2026-05-27
[Bnn News]: In front of a packed room of Canadian corporate defence and security leaders, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada has entered negotiations to procure GlobalEye, an advanced aerial surveillance system developed in Sweden that uses Canadian-made jets.
[Bnn Bloomberg Canada]: BMO tops estimates on capital markets strength: Bank of Montreal topped profit estimates in the second quarter on robust fee revenue across capital markets and wealth management. Global markets and corporate banking were also up significantly from a year earlier. BMO earned $2.6 billion, or $3.53 per share, up 34 per cent from the same quarter last year. The bank increased its quarterly dividend by four cents per share. BMO’s provisions for loan losses were lower than expected.
Scotia beats but credit provisions above estimates: Profit in the latest quarter at Bank of Nova Scotia beat estimates, thanks to strength in its Canadian banking division. It also announced an increase to its quarterly dividend of 4 cents a share. The bank says it expects to see earnings increase by double digits as it works to cut costs. On the downside, Scotia’s provisions for credit losses were higher than expected.
CWB deal boosts National: National Bank beat analysts’ projections in their second quarter profit and revenue. The Montreal-based lender’s performance was driven by credit discipline and share buybacks. The bank also saw growth in its personal and commercial banking income. This comes after the bank closed the purchase of Canadian Western Bank in February 2025. It’s also raising its quarterly dividend by 8 cents per share.
Lululemon reaches agreement with founder: Lululemon says it’s reached an agreement to end its feud with founder and largest individual shareholder Chip Wilson. The company agrees to appoint two of Wilson’s nominees to the board. A product and brand expert will also be appointed. In exchange, Wilson agrees not to criticize the company in private or public for 18 months.
Latest U.S. trade position from top Trump official: The United States’ top trade official says the U.S. wants changes to continental trade rules to favour American content … but he sees a path to preferential tariff treatment for Canada and Mexico if they co-operate with external tariffs on other countries. At the same time, Jamieson Greer warned that negotiations with Canada around the future of the country’s auto sector could be difficult, while discussions about trade in commodities should prove easier. Mr. Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, was speaking in Washington yesterday, one day before travelling to Mexico City for the first round of negotiations ahead of a review of the CUSMA trade agreement.
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2026-05-26
[Bnn Bloomberg Canada]: Stocks set to open higher as investors watch Iran: North American stock markets are poised to open cautiously higher as investors remain hopeful that the latest American strikes on Iran won’t derail talks to end the Middle East conflict. S&P 500 futures rose 0.7 per cent, signaling U.S. stocks may rise when the market reopens after the Memorial Day holiday. Nasdaq 100 contracts gained more than one per cent as Magnificent Seven big tech shares rallied in premarket trading. Both indexes, supercharged by the artificial intelligence trade, are within 0.4 per cent of this month’s record closes. Canada’s TSX composite Monday jumped by more than one per cent closing at a new record high.
Canada and India talk trade deal: Canada is working on a comprehensive deal with India to boost trade and investment. This comes as Indian commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal is in the midst of a three-day visit. Goyal met with Prime Minister Mark Carney in the effort to strengthen bilateral ties. Carney says a deal with India would be a “game changer” for Canadian businesses and workers. The two sides say they hope to conclude a deal by the end of the year.
U.S. firm taking stake in Calgary company: American firm Northern Oil and Gas is acquiring a stake in Calgary-based Parallax Energy. The $350 million cash and stock deal between the two privately-held companies will give Northern a 25 per cent interest in light oil producing properties and 75-thousand acres in the Duvernay shale basin in Alberta. Under the agreement, Parallax will continue to operate the assets owned by Northern.
BP removes chairman: BP’s board has removed its chairman, Albert Manifold, effective immediately. The company says there are serious concerns about governance oversight and conduct. Manifold only took over as chairman of the British energy major in October. Manifold’s removal comes as the company was supposed to be turning itself around after years of poor performance. BP says Ian Tyler will take over as chair on an interim basis.
Thumbs down for Ferrari EV: Shares of Ferrari traded lower in the premarket, after critics took a look at the carmaker’s first fully electric vehicle. The unveiling of the Ferrari Luce drew largely negative reactions from industry analysts and social media influencers. The design of the US$640,000 EV is being compared to mass market EVs. However, with a remarkable top speed, driving Ferrari’s Luce might deliver different views.
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2026-05-25
[Bnn Bloomberg Canada]: Oil drops, stocks rally on Iran peace optimism
Global stocks are rallying and oil prices are sinking as the U.S. and Iran inch closer to a deal to extend their ceasefire and re-open the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. stock futures have surged on the news, though there will be no regular U.S. trading due to the Memorial Day holiday. European indices rose by about one per cent apiece. Benchmark U.S. crude oil declined $4.77, or more than four per cent, to $91.83 a barrel. Officials from both sides are signalling they still need to negotiate certain points. U.S. President Donald Trump says talks on ending the war are proceeding. A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry says no one can claim the signing of an agreement is imminent.
Pembina approves $570M natural gas facility
Pembina Pipeline is going ahead with a new natural gas processing facility in Alberta. The Heartland extraction plant has an estimated cost of about $570 million and an anticipated start date in late 2029. Following extraction the ethane mix will be processed at Dow’s Fort Saskatchewan facility and Pembina’s Red Water complex.
PM Carney heading to New York
Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in New York City later this week for meetings with investors, including CEOs, entrepreneurs, business leaders and capital managers. Carney will deliver remarks at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, where he will outline Canada’s new economic strategy and the progress made so far.
Uber launches bid for Delivery Hero
Uber is offering to take over Delivery Hero in a deal valuing the German company at more than US$12.8 billion. Uber already owns 20 per cent of the food delivery company, however, the proposal offers no premium to its most recent closing price. This may create an opportunity for rival bids, with DoorDash expressing interest in the company as well. Investors believe a higher price will be required to close a deal.
Pope Leo Warns on dangers of AI
Artificial intelligence has a new critic. Pope Leo XIV says AI should be “disarmed” to protect humanity from its dangers. In a landmark address to the Catholic Church, the pope called for making AI more “human-friendly.” He says the technology needs to be freed from monopolistic control, shifting away from using it to achieve geopolitical or commercial gains. “To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern. To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity.”
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2026-05-22
[Bnn Bloomberg Canada]: Retail sales rise - but it’s all at gas stations: Canadian retail sales continue to rise, but surging gasoline prices appear to be increasingly eating into household budgets. An advance estimate from Statistics Canada suggests receipts for retailers rose 0.6 per cent in April, following a 0.9 per cent increase the previous month. In March, sales were up in four of nine sectors, led by a 12.4 per cent increase at gasoline stations and fuel vendors. Excluding gas, retail sales dropped 0.2 per cent.
CRTC raises Canadian content rules for streamers: Canada’s media regulator has unveiled new rules requiring streaming platforms to devote a larger share of their Canadian revenues to domestic and indigenous programming. Under the CRTC’s new framework, online streaming services will be required to direct 15 per cent of their Canadian revenue toward supporting Canadian content. Traditional broadcasters will see their minimum spending requirements lowered to 25 per cent. The new framework comes three years after Ottawa passed the Online Streaming Act, requiring the CRTC to impose spending requirements on streamers. However, those requirements are currently under appeal. As well, U.S. trade officials have voiced their opposition to the regulations.
New Fed chair to be sworn in: Kevin Warsh is set to be sworn into office today in a White House ceremony as the 17th chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Warsh takes over at a tense moment for the economy and the central bank. Inflation has reaccelerated, driven by the impact of war in the Middle East on energy supplies. The Fed, meanwhile, has been battered by U.S. President Donald Trump for not cutting interest rates quickly enough.
Tim’s ramping up expansion: Tim Hortons is ramping up its Canadian expansion plans, with parent company Restaurant Brands International aiming to open 80 new restaurants and renovate another 400 locations by the end of the year. The company says population growth and expanding suburban communities have created room for additional stores. The company and its franchisees are expected to invest a combined $400 million into the new openings and renovations. The move comes as U.S. chain Dunkin’ prepares to open “hundreds” of locations in Canada.
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2026-05-21
[Bnn Bloomberg Canada]: Nvidia tops expectations: The investing world was waiting anxiously for the latest results and outlook from Nvidia – and the most highly valued company on the planet did not disappoint. Nvidia beat expectations for first quarter profit and revenue, and boosted its sales forecast for the second quarter. The tech giant also authorized a US$80 billion share buyback and raised its quarterly dividend. The results indicate an attempt to diversify away from giant data centres, with CEO Jensen Huang emphasizing the significance of physical AI, including robots and automated vehicles.
Walmart disappoints: Shares of Walmart traded lower in the premarket. The world’s largest retailer missed its profit guidance for 2027. Operating income for the first quarter also came in slightly below expectations. Walmart says benefits from favourable merchandise and business mix were offset by higher fuel costs. On the upside, same store sales and revenue in the quarter saw growth, with global e-commerce sales also rising significantly.
CPP results below benchmark: The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ended its fiscal year with a net return of 7.8 per cent. The returns were helped by holdings in public equities and real assets. The results fell short of CPP’s benchmark portfolio which returned 13.2 per cent for the same period, boosted by heavier exposure to large tech companies. We’ll find out more when Amanda Lang speaks with John Graham, President and CEO of CPP Investments. You can watch that interview on Taking Stock, Friday at 3 P.M. E.T.
IBM getting boost from government investment: Shares of IBM traded higher in the premarket. The Wall Street Journal is reporting the venerable tech company will receive US$1 billion as part of the Trump administration’s investment in quantum computing. According to the report, the government is pledging a total of US$2 billion, with a grant also going to Global Foundries, which is developing specialized chips for quantum computing. The funding will give the government a stake in the companies.
Strategic reset for Stellantis: Stellantis has unveiled a major strategic reset. The automaker’s US$70 billion turnaround plan includes focusing about 70 per cent of its investments in key Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat brands, and sidelining Chrysler, Alfa Romeo and Opel. The plan also includes a new savings goal and aims at boosting profit and raising returns in North America and Europe by 2030.
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2026-05-20
[Ibkr]: Some Midweek Relief
Posted May 20, 2026 at 1:15 pm
Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist
www.interactivebrokers.com
SPX VIX NVDA
In the current market environment, three down days in a row is a long streak. It’s not at all surprising that stocks would look for a chance to rebound after a modest drop, even if it would be considered insignificant under normal circumstances. The key to today’s reaction started in the bond market, where the recent jump in yields was indeed relatively momentous. It then continued when oil dropped after some optimistic comments about Iran from the President. The pattern continues…
Stocks took another leg higher at 11:15 ET after a White House pool report emerged with a comment from the President saying the US was in the “final stages” of talks with Iran. That certainly seems like a solid reason for a combined move higher in stocks, bonds, and the dollar, alongside a drop in oil futures. But these moves were already in effect well before that key headline. It turns out that the pool report was utilizing comments that were made by the President at Joint Base Andrews as he boarded a flight to Connecticut to address the graduates of the Coast Guard Academy in New London (huzzah!). Thus, although many traders had not seen the full report, news of that comment had clearly taken root among traders in the affected assets shortly after it was made around 10 AM.
Although we have commented that the recent decline in major stock indices is historically modest, that is not the case for the jump in bond yields over the past week. The 10-year yield was 4.41% last Monday, the day prior to the most recent CPI report. Yesterday, six trading days later, that same yield was 4.67%. It’s not typical for yields to jump by more than ¼% in a week, and stock traders should be thankful that the S&P 500 (SPX) fell by less than 1% during the same span.
Then again, the market demonstrates very low expectations for volatility. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) has been mired in the high teens for weeks and showed little inclination to bounce even during Friday’s selloff or yesterday’s more modest drop. Part of that can be explained by the relatively low levels of correlation among index components. The COR1M Index (Cboe 1-Month Implied Correlation Index) has been dragging itself along at relatively depressed levels over the past few weeks. The latter is not quite at its 1-year lows, but it is by no means boosting volatility.
We have previously mentioned the sort of ratchet effect that accompanies positive rhetoric about the situation in the Persian Gulf. Stocks and bonds rally (yields fall) and oil sinks whenever there is positive news about peace talks or a possible resolution to the war. Yet the aftereffects have differed since the end of March. When the talks lead nowhere, as they unfortunately have done multiple times, yields and oil return to their now-prevailing uptrends but stocks suffer no lasting ill effects.
We’ll see if that continues in the coming days. We have our usual hopes that today’s comments about the final stages of the war prove to be true, though we retain our now-well-earned skepticism that it will be the case immediately (especially when followed by comments like “we’ll see what happens” and “we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen”). It is more likely that this afternoon’s highly anticipated Nvidia (NVDA) earnings will set the tone for tomorrow’s trading.
[Bnn Bloomberg Canada]: Key chipmaker could be hit by strike: Talks between Samsung Electronics Co. and its largest labor union broke down, raising the prospect of a strike that may disrupt global chip supply and hamper an important engine of Korean economic growth. A general work stoppage will go ahead on Thursday after Samsung’s management rejected a proposal from government mediators that had been accepted by the union, labor leader Choi Seung-ho told reporters. The collapse in negotiations puts the global technology supply chain at risk because Samsung is the world’s biggest supplier of the chips that go into devices from data center servers to smartphones and electric vehicles. The global AI infrastructure rollout has enriched South Korean companies on a scale not seen before, putting Samsung on track to become one of the world’s most profitable firms this year. Its semiconductor arm posted a 48-fold jump in profit for the March quarter.
New Alberta rail hub for propane and butane: Keyera will build a rail hub in Alberta’s industrial heartland to transport propane and butane to export facilities on Canada’s west coast in an effort to diversify its market reach and tap growing global demand. The energy company is partnering with Canadian National Railway and energy-infrastructure company AltaGas on the project, which will combine its Alberta corridor export terminal with CN’s rail network and AltaGas’s export platform. The terminal will be owned and built by Keyera on its lands in Alberta, and supported by long-term deals with the other two companies. Keyera said its initial investment will be about $240 million including about $100 million on top of its already-disclosed spending guidance for 2026. When it starts up, the terminal is expected to provide transportation capacity of about 45,000 barrels a day of propane and butane from the Fort Saskatchewan region to West Coast export facilities. Construction is already underway, including land clearing activities, with an expected in-service date of mid-2028, Keyera said.
Oil drops as U.K. eases sanctions against Russia: Oil fell for a second day as traders weighed President Donald Trump’s latest threat to resume strikes on Iran. Brent traded near US$109 a barrel, after losing 0.7 per cent on Tuesday, while West Texas Intermediate was around US$103. Trump said that the Iran war is going to end “very quickly” and that Iran “wants to make a deal badly” at the White House Congressional Picnic. Trump’s remarks followed earlier comments that the U.S. “may have to give them another big hit” if Tehran rejects American peace terms, less than a day after he said he had called off an attack. Meanwhile, The U.K. moved to loosen its Russian sanctions in a controversial move aimed at preventing shortages of diesel and jet fuel, as the war in Iran eats into global oil buffers. The move highlights how Britain has become more reliant on fuel imports than other major European nations, and has prompted political backlash over the government’s commitment to support Ukraine. The European Union is not currently planning a similar measure, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named discussing non-public information.
Target continues to improve: Target Corp.’s turnaround bid is gaining traction, with the company posting its best comparable sales growth in four years and boosting its outlook. The retailer that has been struggling to revive growth after a pandemic-fueled boom showed Wednesday that it’s making progress. Comparable sales jumped 5.6 per cent last quarter, the biggest increase since the end of 2021 and triple the gain analysts were expecting. The chain also raised its annual revenue guidance by two percentage points to about four per cent. Last quarter was the retailer’s first under new Chief Executive Officer Michael Fiddelke and shows the chain’s strategy, which includes freshening up merchandise and stores and integrating more technology operations, is paying off. Target is looking to win back increasingly selective shoppers amid resurgent concerns about inflation as the conflict in the Middle East boosts gas prices. Competitors such as Walmart Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. have been gaining market share with low prices, increased online options and expanded selections.
Another home improvement company has tough quarter: Lowe’s reported disappointing sales growth in the first quarter and kept its full-year outlook unchanged, citing a challenging housing environment. Comparable sales rose 0.6 per cent during the period, the company said Wednesday, below the average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. Lowe’s adjusted earnings per share of US$3.03 beat expectations. Lowe’s shares fell as much as 3.8 per cent in premarket trading, after slumping by 9.5 per cent this year through Tuesday’s close. U.S. consumers remain squeezed because of higher fuel costs in the wake of the Iran war, even though there are some signs that the nation’s housing slump may finally be ending. An index of market conditions from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo showed that U.S. homebuilder sentiment rebounded in May. While Lowe’s recent acquisitions in the professional contractor segment may squeeze margins in the near term, they should lead to stronger long-term growth, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Drew Reading wrote. Lowe’s pro customers comprise roughly 30 per cent of sales, he said.
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2026-05-19
[Bnn Bloomberg Canada]: Inflation hits highest level in two years: Higher energy prices drove up Canada’s inflation rate to 2.8 per cent in April, reaching its highest level in nearly two years but coming in lower than economists had expected as core measures cooled. The conflict in the Middle East continued to push up gasoline prices last month, which rose by 28.6 per cent from a year ago. Excluding gasoline, the consumer price index rose by two per cent. While price growth reached its fastest pace since May 2024 and ticked up from 2.4 per cent in March, it was still lower than the 3.1 per cent rate economists were expecting.
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