Canadian Natural Resources CNQ-N +1.01%increase on Thursday raised its full-year production forecast for the second time this year and beat analysts’ estimates for second-quarter profit, as record production and stronger crude prices boosted earnings.

Canada’s oil sands producers are benefiting from higher oil prices driven by supply concerns following months of conflict in the Middle East, while years of investment in low-cost operations continue to lift cash flow. Strong demand for synthetic crude and tighter crude supplies have helped widen price premiums, with rivals Cenovus Energy CVE-T +1.67%increase and Imperial OilIMO-T +0.50%increase more than doubling their second-quarter profits.

Canadian Natural’s realized price for exploration and production liquids during the quarter jumped 51 per cent from a year earlier to $105.11 per barrel, while realized synthetic crude oil prices rose 44 per cent to $125.78 per barrel.

Oil sands MOU hasn’t changed Suncor’s spending plans, CEO says

The company said synthetic crude traded at an average premium of US$8.37 per barrel to U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude during the period, up from US$0.98 a year earlier, as stronger refinery demand, Middle East supply disruptions and weather-related production impacts in Western Canada tightened crude markets.

Canadian Natural now expects 2026 production to average between 1.637 million and 1.682 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up from its previous forecast of 1.615 million to 1.665 million boepd.

The company said it was benefiting from conventional drilling results and assets acquired during the second quarter.

The Calgary-based company posted an adjusted profit of $2.19 per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $1.90 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The country’s largest oil and gas producer said its quarterly output grew to 1.68 million boepd, from 1.42 million boepd a year earlier.

Fast-food giant Restaurant Brands International Inc. QSR-T reported growth in sales and profits in its second quarter, driven by strong performance at its Burger King stores in the U.S. – even as Canadian sales growth slowed considerably at Tim Hortons.

Burger King is four years into a turnaround plan that has involved hundreds of millions in investment by the company and its franchisees to remodel restaurants, improve the menu and advertise more aggressively to change perceptions of the brand. In recent months, it revamped its signature Whopper burger.

The chain’s comparable sales jumped by 8.6 per cent in the quarter ended June 30, compared to the same period a year ago. Comparable sales is an important metric that tracks sales growth excluding the impact of new restaurant openings.

“The Burger King team and our franchisees have accomplished a tremendous amount, but they’d be the first to tell you we aren’t close to finished,” Restaurant Brands executive chair Patrick Doyle said during a conference call on Thursday to discuss the results, noting that many more restaurant locations still need to be updated. “There are still things that we know can be better on our menu,” he added.

Burger King was the only one of Restaurant Brands’ chains to report significant sales growth in the quarter. Overall, the Toronto-based company reported comparable sales growth of 3.8 per cent, as sales were flat at Tim Hortons and Firehouse Subs, and declined by 5.1 per cent at Popeyes.

The 0.1-per-cent comparable sales growth at Tim Hortons in Canada represented a significant slowdown compared to the same time last year, when sales grew by 3.6 per cent.

Tim Hortons is a major contributor to the company’s earnings, representing roughly 40 per cent of its operating profits.

“While we maintained our leadership positions in coffee, breakfast, and baked goods, our calendar didn’t drive the growth we’ve come to expect from Tims, and was unable to lap last year’s major platform launches,” chief executive officer Josh Kobza said on the call.

Total revenues for the chain increased, but these were largely tied to higher commodity prices, which pushed up the supply-chain sales the company receives from providing coffee, food and other supplies to its franchisees.

While the recently-relaunched cheese melt and bacon melt sandwiches are selling well, other launches did not perform to expectations, Mr. Kobza said. He did not specify which products underperformed, but a major marketing focus for Tims earlier in the quarter was a series of new “Tastes of the Globe” Timbit flavours, timed to the FIFA World Cup, which included lime cheesecake (for Brazil,) crème brûlée (France) and cappuccino (Italy).

However, Mr. Kobza added that he’s optimistic about more recent beverage launches that are driving sales in the current quarter. For example, the chain’s lineup of matcha drinks are a common order in the afternoon – a time of day that is a focus for Tim Hortons to increase its traffic. And the chain has also introduced “Soda Swirls,” a version of the trendy “dirty soda” beverages that add flavoured syrups and creamy foam (for the palate that deems Coca-Cola not sweet enough.)

Restaurant Brands is making progress with rolling out fountain machines to Tims locations that enable these types of beverage launches, Mr. Kobza said.

The fast-food industry has been leaning heavily on novel menu additions to attract inflation-weary customers who have been cutting back on restaurant spending.

Industry players have also been advertising more promotions and value meal deals to cater to price-sensitive customers.

Not all of those efforts have been successful: competitor McDonald’s Corp. MCD-N this week reported sales growth in its second quarter that missed analysts’ expectations. McDonald’s has been offering more value deals in the U.S. and dropped the price of its value menu in Canada earlier this year.

Restaurant Brands reported its second-quarter revenue grew to US$2.5-billion, up 4.6 per cent compared to the same period a year ago.

Net income attributable to common shareholders more than doubled, to US$507-million or $1.46 per share, compared to $189-million or 58 cents per share in the same quarter last year. However, this year’s earnings included a swing to profit from other operating activities (such as non-recurring projects) compared to a loss related to those activities last year. Excluding that change and other factors, adjusted net income grew to $490-million or $1.07 per share on a diluted basis, compared to $432-million or 94 cents per diluted share in the same period last year.

BCE Inc. BCE-T reported its second-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its revenue rose.

The company says its profit attributable to common shareholders totalled $558-million or 60 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30.

The result compared with a profit of $579-million or 63 cents per diluted share for the second quarter of 2025.

Operating revenue totalled $6.17-billion, up from $6.08-billion a year earlier. The increase came as service revenue totalled $5.5-billion, up 4.3 per cent from a year ago, partly offset by a 16.3-per-cent decline in product revenue to $685-million.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 65 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 63 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

The company said business markets revenue – comprising income from both telecom and AI services – was $1.08-billion in the quarter, down 8.5 per cent from $1.18-billion a year ago.

On the telecom side, BCE had a net gain of 41,594 postpaid mobile phone subscribers in its second quarter, down from 44,547 net activations during the same period a year earlier. It said the year-over-year decrease reflected a less active market due to reduced promotions as well as limited population growth in Canada.

The company said customer churn – a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service – was 1.02 per cent, an improvement from 1.06 per cent a year ago and Bell’s lowest quarterly level in three years. 

BCE’s mobile phone average revenue per user was $56.30, down 2.3 per cent from $57.61 a year ago. It said that decrease was due to the non-recurrence of revenues generated last year from the G7 Leaders’ Summit, as well as lower connection fees related to the CRTC’s new rules prohibiting certain customer fees.

The regulator’s prohibition on activation, cancellation and modification fees came into effect June 12. However, the new regulations have been met with resistance from Bell, along with Rogers and Telus, which have each introduced fees that the CRTC says could violate the new ban.

The regulator launched a review in late June and said that if it determines the companies have violated the rules, they could face monetary penalties of up to $10-million.

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (BAM) on Wednesday reported second-quarter earnings of $904 million.

The New York-based company said it had profit of 56 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to 44 cents per share.

The results met Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of 44 cents per share.

The investment manager posted revenue of $1.75 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $1.49 billion, exceeding Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.47 billion.

Brookfield shares have fallen nearly 1% since the beginning of the year. The stock has fallen 15% in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BAM at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BAM

• Palantir’s second-quarter earnings saw commercial revenue skyrocket 149% from a year ago.
• The software giant pinned its blowout second-quarter earnings on firms demanding AI sovereignty.
• Palantir’s results “further weaken the bear case around rising AI competition,” as demand for data privacy from AI companies sets it apart, Citi analysts said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/palantir-2q-earnings-ai-sovereign-tools.html

AMD, Intel and Micron extend losses as chip stocks get clobbered

• South Korean semiconductor shares tumbled on Tuesday, extending a rout in chipmakers after another weak session on Wall Street.
• Selling followed through to Europe and the U.S., with key chip companies falling.
• AMD, Intel and Micron all sank, with memory names Seagate, Sandisk and Western Digital getting routed.

Semiconductor stocks fell on Tuesday following weakness in Asia and Europe.

Nvidia sank at the open but later turned positive, closing largely unchanged on the day. Intel closed nearly 6% lower and AMD lost 8%. Memory space names Micron and Seagate lost more than 8%, Western Digital sank nearly 7% and Sandisk shed 14%.

The moves followed a bout of heavy selling in Asia.

In South Korea, SK Hynix closed 14.65% lower, while Samsung Electronics lost more than 13%. Other AI-linked names also saw heavy selling, with Samsung SDI dropping 11.37%, LG Innotek fell 16.29%, Seoul Semiconductor falling 8.78% and LG Chem losing 7.5% at the end of its trading day.

Japan’s chip names also declined. Tokyo Electron dropped 10.96% at the close, Advantest slid over 10%, while SoftBank Group, a major AI investment proxy through its stake in Arm, fell 4.43%. Shares of Japan’s computer memory manufacturer Kioxia plunged more than 18%.

Taiwan’s TSMC closed almost 3% lower. Mainland China’s tech-heavy ChiNext 300 index was down 6.49%, while the Hang Seng China Semiconductor Chips Index fell 7.02%.

Selling continued in Europe with key chip companies falling in early trade. ASML shares were lower after The Information reported that a Chinese company is manufacturing an immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machine, an area that ASML dominates. ASML fell more than 8% on Monday.

Other chip stocks, including ASM International and BE Semiconductor fell between 2% to 3% in early trading.

U.S.-Asia stocks are tightly linked

The sell-off followed another weak session for U.S. semiconductor stocks on Monday. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) lost more than 2%, adding to its Friday losses. AMD and Teradyne dropped 5% and 4%, respectively. Micron Technology shed about 2%.

The weakness underscores how closely Asian technology shares and the U.S. AI trade have become intertwined.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are among the world’s largest suppliers of high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI servers, making their shares particularly sensitive to shifts in expectations for spending by U.S. hyperscalers.

Sharp swings in SK Hynix shares underscore the uncertainty surrounding the AI investment cycle, said Acadian Asset Management’s senior vice president Owen Lamont, arguing that investors still have little visibility into how the technology will ultimately affect the economy.

“Right now we’re facing an incredible uncertainty,” he told CNBC. “No one has any idea how this AI process is going to affect our economy, and so I think it’s going to be rocky no matter what.“

Lamont also added that leveraged exchange-traded products could be adding to market swings, even if they are not solely responsible for SK Hynix’s recent volatility.

“More generally, the entire ecosystem of levered ETFs in Korea, also in Hong Kong and in the United States, are possibly adding volatility and magnifying market fluctuations.”

The sell-off also reflects a broader deterioration in sentiment toward semiconductor stocks after recent media reports highlighted China’s ambitions in memory chips and lithography equipment, according to Sundeep Gantori, chief investment officer for equities at Standard Chartered.

The long-term outlook remains intact, he said: “The market opportunity remains sufficiently large for multiple players to benefit and coexist,” with the AI investment cycle continuing to support leading technology companies.

“The other reason behind today’s weakness in Korea is around some broker reports around memory price peak in 2027, which is not too different from our view,” Gantori said. While Standard Chartered expects memory prices to peak next year, he added that “what matters is risk-reward and at current valuations, risk-reward has improved.”

Private companies added just 44,000 workers in July, below expectations, ADP reports

• Private companies added 44,000 jobs in July, a slowdown from the 95,000 the prior month and below market expectations, ADP reported Wednesday.
• Virtually all of the job gains came from healthcare-related sectors, with goods-producing industries seeing a net loss.
• Pay growth for those changing jobs hit its highest level in nearly a year.

Hiring at private companies slowed considerably in July, with most of the job growth coming from healthcare, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Nonfarm job growth excluding government totaled a seasonally adjusted 44,000 for the month, below the downwardly revised 95,000 in June and less than the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 75,000.

On net, all of the gains came from the services sector, which added 47,000 while goods-producing companies saw a decline of 3,000.

Of those jobs, the education and health services sector produced 36,000, continuing a long-standing trend for the industry in leading employment growth. Financial activities added 10,000, professional and business services contributed 9,000, and the other services category saw a gain of 6,000.

Trade, transportation and utilities lost 8,000 while natural resources and mining was off 6,000. Manufacturing saw growth of just 2,000 while construction added 1,000.

Distribution among company size was relatively balanced, with firms employing fewer than 50 people leading with 23,000 new jobs.

Pay gains held steady at 4.4% annually for those staying in their jobs. However, job switchers saw a 7% increase, the largest since August 2025.

“Job-changers are highly sensitive to real-time economic conditions, and their rapid pay growth implies supply constraints in parts of the labor market,” ADP’s chief economist, Nela Richardson, said. “Typical hiring patterns, meanwhile, are changing as employers react to shifting macroeconomic conditions.”

The monthly employment gain was the smallest since January during a year in which the labor market has steadied after showing little progress in 2025.

Most Federal Reserve officials have expressed confidence in the jobs picture and are putting inflation concerns at the forefront. The Fed has kept its benchmark interest rate steady, though markets are betting on a hike before the end of the year if the inflation data does not improve.

The ADP report comes two days before the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its official nonfarm payrolls report for July.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect that count to show 83,000 hires, up from June’s 57,000, and the unemployment rate holding at 4.2%.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD-Q -6.65%decrease) shares tumbled on Wednesday ⁠as ​the chipmaker’s revenue forecast failed to impress investors seeking clearer signs that a multibillion-dollar AI spending boom will translate into faster growth.

Shares were last down 6.6 per cent at US$482.53, set to erase close ​to US$59-billion from the company’s market value.

AMD’s ‌stock was also hit by SpaceX’s (SPCX-Q -8.76%decrease) CEO Elon Musk’s decision to build the company’s computing infrastructure exclusively with rival Nvidia’s (NVDA-Q +3.37%increase) chips.

Shares of the AI bellwether gained 3.3 per cent in early trading. AMD’s decline lays bare the ‌elevated expectations ​from the company, which signed ‌deals last month with Anthropic and Core Scientific, to win ​high-profile customers and close the gap on Nvidia ⁠and Intel.

Adv Micro Devices

482.16+268.00 (125.14%)

Year to date

Dec. 30, 2025

214.16

Aug. 5, 2026

482.16

SOURCE: BARCHART

“We suspect expectations had moved higher following ⁠Intel’s results a couple of weeks ago, and the buyside already has ​a fairly bullish outlook,” said Stacy Rasgon, analyst at Bernstein.

The Santa Clara, California-based firm forecast third-quarter revenue of about US$13-billion, plus or minus US$300-million, above analysts’ estimates of US$12.52-billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Analysts at TD Cowen said AMD ⁠faced a “very high bar” after recent AI-related customer wins and a sharp rally in its shares, even though its results and forecast were “objectively good”.

J.P.Morgan analysts said supply constraints remain a risk, with projects concentrated on TSMC’s N3 process and CoWoS chip-packaging ⁠technology likely to face tightness through ​2027.

Chief Executive Lisa Su said AMD expects data-center revenue to more than ⁠double by 2027 and projected revenue growth above its previously outlined target of more ‌than 35 per cent. AMD’s data-center revenue more than doubled to US$6.72-billion, topping expectations.

AMD’s stock ​has more than doubled this year on expectations that the company will emerge as the leading alternative to Nvidia in AI chips, raising the ante for quarterly results.

Shopify SHOP-T +16.51%increase projected current-quarter revenue growth above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, signalling the company’s AI efforts were drawing more merchants to its suite of e-commerce services and driving broader consumer demand, sending its shares up about 17 per cent in early trading.

The company’s solid outlook and a second-quarter revenue beat are set to quell investor concerns about growing competition from new AI tools targeting small businesses that have dented Shopify’s shares.

If premarket gains hold, Shopify shares are set to recoup all losses this year. Through last close, the stock was down 23.4 per cent year-to-date.

While geopolitical tensions and gas price spikes resulting from the Iran war have put a strain on shopping budgets, consumers have still shown resilience thanks to a strong labour market and continued wage growth.

Through its partnerships with OpenAI, Google GOOGL-Q -0.38%decrease and Microsoft MSFT-Q -0.87%decrease, Shopify has also been able to drive consumer demand by helping retailers on its platform reach more customers through AI chatbots or search queries.

Shopify shareholders vote against creation of AI policy

Shopify’s AI tools – such as its Sidekick AI assistant – have also seen steady adoption from small- and medium-sized businesses that are increasingly leaning on AI to execute tasks faster and cheaper.

“This was a monster quarter … We power every kind of business, and with AI, we’re expanding what’s possible for all of them,” said Shopify president Harley Finkelstein.

The company, which generates revenue by taking a cut of sales from sellers on its platform and selling subscription plans to merchants, said it saw solid growth across all merchant sizes, product categories, and geographies in the quarter.

Gross merchandise volume (GMV), or the total value of goods sold on Shopify, rose 32 per cent to US$115.57-billion during the quarter ended June, helping total revenue jump 34 per cent to US$3.58-billion and beat analysts’ average estimate of US$3.45-billion, according to data from LSEG.

Shopify expects third-quarter revenue to grow in the low-thirties percentage range, above analysts’ estimate for a 26.3-per-cent increase. It forecast gross profit growth at a mid-to-high twenties percentage rate, versus expectations of a 24.1-per-cent rise.