Tickets for tonight's Stanley Cup final going for thousands
Michael Babad
RTGAM






These are stories Report on Business is following Wednesday, June 15. Get the top business stories through the day on BlackBerry or iPhone by bookmarking our mobile-friendly webpage.

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A hockey bubble?
You'd have been better off investing in hockey than in the stock market.

Ticket prices for tonight's Stanley Cup final are looking as frothy as dot-com shares before the tech bust, on today on auction and reseller sites for staggering amounts. On Stubhub.com, for example, tickets are being pitched for between $1,500, for a single, to $17,999.99 for two third-row seats on one of the blue lines.

Or, you can opt for a suite for almost $206,000 for Game 7 between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins.

On eBay, there are several bids at $3,800 for tickets at centre ice, row 8 of the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, but the seller wants $10,000 a pop. Then there are four tickets for almost $31,000 in the 25th row.

"This takes it to a new level," Christian Anderson of California-based FanSnap.com, told Bloomberg News. "The Canucks haven't won before and, with a Game 7, this is it, it's do or die. That definitely drives the prices." Luongo key to Canucks' success, or failure, in Game 7One game, no regretsGame 7s stand alone

Euro crisis escalates
Just when you thought Europe's debt crisis couldn't get much worse, along comes another massive Greek strike and a credit rating warning on French banks that spooks financial markets.

Athens is all but shut down today as several thousand demonstrators protest against the government's austerity measures, and police are out in force with pepper spray and tear gas at the ready. There have been some clashes.

This comes amid a stalemate between politicians of the embattled euro zone and policy makers at the European Central Bank, who are opposed to any type of restructuring of Greek debt. Euro finance ministers met yesterday, and came to no conclusions, only to say they will continue to talk next week.

Borrowing costs in the periphery nations such as Greece and Portugal spiked again, and the euro, the currency shared by 17 countries in the monetary union, bounced around.

On another front, shares in some of the biggest banks in France slipped after a warning from Moody's Investors Service about potential downgrades given their exposure to Greek debt.

"The likelihood of any type of solution in the near term appears pretty slim today, let alone ahead of the EU summit on the 23/24th June given that the wrangling appears to be around what constitutes a credit event as peripheral 10-year bond yields for Greece, Portugal and Ireland continue to blow out to lifetime highs above 17.4 per cent, 10.7 per cent and 11.4 per cent," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

"... A likely confirmation of further delay and prevarication with respect to a solution to the impasse between the ECB and Germany could well find that further upside in the single currency somewhat limited and see the gains of the past two days disappear rather rapidly." Greece crippled as anti-austerity protesters clash with policeGreek default too costly: future ECB chiefFrench banks in firing line over Greek debt crisis

Nyrstar to buy Breakwater
Is Ned Goodman calling a top to the market's run? Because for the second time in seven months, Streetwise columnist Boyd Erman reports today, he's peddling a major asset.

After agreeing to sell DundeeWealth , the asset-management company his family built, to Bank of Nova Scotia late last year, he's agreed to sell zinc miner Breakwater Resources for about $663-million. Ned Goodman unloads another big asset in BreakwaterBreakwater to be acquired by Nyrstar in $663-million deal

Canada Post locks out union
What began as a series of rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is now a full-scale lockout by Canada Post.

Canada Post abruptly shut down operations across the country last night, locking out some 50,000 workers just as rotating strikes ended in Toronto and Montreal, The Globe and Mail's Adrian Morrow reports.

In a brief statement, the corporation said it had accumulated roughly $100-million in losses since job action started and that the shutdown will affect urban centres. It did not say whether rural mail delivery would continue. Canada Post locks out striking workers

Analysts downgrade Sherritt
Analysts are cutting their targets on shares of Sherritt International Corp. after it boosted its estimates and extended the timeline at a Madagascar project yesterday.

Analyst John Hughes of Desjardins cut his earnings-per-share estimate for 2012 and his price target on the stock to $10.50 from $12. Matt Murphy of UBS Securities Canada cut his price target to $8 from $8.90.

Yesterday, Sherritt sales sank after it boosted the estimate on its Ambatovy nickel-cobalt project, and said production is now expected to start early next year, rather than this year, Globe and Mail mining writer Brenda Bouw reports. It owns 40 per cent of the project.

"We delayed our startup estimate in line with the guidance, and continue to forecast a conservative three-year ramp-up in the context of observed challenges in ramping up large laterite-leach projects globally," Mr. Murphy said. Surging costs delay Sherritt projectStreetwise: Sherritt delay leads to 'embarrasing' update

Markets dip
Global stock markets are slipping again this morning.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei eked out a gain of 0.3 per cent, though Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.7 per cent and European shares were on the decline.

"Markets are once again in risk-off mode with European equities in the red across the board while U.S. equity futures are pointing to a negative open after yesterday's rebound," said Karen Cordes Woods and Derek Holt of Scotia Capital. "Crude oil prices have also declined (with losses being pared back through the early morning) while the U.S. dollar is witnessing a rebound amid a flight to safety."

London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down by between 0.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent by about 7 a.m. ET. Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 also slipped.

"After some gains earlier in the week, a cautious approach has crept back into trading this morning," said Yusuf Heusen, senior sales trader at IG Index. "Last night saw U.S. markets run out of steam in the last hour of trading, which is now dictating the tone in the U.K." Will economy have enough juice to sustain bull market?

In Economy Lab today
The economics behind the controversy surrounding the Conservative government's decision to remove the Canadian Wheat Board's legal monopsony in wheat and barley are somewhat opaque at first glance. Stephen Gordon examines the issue. Why would farmers want to leave a successful cartel?

In International Business today
Is it conceivable that China could learn that spectacular success is a precursor of surprising failure? Marin Wolf of The Finance Times finds that the answer is yes. How China could yet fail like Japan

From today's Report on BusinessCanadian manufacturers find a niche by supplying the smartsSuncor to stay out of Libya while Gadhafi in chargeCustomer sues CIBC over purchase of $81,276 carChina feeling the squeeze from higher prices