Sponsored by Golden Cariboo Resources

Is no one buying condos in Toronto anymore?

Toronto condo developers are bracing themselves for a downturn as sales dropped year-over-over for the first quarter of 2024. The market may finally be shifting towards buyers, who now have a wider selection of available homes to choose from.

According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), condo apartment sales saw a modest 5.3% year-over-year increase, with a total of 4,747 units sold. However, the number of new condo listings surged by more than 23% during the same period.

You can read more on the matter here.

What’s going on?

• BREAKING: Slovakian PM Shot In Assassination Attempt, Reportedly Recovering (theDeepDive)

• China Considers Government Buying of Unsold Homes to Save Property Market (Bloomberg)

• OpenAI’s GPT-4o-Powered ChatGPT Is Now More (Terrifyingly) Conversational and Life-Like (theDeepDive)

• Thousands forced from their homes as wildfires spread across Western Canada (Globe)

• US consumer inflation cools in April; retail sales flat (Reuters)

• The Rick Rule Symposium On Natural Resource Investing (theDeepDive)

• Canadian Homes for Sale Climb With Second-Biggest Jump on Record (Bloomberg)

• Are We About to Be Hit with the Bird Flu Pandemic? (theDeepDive)

• Netherlands set for right-wing government after Wilders strikes deal (Reuters)

• Royal Mail Owner Gets Higher £3.5 Billion Bid From Kretsinsky (Bloomberg)

• Vladimir Putin Appoints Civilian Economist as Defense Minister in Surprise Move (theDeepDive)

What’s the latest?

• US CPI: U.S. core consumer price index, excluding food and energy, rose by 0.3% in April, marking its first cooling in six months and advancing 3.6% year-over-year. The overall CPI also increased by 0.3% from March and 3.4% annually, with shelter and gasoline driving over 70% of the rise.

• April Housing Starts: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported a 1% decrease in the annual pace of housing starts in April, with 240,229 units compared to 242,267 in March. Urban housing starts slightly declined to 220,123 units, with multi-unit urban starts falling 1% to 178,462 units, while single-detached urban starts rose 2% to 41,661 units.

• EV Supply Chain: Asahi Kasei Corp. is investing approximately $1.6 billion to build an electric vehicle battery separator plant in Port Colborne, Ontario, as part of Honda's supply chain in the province. This follows Honda's recent announcement of a $15 billion project to develop a supply chain for EV production, including retooling its Alliston, Ontario assembly plant.

• Assassination Attempt: Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, 59, was wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon outside the House of Culture in Handlova, approximately 150 kilometers northeast of Bratislava. Fico was hit in the stomach and is in life-threatening condition. He is being airlifted to the main hospital in Banska Bystrica for urgent treatment.

• Geopolitics: Jordan has thwarted a suspected Iranian-led plot to smuggle weapons into the country to aid opponents of the ruling monarchy, according to two informed sources. The weapons, sent by Iranian-backed militias in Syria, were intended for a Muslim Brotherhood cell in Jordan linked to Hamas. The cache was seized in March, and members of the cell, Jordanians of Palestinian descent, were arrested.

GameStop is back!

The stock market and stuff

• Shorts Get Burned: The Return Of GameStop (theDeepDive)

• Sony-backed computing startup heads for rare IPO in sidelined London stock market (CNBC)

• Red Lobster Shutters Dozens of Restaurants, Liquidation Underway (theDeepDive)

• BMO Capital hikes S&P 500 target to highest on Wall Street (CNBC)

• Traditional Diamond Companies Struggle as Lab-Grown Alternatives See Prices Slashed (theDeepDive)

In the juniors

• Red Pine Exploration Indicates A Further 69 Drill Holes Had Tampered With Assay Results (theDeepDive)

• Patriot Battery Metals, Albemarle Part Ways From MOU For Downstream Facilities At Corvette (theDeepDive)

• PharmaDrug JV Submits Application For Phase 1 Clinical Trials In Australia (theDeepDive)

• EMX Reports Potential $2.3 Million Loss Due to Cyber Attack in Turkey Subsidiary (theDeepDive)

FULL DISCLOSURE: Golden Cariboo Resources is a client of Canacom Group, the parent company of The Deep Dive. Canacom Group is long the equity of Golden Cariboo Resources. The author has been compensated to cover Golden Cariboo Resources on The Deep Dive, with The Deep Dive having full editorial control. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security.