As investors returned from the long weekend, the focus has once again shifted to the Federal Reserve in the U.S., which has given conflicting signals over future rate hikes. Investors are not willing to take bets until there is more clarity. As a result, markets in the U.S. and Canada were essentially flat in trading on Monday.
The pace of rate hikes could be decided later this week when the U.S. Labor Department releases the all-important non-farm payrolls data for the month of March. A strong report could prompt the Fed to announce a rate hike as early as April. That could hurt risk assets such as equities.
Although the general sentiment is cautious, there were some major movers in trading on Monday. One stock making waves was Eurocontrol Technics Group Inc. (TSX-Venture:EUO).
Based in Toronto, EUO specializes in the acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative authentication, verification and certification technologies. While the stock was trading higher most of the day on Monday, EUO shares closed 2.78% lower at $0.175 on volume of 523,000.
EUO shares were gaining momentum after the company announced that its subsidiary, Xenemetrix Ltd., has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Netafil, an Israel-based company focusing on drip and micro-irrigation solutions for sustainable agricultural productivity.
The MoU focuses on the development of a unique and innovative testing system using Xenemetrix’s Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) technology for farmers and the greater farming community.
The solution the collaboration seeks to develop will be offered as a unique and innovative service to Netafim's farming client base for performing immediate tests of crops, soil and water in the field to replace the traditional method of sending samples to laboratories and waiting days for results.
The MOU also provides for an exclusivity term of two years for the initial commercialization phase to ensure the rapid time-to-market and launch of a mature solution that will boost revenue and reduce expenses for the farmer.
Commenting on the development, Bruce Rowlands, CEO at Eurocontrol, said that precision agriculture is an area the company has long seen as a perfect fit for its ED-XRF mobile technology.
Rowlands further said that the company is thrilled to be collaborating with Netafim, which is a world leader in farming innovation, in the development of a mobile testing solution for farmers worldwide in this developing market that is estimated to grow to $2.4 billion a year by
2020.
