The BMO Housing Confidence Report says the 48 per cent figure is mostly unchanged from late 2012, suggesting continued confidence in the housing market.

Among major cities, the report found a five-point gain in buying intentions in Vancouver while Calgary was down by 13 points.

Buying intentions in the Greater Toronto Area and Montreal have held steady, while Atlantic Canada has seen a 15 per cent jump in buying intentions.

The bank‘s report further suggests close to half of all homeowners under 40 intend to purchase a larger home within the next five years.

Ten per cent of homeowners plan to buy a recreational property in the next five years, down two points from last fall.

“The relative strength of the Canadian housing market continues to bolster homeowners confidence, said Martin Nel, BMO‘s vice president of lending and investments.

The BMO report by Pollara was based on online interviews with a random sample of 1,008 Canadian homeowners between Feb. 21-27.

Spring is the biggest season for home improvement retailers. While the weather was chilly in the quarter, the improving housing market has helped such businesses.

Lowe’s Cos. earned $540 million, or 49 cents per share, for the period ended May 3. That compares with $527 million, or 43 cents per share, a year ago.

Analysts expected earnings of 51 cents per share for the world’s second-biggest home improvement retailer.

Revenue for the Mooresville, N.C., company dipped to $13.09 billion from $13.15 billion. Wall Street predicted $13.45 billion.

Lowe’s maintained its fiscal 2013 forecasts Wednesday.

The chain’s quarterly report comes one day after Home Depot Inc.’s first-quarter results topped Wall Street’s view and it raised its full-year outlook.

An Arizona restaurateur, fed up after years of negative online reviews and an embarrassing appearance on a reality television show, posted a social media rant laced with salty language and angry, uppercase letters that quickly went viral last week, to the delight of people who love a good Internet meltdown.

“I AM NOT STUPID ALL OF YOU ARE,” read the posting on the Facebook wall of Amy’s Baking Co. in suburban Phoenix. “YOU JUST DO NOT KNOW GOOD FOOD.”

It was, to put it kindly, not a best business practice. Add to that an appearance earlier this month on the Fox reality television show “Kitchen Nightmares” — where celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay gave up on trying to save the restaurant after he was insulted — and you have a recipe for disaster.

“That’s probably the worst thing that can happen,” said Sujan Patel, founder and CEO of Single Grain, a digital marketing agency in San Francisco.

In the evolving world of online marketing, where the power of word of mouth has been wildly amplified by the whims and first impressions of anonymous reviewers posting on dozens of social media websites, online comments, both good and bad, and the reactions they trigger from managers, can make all the difference between higher revenues and empty storefronts.

Hotels, restaurants and other businesses that depend on good customer service reviews have all grappled in recent years with how to respond to online feedback on sites such as Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook and Instagram, where comments can often be more vitriol than in-person reviews because of the anonymous shield many social media websites provide.

No matter how ugly the reviews get, businesses need to be willing to admit mistakes and offer discounts to lure unhappy customers back, digital marketing experts said.

“In the past, people just sent bad soup back. Well, now they are getting on social media and telling all their friends and friends of friends how bad the soup was and why they should find other places to get soup in the future, so it takes the customer experience to another level,” said Tom Garrity of the Garrity Group, a public relations firm in New Mexico.

“The challenge becomes — how do you respond when someone doesn’t think your food or product is as great as you think it is?”

In Amy and Samy Bouzaglo’s case, the bad reviews were compounded by their horrible reality TV experience. The couple said during a recent episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” that they needed professional guidance after years of battling terrible online reviews. They opened the pizzeria in an upscale Scottsdale neighbourhood about six years ago.

“Kitchen Nightmares” follows Ramsay as he helps rebuild struggling restaurants. After one bite, he quickly deemed Amy’s Baking Co. a disaster and chided the Bouzaglos for growing increasingly irate over his constructive feedback. Among his many critiques: The store-bought ravioli smelled “weird,” a salmon burger was overcooked and a fig pizza was too sweet and arrived on raw dough.

“You need thick skin in this business,” Ramsay said before walking out. It was the first time he wasn’t able to reform a business, according to the show.

Amy’s Baking Co. temporarily closed last week after the episode aired. A Bouzaglo spokesman said the couple was not available for an interview Monday. The restaurant’s answering machine was full. Emails and Facebook messages were not returned.

A wall post published last week claimed the restaurant’s Facebook, Yelp and Twitter accounts had been hacked, but hundreds of commenters expressed doubt. Social media sites show someone posting as a member of the Bouzaglo family had been insulting customers over negative reviews since at least 2010.

The story bounced across the Internet, generating thousands of comments on Facebook, Yelp and Twitter, and prompting nearly 36,000 people to sign a petition on Change.org that asks the Department of Labor to look into the Bouzaglo’s practice of pocketing their servers’ tips.

While many corporations hire communications experts to respond to every tweet, Facebook message and online review, the wave of digital feedback can be especially challenging for small businesses with small staffs, digital consultants said.

For one thing, there is so much online content to wade through. Roughly 60 per cent of all adults get information about local businesses from search engines and entertainment websites such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, according to a 2011 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

“Customer service is a spectator sport now,” said Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, a social media marketing consultancy in Indiana. “It’s not about making that customer happy on Yelp. That’s the big misunderstanding of Yelp. It’s about the hundreds of thousands of people who are looking on to see how you handle it. It’s those ripples that make social media so important.”

In their “Kitchen Nightmares” episode, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo are seen yelling and cursing at customers inquiring about undercooked food or long delays. They blame online bullies.

“We stand up to them,” Amy Bouzaglo tells the camera at one point. “They come and they try to attack us and say horrible things that are not true.”

That’s exactly how businesses shouldn’t respond, the digital experts said.

“If your policy is to berate the customer online, that doesn’t create good public relations,” Garrity said.

Baer said he tells clients to create a response matrix representing different potential complaints that staff can refer to whenever bad feedback arises. Creating the comment chart before the bad publicity hits helps ensure businesses aren’t responding to angry or disappointed customers with their own anger or disappointment, Baer said.

A 2011 Harvard study found Yelp’s 40 million reviews disproportionately affect small businesses. The research found a one-star increase in Yelp’s five-star rating system resulted in a revenue jump of up to 9 per cent for some restaurants, while chains with sizable advertising budgets were unaffected.

“You have to respond 100 per cent of the time, whether you like it or not,” Baer said. “Businesses need to assign someone to stay on top of it.”

In Arizona, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo had planned a grand reopening ceremony and news conference for Tuesday, but the news conference was cancelled late Monday after legal threats from Fox.

Fewer than a dozen people were waiting when the restaurant reopened Tuesday. Four guards blocked the door and turned reporters away. Inside, a smiling Samy Bouzaglo posed for pictures and told customers that the tension captured in the episode was staged. That was a disappointment for some.

“I wanted it to be dramatic and people yelling,” said Ricky Potts, a 29-year-old blogger who ate at the restaurant for the first time Tuesday only to declare the food good and the service routine. “Basically, I wanted it to be the circus that the TV episode was.”

The Bank of Japan ended a policy meeting on Wednesday with no change to its strategy of doubling the monetary base to reach a 2 per cent inflation target and jolt the economy out of two decades of stagnation. That outcome was expected.

The central bank said in a statement, though, that there is a “high degree of uncertainty concerning Japan’s economy” and that prices show no signs yet of rebounding.

Japan’s economy grew 3.5 per cent last quarter, but progress in increasing exports and boosting corporate investment and wages has lagged. A weakening in the Japanese yen linked to the aggressive monetary easing has helped stabilize exports, which climbed 3.8 per cent in April from a year earlier, but it is also accentuating rising import costs.

The trade deficit jumped nearly 70 per cent over a year earlier to 879.9 billion yen ($8.6 billion) in April, according to preliminary figures reported Wednesday by the Finance Ministry.

Japan’s trade deficit ballooned to a record $83.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March, as imports climbed and a surge in exports to the U.S. failed to offset the impact from territorial tensions with China and weak demand from crisis-stricken Europe.

In April, exports totalled 5.78 trillion yen ($56.3 billion), but their increase was dwarfed by a 9.4 per cent jump in imports, to 6.66 trillion yen ($64.9 billion).

The yen has slid in value by over 20 per cent against the U.S. dollar and euro, in turn pushing up other currencies in relative value. That has raised costs for imports of crude oil, gas and other commodities for this resource-scarce nation.

In April, the cost of oil imports slipped as crude oil prices moderated, but the value of imports of liquefied natural gas jumped 18 per cent from a year earlier. Japan’s demand for natural gas has ballooned since most of its nuclear power plants remain closed following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. The deterioration in the trade balance is adding to pressure from the pro-nuclear government to restart more plants.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made a recovery of Japan’s export industries a priority of his administration. While he’s achieved the end to what the Japanese called the “endaka,” or high yen era, longer-term structural reforms to improve Japan’s international competitiveness are still pending.

The U.S. remained Japan’s biggest export market in April, as shipments rose 15 per cent to 1.1 trillion yen ($10.7 billion), while imports edged up less than 1 per cent to 534 billion yen ($5.2 billion), leaving a surplus in of 563 billion yen ($5.5 billion).

The deficit with China rose 60 per cent to 442 billion yen ($4.3 billion) as exports edged slightly higher from a year earlier to 998.4 billion yen ($9.7 billion), while imports surged 13.3 per cent to 1.44 trillion yen ($14 billion). Exports to the European Union fell 3.5 per cent.

Biden says culture and arts change people’s attitudes. He cites social media and the old NBC TV series “Will and Grace” as examples of what helped changed attitudes on gay marriage.

Biden says, quote, “Think — behind of all that, I bet you 85 per cent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media, are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry.”

Biden says the influence is immense and that those changes have been for the good.

Biden was speaking Tuesday night at a Jewish American Heritage Month reception hosted by the Democratic National Committee. He says Jewish values are an essential part of who Americans are.

The accident happened as the Canadian Pacific Rail (TSX:CP) eastbound train was rolling through an area near the village of Jansen, about 150 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.

The company said five cars derailed, but only one leaked its contents. A total of 575 barrels hit the ground, said spokesman Ed Greenberg.

“There is one car that was leaking product,” Greenberg said. “It has been contained into the area around the car.”

The leaking car was well back in the 64-unit train and remained upright. The other four cars were on their sides.

Excavation equipment was being sent to the site to build a wall of dirt to further contain the spill.

Reeve Bruce Elke with the rural municipality of Jansen was content with the way the situation was being handled, although he noted he was seeding his farmland and had not been to the scene.

“My understanding was that it wasn’t that big a spill and everything is going well,” Elke said.

Oilspills of any sort have been increasingly under the microscope as debate rages over how best to get Canadian oil to foreign markets.

CP Rail has been increasing crude shipments as production ramps up from the oilsands and pipeline companies struggle to increase capacity quickly. Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR) moved more than 30,000 carloads of crude to various North American markets last year and believes it can double that business in 2013.

However, in New York earlier this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested rail was a riskier way to go while stumping for U.S. approval of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.

Tuesday’s spill marked at least the third involving a CP train in the last few months.

In April, about 20 freight cars, including two that were carrying light sweet crude oil, went off the tracks near White River, Ont., about halfway between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. While it was initially thought that only 630 litres of oil leaked, the total was revised to about 63,000 litres.

In March, a Canadian Pacifictrain derailed in Minnesota. At the time, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said 76,000 litres leaked onto the still-frozen ground.

In January a Canadian National train collided with a road grader near the community of Paynton in Saskatchewan. Police said at the time that about 1,000 litres of oil leaked from two tankers in that crash.

Greenberg said the train that detailed Tuesday was carrying other products besides oil, but there was no indication they were hazardous.

“It was a mixed freight train, so there were other rail cars with other commodities on it.”

Firefighters from Jansen were called in as a precaution.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada was sending an investigator to the site.

Toronto Stock Exchange (12,742.43 up 129.38 points):

Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G). Miner. Up 77 cents, or 2.90 per cent, at $27.35 on 30.83 million shares. The gold sector led advancers on the main index, up 3.16 per cent to 185.89 points.

Eastern Platinum Ltd. (TSX:ELR). Miner. Unchanged at nine cents on 11.27 million shares.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (TSX:COS). Oil and gas. Up 24 cents, or 1.17 per cent, at $20.81 on 8.99 million shares. The energy sector was one of the gainers, rising 1.34 per cent to 255.02 points.

Surge Energy Inc. (TSX:SGY). Oil and gas. Up 10 cents, or 2.09 per cent, at $24.89 on 8.49 million shares.

Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Transportation equipment. Down 13 cents, or 2.77 per cent, at $4.56 on 6.27 million shares.

San Gold Corp. (TSX:SGR). Miner. Unchanged at 12 cents on 6.26 million shares.

Toronto Venture Exchange (939.41 up 4.74 points):

Revolver Resources Inc. (TSXV:RZ). Miner. Unchanged at four cents on 4.41 million shares.

Madalena Ventures Inc. (TSXV:MVN). Oil and gas explorer. Unchanged at 43.5 cents on 4.08 million shares.

Companies reporting major news:

Canaccord Financial Inc. (TSX:CF). Investment company. Up 27 cents, or 4.53 per cent, at $6.23 on 181,889 shares. A 23 per cent jump in revenue and an acquisition helped the investment firm get back in the black in the fourth quarter. For the full year, Canaccord shrunk its loss as revenue also jumped 23 per cent.

DHX Media Ltd. (TSX:DHX). Entertainment. Down two cents, or 0.65 per cent, at at $3.08 on 111,976 shares. The children’s entertainment company has licensed certain rights to its programming in three separate deals with Global Movie PTE Ltd., SBP Worldwide SA and Media International Enterprises. Financial terms of the agreements weren’t disclosed.

The Nielsen company estimated that 14.3 million people watched Candice Glover’s victory over Kree Harrison in last week’s final episode of the season. Both the CBS drama “NCIS” and comedy “The Big Bang Theory” had more viewers last week.

The fall for “Idol” is startling. Just two years ago, the show drew 29.3 million people for its season finale, more than double what it had this year. Big changes are expected for the show going forward.

The “American Idol” high water mark was the 38.1 million who watched the season conclusion in 2003.

The S-and-P/T-S-X composite index climbed 129.38 points to 12,742.23.

Volume at 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time was 416.93 (m) million shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 52.30 points to 15,387.58.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 was up 2.87 points at 1,669.16.

Both indexes closed at its highest level ever.

In the New York Mercantile Exchange, the gold futures contract for June slipped six dollars, 50 cents U-S to 1,377 dollars, 60 cents per ounce.

The June crude contract closed 55 cents U-S lower to 96 dollars, 16 cents per barrel.

The July contract fell 75 cents U-S to 96 dollars, 18 cents per barrel.

(The Canadian Press, The Associated Press)

—

JDT

The investment firm said the profit amounted to four cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31 compared with loss of $31.8 million or 42 cents per diluted share a year ago.

Revenue in what was Canaccord’s fourth quarter was $218 million, up from $177.7 million.

Excluding restructuring and other one-time costs, Canaccord said it earned $15.6 million or 12 cents per diluted share in the quarter, up from $2.1 million or two cents per share a year ago.

Canaccord president and chief executive Paul Reynolds said it was a pivotal year for the firm with its acquisition and integration of Britain’s Collins Stewart Hawkpoint.

“In doing so, we eliminated significant costs, aligned staffing levels with market opportunities and grew our cross-border client services,” Reynolds said in a statement.

“Together, these activities have strengthened our business and meaningfully enhanced our operating margins since the beginning of the year.”

The acquisition of the London-based financial advisory group significantly increased Canaccord’s reach in the U.K. and the U.S., and gave it a presence in Singapore.

For the full financial year ended March 31, the company lost $18.8 million or 31 cents per share on $797.1 million in revenue. That compared with a loss of $21.3 million or 33 cents per share on $604.9 million in revenue in the previous year.

Excluding restructuring and other one-time items, the company earned $25.6 million or 14 cents per share for the year, compared with $25.2 million or 25 cents per share a year earlier when it had fewer shares outstanding.

Canaccord has wealth management and investment banking operations around the world, with offices in 13 countries.