The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average notched fresh highs.
Disney to invest $1 billion in OpenAI and will license the startup its characters.
SpaceX will launch IPO in 2026, Elon Musk confirmed.
Broadcom’s fourth-quarter results beat expectations, but shares slumped in extended trading.
Analysts are re-looking their price targets for Oracle stock.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced on Thursday, with both hitting fresh closing records. The Russell 2000 index also ended the session at a new high, following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s quarter-point cut on Wednesday.
But if investors analyze Thursday’s individual stock movements, they will see not all is well with the AI play yet. Oracle shares plunged nearly 11% after reporting on Wednesday weak quarterly revenue, dragging down AI-related names such as Nvidia and Micron.
In extended trading, Broadcom shares fell 4.5%. The chipmaker beat Wall Street’s expectations for earnings and revenue, but CEO Hock Tan appeared to have failed to address worries that their largest customer, Google, might eventually make more of its chips in-house. Rising memory prices would also pressure margins, while the company’s chip deal with OpenAI might not be binding.
That’s why the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.26% despite other major U.S. indexes hitting records. Putting the two together, that means investors are rotating out of tech into other parts of the market. The S&P 500 financials sector, for instance, closed at a fresh record, buoyed by jumps in Visa and Mastercard.
Even though the AI theme seems to be under scrutiny, other sectors are performing well on the back of a resilient U.S. economy — as signaled by Fed officials on Wednesday — and buoyed by interest-rate cut. So long as nothing throws a spanner in the works, looks like we’re all set for a happy holiday season.
— CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos contributed to this report.
Gold edged lower on Thursday, as traders weighed the U.S. Federal Reserve’s divided vote on a quarter-percentage-point interest rate cut, while silver climbed to yet another record high.
Spot gold fell 0.3% to $4,216.49 per ounce. U.S. gold futures for February delivery gained 0.5% to $4,244.40 per ounce.
“It’s just an overpositioning (in gold) in expectation of the rate cut, which did happen, and therefore you’re seeing some selling pressure,” said independent analyst Ross Norman, adding that gold’s fundamentals remained intact.
The Fed cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday in a rare divided vote, but signalled a pause on further easing as officials look ahead to assess the direction of the job market and inflation that “remains somewhat elevated.”
Lower interest rates typically benefit non-yielding assets such as gold.
Projections issued after the two-day meeting showed most policymakers see just one rate cut in 2026. Fed Chair Jerome Powell offered no indication of when another cut might occur.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the Fed’s rate cut could have been larger. Trump is set to announce the new Fed chair early next year, with White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett seen as a frontrunner.
Investors are now looking out for November’s non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate data, due on December 16, for further clues on the Fed’s next move.
Spot silver rose 0.6% to $62.16 per ounce, after hitting a record high of $62.88 earlier in the session, bringing its year-to-date gain to 115% on strong industrial demand, declining inventories and its addition to the U.S. critical minerals list.
“Silver’s fundamentals remain incredibly positive. There is a phenomenal tailwind with the critical minerals list and the possibility that we might see some stock building,” which would further increase market tightness, Norman added.
Canada posted a small monthly international trade surplus in September, reversing a trend of seven consecutive months of deficits, data showed on Thursday.
It registered a marginal trade surplus of $153-million in September, following a $6.43-billion deficit in the prior month, Statistics Canada said.
This was the first surplus that Canada has posted since President Donald Trump threatened and later imposed tariffs on critical sectors which choked significant exports to the U.S., Canada’s biggest trading partner. The bulk of the surplus was driven by a 44-per-cent jump in Canada’s trade surplus with the U.S., Statscan’s data showed.
The September trade data, which was due in November, was delayed as information for Canadian exports to the U.S. were unavailable due to a 43-day government shutdown in the U.S.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the trade deficit at $4.5-billion for September. Economists said the trade numbers show that Canada’s international merchandise trade was finally starting to normalize.
“Overall story is really positive,” said Prince Owusu, senior economist with Export Development Canada.
“It seems to suggest that the trade flow with the United States is beginning to stabilize,” he said, adding that the trend of diversification from the U.S. that started is also continuing.
Canada’s total exports in September grew by 6.3 per cent to $64.23-billion, rebounding from a drop of 3.2 per cent in August, and was driven by higher exports in nine out of 11 product sections. This was the largest percentage increase since February, 2024. This was led by U.S. exports that grew by 4.6 per cent and exports to countries other than the U.S. growing by 11 per cent, Statscan said.
Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products and aircraft and transportation equipment and parts led the gains with over 20-per-cent rise in exports. In volume terms, total exports rose 4.1 per cent, the statistics agency said. Total merchandise imports dropped by 4.1 per cent in September to $64.08-billion.
Exports to the U.S. grew by 4.6 per cent in September to $45.84-billion, helped by outbound shipments of aircraft, light trucks and unwrought gold, Statscan said.
Exports to the U.S. grew to $45.84-billion from $43.83-billion in August, helped by outbound shipments of aircraft, light trucks and unwrought gold, Statscan said.
The U.S. accounted for over 71 per cent of Canada’s exports in September. Imports from the U.S. declined 1.7 per cent in September, a third consecutive monthly decrease, taking Canada’s trade surplus with the U.S. to its highest level since February.
Higher shipments of unwrought gold, crude oil and aircraft led the jump in exports to countries other than the U.S. Imports from countries other than the U.S. dropped 7.3 per cent. Canada’s trade deficit with countries other than the United States has narrowed sharply, posting the lowest deficit since October, 2024, Statscan said.
The Canadian dollar firmed in early trade and was trading up 0.2 per cent to 1.3767 to the U.S. dollar, or 72.64 U.S. cents. Yields on the two-year government bonds were down 0.2 basis points to 2.524 per cent.
Empire Co. Ltd. EMP-A-T -8.98%decrease says it earned $159-million in its latest quarter, down from $173-million in the same quarter last year.
The company behind Sobeys says its profit amounted to 69 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Nov. 1 compared with a profit of 73 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Sales for what was the company’s second quarter totalled $8-billion, up from $7.8-billion in the same quarter last year.
Same-store sales were up two per cent, while food same-store sales rose 2.5 per cent.
RBC analyst Irene Nattel said operating results were in line with forecast, “underpinned by solid merchandising strategies in place to address ongoing value-seeking consumer spending behaviour.”
She said Empire continued to execute on its strategy to maximize revenues in full-service stores despite the broader consumer shift to discount banners, while growing its discount presence.
Newly named chief executive Pierre St-Laurent said the company is looking to set up more storefronts “because we believe we have room to grow.”
“We are underdeveloped in discount, so we will grow discount,” he told analysts during a conference call on Thursday.
“We have a lot of white space in discount, but we won’t just focus on discount because there (are) other markets where it’s not a discount market and there’s more opportunity to grow our Farm Boy, our Longo’s, our Food Land.”
Dollarama Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $321.7 million, up from $275.8 million in the same quarter last year. The retailer says the profit amounted to $1.17 per diluted share for the quarter ended Nov. 2, up from 98 cents per diluted share a year earlier. Sales for what was the third quarter of Dollarama’s 2026 financial year totalled $1.91 billion, up from $1.56 billion in the same quarter last year, boosted by the addition of 401 stores in Australia and growth in the number of stores in Canada. Comparable-store sales in Canada for the third quarter increased 6.0 per cent, including a 4.1 per cent increase in the number of transactions and a 1.9 per cent increase in average transaction size. In its outlook, Dollarama says it expects Canadian same-store sales growth of 4.2 per cent to 4.7 per cent for its 2026 financial year, up from earlier guidance for between 3.0 per cent and 4.0 per cent. The retail says it now expects Canadian gross margins between 45.0 per cent and 45.5 per cent, up from between 44.2 per cent and 45.2 per cent. Canadian capital expenditures are now expected to total between $240 million and $285 million, compared with earlier guidance for between $285 million and $330 million.
The Bank of Canada held its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday, moving back to the sidelines for what financial markets expect to be an extended pause.
As widely anticipated, the central bank kept its policy rate at 2.25 per cent, following cuts in September and October.
With the Canadian economy “proving resilient” in the face of U.S. tariffs, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said that the policy rate was at “about the right level to keep inflation close to 2 per cent while helping the economy through this period of structural adjustment.”
He added that the bank could resume easing if an economic shock or accumulation of weak data “materially change the outlook.”
Having lowered interest four times this year – and nine times since the summer of 2024 – the bank is now expected to remain on hold through the first half of next year. After the decision, financial markets are betting the bank’s next move will be a quarter-point hike in the fall of 2026, according to Bloomberg data.
In effect, monetary policy appears to have returned to a steady glide path after several years of volatility, which saw the bank cut the policy rate to near zero at the start of the pandemic then raise it rapidly to 5 per cent in an attempt to contain the biggest burst of inflation in 40 years.
Mr. Macklem said the bank believes underlying inflation is running at around 2.5 per cent, although he did not sound particularly concerned about upward pressure on prices.
“In the months ahead, we will see some choppiness in headline inflation, reflecting the temporary GST/HST holiday on some goods and services a year ago. This is likely to push inflation temporarily higher in the near term,” he said, according to the prepared text of his press conference remarks.
“Seeing through this choppiness, we expect ongoing economic slack to roughly offset cost pressures associated with the reconfiguration of trade, keeping CPI inflation close to the 2 per cent target.”
The bank’s move back to the sidelines follows a string of data suggesting the Canadian economy is weathering the trade war with the United States fairly well. Some industries, including steel, aluminum, lumber and automobiles, have been hit hard by U.S. tariffs. And business investment across many sectors is being constrained by uncertainty.
But overall, the economy is proving surprisingly sturdy. After a steep contraction in the second quarter, led by a collapse in exports, Canadian gross domestic product grew at an annualized pace of 2.6 per cent in the third quarter.
Some of this growth was the result of a statistical quirk tied to a swing in trade numbers. But the headline result was much stronger than expected, and a large upward revision to GDP numbers for the past three years suggests the Canadian economy was in better shape than realized heading into the current period of trade turmoil.
“We expect growth in final domestic demand to resume, but with an anticipated decline in net exports, GDP growth is likely to be weak in the fourth quarter before picking up in 2026,” Mr. Macklem said.
The labour market remains weak, but appears to be trending in a positive direction. Canada added around 180,000 jobs over the past three months and the unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent in November from 6.9 per cent the month before.
Mr. Macklem said that the economic outlook remains uncertain, especially given the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement next year, which could create more trade friction. And he reiterated his view that U.S. protectionism “means our economy works less efficiently, with higher costs and less income.”
At 2.25 per cent, the policy rate is at the lower end of what the central bank considers to be a “neutral range” for interest rates, which neither stimulates nor constrains economic activity.
“We agreed that a policy rate at the lower end of the neutral range was appropriate to provide some support for the economy as it works through this structural transition while keeping inflationary pressures contained,” Mr. Macklem said.
Mr. Macklem and Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers will hold a press conference at 10:30 am ET.
U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in at 7.7 million with ongoing uncertainty over the direction of the American economy.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close to September’s 7.66 million.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which was delayed by the extended government shutdown, also showed that the layoffs rose to almost 1.9 million, most since January, 2023. And the number of people quitting their jobs – a sign of confidence in the labour market – fell in October, suggesting that “businesses seeking to control labour costs will have to pivot to active layoffs, lifting unemployment, rather than rely on natural attrition,” Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon, wrote in a commentary.
Job openings have come down steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March, 2022, when the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The job market has cooled partly because of the lingering effect of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023 to combat an outburst of inflation.
Overall, it’s a puzzling time for the American economy, buffeted by President Donald Trump’s decision to reverse decades of U.S. policy in favour of free trade and instead impose double-digit tariffs on imports from most of the world’s countries.
Policy-makers at the Federal Reserve are meeting this week to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate, and the gathering is expected to be unusually contentious. Inflation remains stuck above the Fed’s 2-per-cent target, partly because importers have tried to pass along the cost of Trump’s tariffs by raising prices. Normally, stubborn inflation would discourage Fed policy-makers from cutting rates. But the job market has looked shaky in recent months, and the Fed is expected to reduce its benchmark rate for the third time this year, though some policy-makers might dissent.
Meanwhile, the 43-day federal shutdown has made a mess of the government’s economic statistics.
The October report on job openings came out a week late, and the September version was not published separately because federal data collectors were on furlough. Instead, September’s JOLTS numbers were folded into Tuesday’s report along with October’s. They showed a hefty increase in openings from 7.23 million in August.
The Labor Department will issue numbers for hiring and unemployment for November next Tuesday, 11 days later than originally scheduled. The department is not releasing an unemployment rate for October because it could not calculate the number during the shutdown. It will release some of the October jobs data – including the number of positions that employers created that month – along with the full November jobs report.
Forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet predict that employers added fewer than 38,000 jobs in November and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5 per cent from September’s 4.4 per cent. That would be low by historical standards, but the highest in nearly four years.
Canada’s fertilizer giants risk becoming the target of a U.S. price-fixing investigation as the Trump administration tries to tackle high input prices and low profits on American farms.
On Monday, Mr. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian fertilizer imports, while accusing foreign companies of anti-competitive behaviour and price fixing. The President has launched a Department of Justice probe examining the matter.
One Canadian company – Saskatchewan-based Nutrien Ltd. – is the largest global producer of potash. Potash is one of three fertilizers critical to all major agricultural operations and the U.S. depends on Canada for more than 80 per cent of its demand.
Mr. Trump’s accusations are misplaced, especially when it comes to potash, analysts and fertilizer industry associations say, but they tap into a real problem unfolding on the American farm.
On Monday, The White House announced US$12-billion in aid for farmers who have faced steep losses this year because of his administration’s trade policy. These funds are unlikely to cover the total costs. They also will not address the problem of farm input costs – the largest of which is fertilizer – outstripping farm revenue.
In 2025, China didn’t buy U.S. soybeans until late October, months into harvest. Soybeans are one of the U.S.’s top agricultural exports, and China has historically been its largest market. The market closed because of the Trump administration’s trade war with the Asian giant.
Despite sales resuming at the end of October, total soybean sales to all destinations through early November were 40 per cent lower than the same period a year earlier, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture.
The “Farmer Bridge Assistance Program” announced Monday is intended to help farmers market this year’s harvest and plan for next year’s crop. It has earmarked US$11-billion for row crop farmers.
But this won’t cover US$15-billion in nationwide losses accrued from trade war, and mounting input costs.
Fertilizer is one of the most costly inputs for a farm, accounting for more than 35 per cent of all operating costs for corn and wheat producers between 2006 and 2023. The three essential fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphate and potash.
The event that supercharged fertilizer prices was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said Veronica Nigh, chief economist at the Fertilizer Institute. Russia is the largest fertilizer producer in the world.
In 2021, China also imposed export restrictions on phosphate and cut shipments by 40 per cent. China supplies around 40 per cent of global processed phosphate.
The costs have since come down from peaks in 2021 however have not fallen at the same rate as crop prices. Continued geopolitical instability has driven volatility. For example, Iran and Egypt are major exporters of urea (a nitrogen fertilizer), and conflict in the Middle East disrupted supply chains and forced prices high, Ms. Nigh said.
As a result of these low crop prices and high inputs, this year farmers across the U.S. are expected to lose on average US$150 per acre, with total nationwide losses eclipsing US$15-billion, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The USDAalso expects these costs to stay at elevated levels going into 2026.
According to a statement from the American Soybean Association, this perfect storm of low crop prices, high production costs and loss of markets will lead to the longest stretch of substantial production losses for farmers of the crop in two decades.
While more competition would be a good thing in the fertilizer sector, which is consolidated, price fixing is unlikelyto be happening, said Josh Linville, vice-president of fertilizer at StoneX, a financial services company. Global commodity prices respond to global demand.
Mr. Trump’s focus on Canadian potash is also especially misplaced, he said. Nitrogen and phosphate prices are substantially higher. Potash has remained fairly stable over the past year. Supply is matching demand.
Sovereign fertilizer production would be good for farmers, Ms. Nigh said, noting the geopolitical instability of the past five years. Growth has stalled across thesector in the past three years, she said. This is largely because of permitting challenges.
But nitrogen and phosphate would be a better focus for growth than potash, Ms. Nigh said. In 2024, the U.S. produced 14,000 tonnes of nitrogen, 5,734 tonnes of phosphate and just 420 tonnes of potash.
Potash production is tied to geography and geology. Potash is a rock mined from deposits thousands of metres under the ground. Very few places have abundant deposits. The U.S. has very little. Saskatchewan has the largest known reserves globally. And traditionally the U.S. and Canada have had very few trade disruptions, Mr. Linville said.
“We look at it as a North American market because, typically speaking, we get along quite well … a place where we truly need to place investment and increased production, it’s more on the phosphate side and nitrogen side.”
olicy volatility in the form of tariffs and trade wars is also unlikely to drive investment, Ms. Nigh said. Expanding or building new fertilizer plants costs billions of dollars and can take years.
Instead, the White House should follow the course charted over the past few months, she said. On Nov. 14, Mr. Trump issued an executive order to eliminate tariffs on imports of fertilizers.
These were good moves to bolster investment in fertilizer production, Ms. Nigh said, adding: Tariffs and accusations of price fixing are not.
“There is an underlying desire for some additional self-sufficiency or buffer,” Ms. Nigh said. “It’s about how we get there and we don’t want to cause harm to the domestic industry and to our important trade partners and to our growers.”
