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These are stories Report on Business is following Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015.

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From four wheels to two
If you want to transform your old bike into a luxury Lincoln Navigator, you're obviously out of luck.

But if you ever want to turn your car into a bicycle, Ford Motor Co. may one day have just the thing for you.

A recently-published patent application shows that Ford is proposing a vehicle whose parts can be assembled to form a bike.

The application was actually made in the summer of 2013 by subsidiary Ford Global Technologies LLC, but published this month by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Here's how Ford describes it:

"A motor vehicle includes a body configured to house a removable frame, a spare wheel, a removable headrest, and a jack. The frame, the spare wheel, the removable headrest, and the jack can be assembled into a bicycle."

So, for example, the headrest becomes the bike seat. The jack includes a worm gear assembly. And so on.

The drawings suggest a weird-looking bicycle, as you can imagine, but the possible applications are interesting.

In theory, you could park your car and skirt a massive traffic jam, or park far away from your office and bike the rest of the way. And not have to pay those outrageous downtown parking fees.

"Mobility in urban areas becomes increasingly difficult with population growth since increasing the infrastructure to accommodate a larger population can be difficult," Ford says in the application.

"For example, adding roads or increasing the size of existing roads to accommodate more passenger vehicles in urban areas can be onerous," it adds.

"Even if more roads were added and/or existing roads expanded, commuters to urban areas may nevertheless encounter increased pollution and parking shortages."

Inflation eases
Gasoline prices may be tumbling, but food costs are rising fast.

Consumer prices dipped in January by 0.2 per cent, for the third month in a row, Statistics Canada said today, while the annual pace of inflation eased to 1 per cent from December's 1.5 per cent.

But driving that, of course, were lower prices at the pump, The Globe and Mail's David Parkinson reports.

If you strip out gas, annual inflation rose to 2.4 per cent from 2.3 per cent.

But other costs rose, some markedly.

Food prices, for example, rose over the 12 months by 4.6 per cent, marking the fastest pace since late 2011.

Food bought at stores climbed 5.4 per cent, and restaurant meals rose by 2.8 per cent.

Shelter costs also climbed, by 2 per cent.

The picture also changes on a regional basis: All four eastern provinces saw deflation on an annual basis, while other provinces experienced a slower pace.

So-called core prices, which strip out volatile items and help guide the Bank of Canada, rose 0.2 per cent on the month and 2.2 per cent on a 12-month basis.

"Headline inflation is running out of gas, but core has a bit more juice left in its tank," said Nick Exarhos of CIBC World Markets.

"Notwithstanding that deceleration from the December's reading, the January's pace was still two ticks higher than the market was expecting, in part due to continued strength in food prices, which were up 0.7 per cent on the month," he added.

"Inflationary pressures there are in part due to continued pass through from the weaker C$, a theme also prevalent in the readings on the Bank of Canada's preferred core measure."

In the United States, prices also fell, by 0.7 per cent monthly and by 0.1 per cent on an annual basis, marking the first decline for the latter since the fall of 2009.

Banks hike dividends
Two more of Canada's big banks are boosting their dividends.

As The Globe and Mail's David Berman writes, both Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Toronto-Dominion Bank unveiled the increases today with their first-quarter earnings reports.

CIBC is hiking its quarterly payout by 3 cents to $1.06, and TD by 4 cents to 51 cents.

CIBC profit slipped to $923-million, or $2.28 a share in the first quarter.

Adjusted profit rose to $956-million or $2.36, beating the expectations of analysts.

TD, in turn, posted a rise in profit to $2.06-billion or $1.09 a share.

Earnings pour in
Other major companies are also reporting quarterly results today.

Markets mixed
Global markets are mixed so far this morning.

Tokyo's Nikkei gained 1.1 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.5 per cent.

Other markets are more muted at this point.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was down 0.1 by about 8:40 a.m. ET, while the Paris CAC 40 and Germany's DAX were up by between 0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent.

S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average futures were up.

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 4:00pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
CM-N
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
+1.3%50.72
CM-T
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
+1.13%68.67
F-N
Ford Motor Company
+1.68%13.28
MFI-T
Maple Leaf Foods
-2.8%22.21
TD-T
Toronto-Dominion Bank
-0.63%81.75

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