on the health-care system.
“I think right now it’s a question of fairness for the 90 per cent of the population who made some sacrifices,” Legault said. “I think we owe them this kind of measure.”
The government last week announced it would expand the vaccine passport system by requiring proof of vaccination to enter liquor and cannabis stores. Health Minister Christian Dube has said he was mulling extending the passport further, to shopping malls and personal care salons…read more.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have released several emails which suggest Dr. Anthony Fauci may have known that Covid-19 originated from a lab leak, and that it may have been “intentionally genetically manipulated.”
“We write to request a transcribed interview of Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Excerpts of emails we are making public today (see enclosed Appendix I) reveal that Dr. Fauci was warned of two things: (1) the potential that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute Virology (WIV) and (2) the possibility that the virus was intentionally genetically manipulated. It is imperative we investigate if this information was conveyed to the rest of the government and whether this information would have changed the U.S. response to the pandemic,” reads the letter from Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
The letter goes on to state that Fauci – despite claiming otherwise on multiple occasions – was in fact aware of the monetary relationship between NIAID, the NIH, EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan lab – by January 27, 2020. Fauci also knew that EcoHealth and NIAID worked together to craft a grant policy which would ‘sidestep the gain-of-function moratorium at the time.’
“This allowed EcoHealth to complete dangerous experiments on novel bat coronaviruses – and with little oversight – that would have otherwise been blocked by the moratorium,” the letter continues, adding that in January 2020, Fauci was also aware that EcoHealth was delinquent in submitting an annual progress report to NIAID, “presumably to hide a gain-of-function experiment conducted on infectious and potentially lethal bat coronaviruses.”…read more.

When it comes to trading with China, “we hold the cards” and Canada should direct its exports away from the authoritarian regime, Vancouver human rights and democracy activist Fenella Sung says.
Now, new polling from Angus Reid released Monday suggests most Canadians (61%), and especially British Columbians, are on board with Sung.
Nearly seven in 10 British Columbians want to see Canada trade less with China while a growing number of Canadians wish human rights are prioritized over economic factors with the global superpower, Angus Reid found.
Nevertheless, most people (54%) are worried about the economic consequences of getting out of business with China, the polling shows…read more.
