Here are five things you need to know this morning:

April Fools: It’s April 1, a day business journalists (and overly exuberant public relations interns) should live in fear of, thanks to the corporate urge to put out false news releases today, under the guise of winning over consumers with a little levity. Govern your news consumption accordingly. April Fools is a minefield of fake news at the best of times, but that’s not to suggest all the news today is without impact, as there’s at least one major piece of news relevant to all Canadians. The much ballyhooed increase to the federal carbon tax is now in force, which ups the levy for a tonne of carbon from $65 previously to $80 as of now. Most consumers will feel the hike most directly when filling up at the pump, as the increase should adjust more than three cents to the retail price for a litre of gasoline. That’s on top of the 14 cents it was previously.

Fool’s bargain: April 1 also marks the end of an era of sorts in the world of international trade, as pre-Brexit provisions that allowed the U.K. to sell products containing European Union parts to Canada without tariffs expire today. The failure to hammer out an extension on the so-called rules of origin provisions comes after both countries hit pause on talks to negotiate a broader free trade agreement that both sides claim to want. The biggest impact of this specific development is likely to be felt in the automotive sector, where Canada is Britain’s eighth-largest export market, with just shy of $1.2 billion worth of vehicles coming from the U.K. to Canada last year. Pre-Brexit, those cars were tariff-free, but as of now, some of them will face a levy of 6.1 per cent, which works out to about $5,000 per vehicle, British car industry officials say.

No fool’s gold: The price of gold surged to a new record high above US$2,265 an ounce on Monday, as global geopolitics and stubbornly high inflation continue to drive demand for the precious metal. Central banks have stepped up their bullion buying in recent months and investment banks are scrambling to up their price forecasts too. JPMorgan says $2,500 is possible, while the commodities strategists at Goldman Sachs say $2,300 is their new expectation. “Gold is just on a raging bull market,” Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone told BNN Bloomberg’s The Street this morning. “Maybe it’s overbought in the short term … but it’s been consolidating around $2,000 for four years so it’s just catching up.”

Fool me twice, TSX: Today could be the day for a new all-time high on the TSX. As things stand before markets open on Monday, Canada’s benchmark stock index sits at 22,167. That’s less than 50 points from its highest level ever, which it hit on April 5, 2022, at 22,213. Stock markets in the U.S. have hit record high after record high this year, but the TSX has mostly been sitting on the sidelines, so it will be interesting to see if the TSX will officially join the party. The TSX set a new high-water earlier this month, but so far it has yet to top its highest intraday mark ever.

Foolish game: The war of words between the board at Gildan and its dissident shareholder group ratcheted up anew this weekend, as ousted CEO Glenn Chamandy outlined his plan for what he would do if he gets his job back. The saga began when the long-time exec was ousted at the end of last year, but a group of shareholders have been pushing to have him back in the top job ever since, and are trying to block a current plan to sell the company. Chamandy and Browning West, a major shareholder of the company, have put out details of how they plan to run the company if a shareholder vote goes their way next month, and it’s a plan that they say will more than double the company’s profitability by 2028 and take the stock price to $100 -- from $37 today -- within five years.