Author: Consultant

Rogers RCI-B-T +3.50%increase reported modest revenue growth as it added 111,000 wireless customers in the third quarter, but adjusted earnings dropped in the wake of the company’s move to increase its stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

Total revenue for the third quarter was $5.35-billion, up 4 per cent from a year earlier, meeting analyst consensus estimates. Wireless revenue increased 2 per cent to $2.66-billion, cable revenue was up 1 per cent to $1.98-billion and media revenue jumped 26 per cent to $753-million.

Rogers completed its acquisition of rival BCE Inc.’s 37.5-per-cent stake in MLSE in July for $4.7-billion.

The telecom said the increase in its media division was the result of its larger stake in MLSE and increased Toronto Blue Jays revenue.

The company said its adjusted net income fell by 5 per cent in the third quarter to $726-million, or $1.37 per share, as the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) decreased 1 per cent “primarily as a result of the seasonal results for MLSE, as both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors are in their offseasons in the third quarter.”

Rogers signals it may wait to acquire final MLSE stake before seeking outside investors

Rogers reported net income of $5.8-billion, or $10.62 per diluted share. The company said the increase in its net income was primarily the “result of a $5 billion non-cash gain to recognize our existing interest in MLSE at fair value, which was required as a result of the MLSE transaction.”

The company said it now expects to spend $3.7-billion in 2025, compared with its estimate of $3.8-billion from July.

Rogers added 62,000 postpaid wireless subscribers in the third quarter, beating analyst consensus expectations of 59,000, but still down 39 per cent from last year.

The company added 49,000 prepaid phone subscribers, beating the consensus of 45,000, but down 44 per cent from last year.

The telecom cited slowing population growth and a less active market, owing to the federal government’s changed immigration policies, as reasons for the decreases in subscriber adds.

Gold prices fell for a second day on Wednesday, as investors took profits after a weeks-long rally.

Gold futures were last down $61.30, or 1.49%, to $4,053.10 per ounce by 8:25 a.m. ET. Gold mining stocks such as Newmont and Barrick fell more than 4% in premarket trading.

The precious metal sold off sharply Tuesday, losing 5.74% to close at $4,109.10 in its worst performance since 2013. The two-day selloff comes after gold futures hit a intraday record of $4,398 per ounce on Monday.

There is no macroeconomic or geopolitical event driving the pullback in gold prices this week, according to Swiss bank UBS.

“If we look at adjustments to non-commercial positioning, we believe the decline was largely technical,” UBS analysts led by Wayne Gordon told clients Wednesday. “With slowing price momentum and rising option volatility, more speculative investors decided to take profit.”

Gold prices are still up more than 50% this year and nearly 5% this month. The fundamentals that have driven the metal to record highs this year will likely persist, according to UBS. These include inflation, tariffs, threats to Federal Reserve independence and polical instability in the U.S.

“So, importantly, we believe it is premature to turn negative on gold despite the pause in the rally,” Gordon wrote.

The private equity arm of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM-T is launching its first fund in Canada with no fixed end date that is geared toward wealthy investors who are eyeing private assets as they hunt for higher returns.

The Brookfield Private Equity Fund (Canada), announced Wednesday, lets individual investors who meet the necessary threshold for wealth invest in a selection of the asset manager’s private equity buyout strategies.

Unlike traditional private equity funds, it has an open-ended structure that gives investors regular windows to buy in or cash out.

More leading companies are staying private for longer, rather than listing on public stock markets. And individual investors with significant wealth are eyeing private assets, hoping to capture higher returns that the largest global investors such as pension plans, endowments and sovereign wealth funds have reaped for years.

That has set off a rush to create products with exposure to private assets that are tailored to individual investors, who don’t want to be locked into the multiyear fundraising cycles that underpin the institutional market.

Why this money manager is buying Brookfield and Canadian Pacific

Brookfield’s evergreen private equity fund is its latest attempt to secure a foothold in that race. The US$1-trillion asset manager is betting that it can attract a new wave of clients by highlighting its track record of buying essential businesses at low prices, overhauling their operations and boosting profit margins.

“Our strategy – value investing and driving operational transformation – is kind of built for this environment,” Anuj Ranjan, chief executive officer of Brookfield’s private equity business, said in an interview.

At launch, the fund has a high bar to entry. It is only available to accredited investors in Canada, who typically have higher incomes than average or significant assets. Investors will the U.S. will need to meet the qualified purchaser test – a threshold that usually requires an investor or family-owned business to have at least $5-million in investments.

The fund will be sold through advisers at banks and independent wealth managers and has a minimum investment of $25,000, Brookfield said. There are monthly chances to buy in at the fund’s net asset value, and investors can redeem up to 5 per cent of the fund’s net assets each quarter, as long as the fund has enough cash available to meet all requests.

The new fund is targeting double-digit percentage returns. It will mostly invest in traditional company buyouts, but it will also hold minority stakes in companies and keep cash on hand. As much as 20 per cent of the fund will be held in liquid assets that can be used to meet redemptions.

Brookfield to invest $5-billion with Bloom Energy to power AI data centres

Brookfield spent roughly two years designing the fund and seeded it with parts of nine private equity investments held on the company’s balance sheets before asking outside investors for money.

Those investments include stakes worth US$690-million in three of its portfolio companies: vehicle-parts maker DexKo Global Inc., auto dealer software company CDK Global LLC, and construction and civil engineering company BrandSafway.

“It’s not like we’re exiting these positions. They are still very much a part of the funds that we manage,” Mr. Ranjan said.

In time, Brookfield expects its evergreen fund will hold roughly 25 investments, functioning “like an umbrella that sits over the top of all of the private equity strategies,” David Nowak, president of Brookfield’s private equity arm, said in an interview.

The fund will have a right, but no obligation, to buy into any particular Brookfield strategy.

The initial portfolio of assets Brookfield put together was important to establish trust with prospective clients, “so that actual investors could touch it and feel it,” Mr. Nowak said. “It wasn’t just us talking about a strategy.”

Major asset managers around the world anticipate that opening up the gated world of private assets to a broad swath of investors, including individual retirement accounts, is the next big trend in investing.

Market Factors: The best way to invest in private equity

But regulators and skeptics have raised concerns about ordinary investors putting illiquid assets in their portfolios, especially as prominent private debt funds have halted client redemptions.

Some critics have questioned whether evergreen funds can deliver the higher returns investors expect, and justify the fees these funds often charge, especially after a sluggish stretch of deal making has hamstrung returns across the private equity sector.

To assuage those concerns, Brookfield is making a pitch that it has not relied on cheap debt and market tailwinds to boost returns the way some competitors have. Instead, Brookfield says it focused on running its portfolio companies better.

“People are wondering what the forward-looking performance looks like for the asset class, and we say to people, we’re not financial engineers,” Mr. Nowak said. “You can look at our historical track record.”

Teck Resources TECK-B-T -0.38%decrease beat third-quarter profit estimates on Wednesday, lifted by higher copper and zinc prices, even as production at its Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile remained constrained by tailings work.

U.S.-listed shares of Teck TECK-N -0.26%decrease rose 2 per cent in pre-market trading.

The results come as Teck advances a merger with Anglo American NGLOY -0.13%decrease, announced in September, to form Anglo Teck, a top-five global copper producer headquartered in Canada.

The deal aims to unlock synergies between Teck’s Quebrada Blanca mine and Anglo’s nearby Collahuasi project in Chile and deliver roughly US$800-million in annual savings.

Teck, Anglo dismiss investor concerns over shareholder structure

The Canadian miner reported adjusted earnings of 76 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, above analysts’ average estimate of 49 cents, according to LSEG data.

Teck said third-quarter profit rose on stronger base metals prices, higher sales from the Red Dog zinc mine in Alaska, lower smelter processing charges and improved performance at its Trail Operations in British Columbia.

Quarterly realized copper prices rose nearly 6 per cent to US$4.45 per pound while zinc prices increased 3.2 per cent to US$1.29 per pound, from last year.

However, copper production dropped 9.1 per cent to 104,100 tonnes in the third quarter, as output at the Quebrada Blanca mine fell 24.6 per cent to 39,600 tonnes, constrained by ongoing work to raise the tailings dam crest.

The company said the development of the tailings management facility at the site remains the main constraint on production, though improvements in sand drainage and dam construction are underway.

Teck maintained its 2025 copper output outlook for the Quebrada Blanca mine at 170,000–190,000 tonnes at net cash costs of US$2.65–$3.00 per pound.

• Warner Bros. Discovery said it is open to a sale as it expands its strategic review.
• The company had planned to split into two separate entities and is not abandoning those plans.
• WBD said it’s received “unsolicited interest” from multiple parties.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/21/wbd-sale-warner-bros-media.html

Canada’s inflation rate accelerated by more than expected in September, but not enough to deter the Bank of Canada from cutting interest rates next week, according to several analysts.

The Consumer Price Index rose 2.4 per cent in September on an annual basis, up from August’s 1.9-per-cent pace, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. Financial analysts were expecting an inflation rate of 2.2 per cent.

The CPI results were heavily influenced by fluctuations in fuel costs. Year over year, gas prices fell by 4.1 per cent in September, but that was less than a 12.7-per-cent decline in August, putting upward pressure on headline inflation.

Excluding gas, consumer prices have risen by 2.6 per cent over the past year, up from 2.4 per cent in August.

Just after the CPI report, investors were pricing in a 66-per-cent chance that the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates by a quarter-point on Oct. 29, according to Bloomberg data. That’s down from 75-per-cent odds before the report was published.

How today’s inflation report has shifted market and economist predictions for BoC rate cuts

Still, with core measures of inflation remaining in check, several economists on Bay Street said the Bank of Canada was poised to continue cutting rates next week.

“Consumer prices posted surprisingly strong gains in September, but measures of underlying inflation suggest much less cause for concern,” said Royce Mendes, head of macro strategy at Desjardins Securities, in a note to clients.

“While there might be scope for debate about inflation, there should be no disagreement that the economy is weak and in need of support,” he added.

The Bank of Canada resumed cutting rates in September after three consecutive holds, finding that growth and employment concerns outweighed the upside risks to inflation from tariffs. The bank’s benchmark interest rate is now 2.5 per cent.

Bank of Canada finds downbeat businesses and consumers ahead of rate decision

Inflation has picked up in various categories. For example, grocery prices have risen by 4 per cent over the past year, and have been trending higher since April, 2024. Statscan noted that several items – including beef and coffee – have contributed to the upturn.

Still, there are signs that Canada isn’t facing a reignited inflation crisis. The Bank of Canada’s core measures of inflation – which strip out volatile movements in the CPI – rose by an annual average of 3.15 per cent in September, a tad higher than 3.1 per cent in August.

Andrew Grantham, senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets, said in a client note that “core measures of inflation were just subdued enough to support” another quarter-point rate cut, which would bring the policy rate to 2.25 per cent.

Speaking to media last week, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said the economic outlook for the rest of the year was tepid.

“It’s going to be growth, but it’s going to be soft growth. It’s not going to feel very good, and it’s certainly not going to be enough to close the output gap,” Mr. Macklem said.

The Canadian economy shrank at an annualized rate of 1.6 per cent in the second quarter as exports to the United States plummeted. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, has risen to 7.1 per cent as companies get cautious on hiring.

Private-sector forecasters expect the economy to eke out growth in the third quarter, but continue to struggle as U.S. tariffs weigh on Canadian exports. The Trump administration has hammered a number of Canadian industries with duties, including steel, aluminum and autos.

The Globe and Mail reported on Tuesday that Canada and the U.S. could sign a trade deal on steel, aluminum and energy later this month, but that automobiles and softwood lumber wouldn’t be part of the agreement.

On Monday, the Bank of Canada published surveys of businesses and consumers that reflected a downbeat mood from both camps. For instance, most companies do not expect to increase the size of their workforce over the next year, according to survey results.

Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Markets, said he was leaning toward another rate cut next week, despite the upside surprise in the CPI.

“Overall, there’s no clear message from the CPI, although we’re still leaning toward another rate cut this month following Governor Tiff Macklem’s somewhat dovish comments on the growth outlook last week,” he said in a note to clients.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem expects slow economic growth and a soft labour market through the back half of the year as U.S. tariffs and uncertainty over the future of continental trade weigh on business investment and hiring in Canada.

Speaking to reporters from the annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington, Mr. Macklem said he expects the Canadian economy to grow at a sluggish pace in the third and fourth quarters, and he cautioned against putting too much weight on September job numbers, which showed a rebound in employment.

“It’s going to be growth, but it’s going to be soft growth. It’s not going to feel very good, and it’s certainly not going to be enough to close the output gap,” Mr. Macklem said, noting that the bank is projecting growth in gross domestic product of around 1 per cent in the second half of the year.

He gave no indication of whether the central bank would cut interest rates again at its meeting on Oct. 29. There are several key pieces of data still to come, he said, including September inflation numbers and the bank’s quarterly business survey, which will be published next week.

The bank lowered its policy rate to 2.5 per cent last month, the first rate cut since March. It resumed monetary policy easing after deciding that downside risks to Canada’s tariff-battered economy outweighed upside risks to inflation.

Financial markets are pricing in a roughly 80-per-cent chance of another quarter-point cut at the bank’s October meeting, according to LSEG data.

Much of the debate around the upcoming rate decision centres on how Mr. Macklem and his team are thinking about Canada’s labour market. After two months of significant job losses, employment rebounded by 60,000 in September, although the unemployment rate remained at an elevated 7.1 per cent.

Mr. Macklem suggested the bank wouldn’t put much weight on a single jobs report, given that monthly numbers can be volatile.

“Big picture, what you’re seeing in the labour market is the heavily tariffed sectors are being severely affected,” Mr. Macklem said, pointing to job losses in steel, aluminum, autos, lumber and the transportation industries that support them.

Beyond those sectors, “you’re not seeing a lot of layoffs, but you’re also not seeing a lot of hiring,” he said.

“So, if you have a job, you probably still have a job, unless you’re in one of those highly affected sectors. But you’re seeing youth unemployment is going up because new entrants into the labour market, it’s taking them longer to find a job.”

The Canadian economy contracted 1.6 per cent in the second quarter, led by a sharp pullback in exports. Mr. Macklem said he doesn’t expect another big decline in exports, “but neither are we expecting a rapid rebound.”

Business investment is likewise expected to remain weak, Mr. Macklem said, as companies remain apprehensive until they have a better sense of the Canada-U.S. trade relationship. Canadian negotiators were back in Washington this week trying to secure relief from President Donald Trump’s sector-specific tariffs, but they have not made any breakthroughs.

Both countries have also launched consultations ahead of the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade, which will happen next year.

“Uncertainty about U.S. trade policy has come down a bit since where we were in February, March, April, even July. I think uncertainty, though, is shifting now to what happens to CUSMA,” Mr. Macklem said, referring to the free-trade pact. “Until businesses have clarity on what is the outcome of that review, that is going to hold back business decisions.”

The one bright spot for the Canadian economy has been consumer spending, which remained strong through the second quarter. Mr. Macklem said he expects consumption growth to continue, but at a more moderate pace.

Canada’s central bankers will head into the next rate decision armed with a new economic forecast in the quarterly Monetary Policy Report.

Since January, the Bank of Canada has held off on publishing a central forecast, given the huge level of uncertainty around U.S. trade policy and its implications for Canada. Instead, it has published upside and downside scenarios.

“We will be using a new base-case projection to look forward,” Mr. Macklem said. “Against the background of heightened uncertainty, we will need to be humble about our forecasts, and we will continue to put a lot of emphasis on the risks.”

There’s one other key piece of uncertainty: the federal budget, which will be published on Nov. 4, only a few days after the interest rate decision. The Parliamentary Budget Officer and a number of private sector forecasters expect a big jump in Ottawa’s deficit, given increased spending on defence and infrastructure combined with weak revenue growth.

Mr. Macklem said the bank will need to see the budget before adjusting its forecasts for the Canadian economy. But he said the broad strokes of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s approach to fiscal policy are becoming clear, with plans to shrink the government’s operating budget while spending more on major infrastructure.

“When we look at the budget, we will be looking at both the demand impulse but also the potential to build the economy’s supply capacity … It’s that balance between demand and supply in the economy that we look at closely,” he said.

Monday October 20

China real GDP, retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s industrial product and raw materials price indexes for September. Estimates are month-over-month increases of 0.5 per cent for both.

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian construction investment for August.

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s household and mortgage creidt for August.

(10:30 a.m. ET) Bank of Canada’s Business Outlook Survey and Survey of Consumer Expectations for Q3 are released.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. leading indicator for September.

Earnings include: BHP Group Ltd.; PrairieSky Royalty Ltd.; Steel Dynamics Inc.

–

Tuesday October 21

Japan machine tool orders

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian CPI for September. The Street is projecting a decline of 0.1 per cent from August and a rise of 2.3 per cent year-over-year.

Earnings include: Capital One Financial Corp.; Coca-Cola Co.; GE Aerospace; General Motors Co.; Halliburton Co.; Lockheed Martin Corp.; Netflix Inc.; Philip Morris International Inc.; Texas Instruments Inc.; Waste Connections Inc.; 3M Co.

–

Wednesday October 22

Japan trade balance

U.K. CPI

Earnings include: AT&T Inc.; Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.; International Business Machines Corp.; Lam Research Corp.; NextEra Energy Inc.; Storage Vault Canada Inc.; Teck Resources Ltd.; Tesla Inc.; West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.; Whitecap Resources Inc.; Winpak Ltd.

–

Thursday October 23

Euro zone consumer confidence

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian retail sales for August. Consensus is a month-over-month rise of 1.0 per cent.

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s manufacturing sales for September.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. initial jobless claims for week of Oct. 18.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. existing home sales for September.

Earnings include: Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd.; Amazon.com Inc.; Blackstone Inc.; Canfor Corp.; FirstService Corp.; Ford Motor Co.; Honeywell International Inc.; Intel Corp.; Newmont Gold Corp.; Rogers Communications Inc.; T-Mobile US Inc.; Union Pacific Corp.

–

Friday October 24

Japan CPI and PMI

Euro zone PMI

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s new housing price index for September. The estimate is a month-over-month decline of 0.2 per cent and a drop of 1.9 per cent year-over-year.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. CPI for September. Consensus is a rise of 0.4 per cent month-over-month and up 3.1 per cent year-over-year.

(9:45 a.m. ET) U.S. S&P Global PMIs for October.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. new home sales for September.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment for October.

Earnings include: General Dynamics Corp.; Procter & Gamble Co.

This year’s Buy Canadian mantra is resonating well beyond the 49th parallel: Americans, too, are snapping up Aritzia Inc.’s ATZ-T -0.75%decrease popular items including the Super Puff jackets and Sweatfleece hoodies in U.S. stores as the Vancouver-based retailer’s expansion gains traction.

The success beyond Aritzia’s home base is stoking hopes for further gains in the United States and perhaps elsewhere – making the company stand out as an intriguing growth opportunity even as the share price rallies to fresh highs.

That’s right, the stock is no bargain. It is up nearly 64 per cent so far this year and holding onto a premium valuation for a retailer.

It trades at nearly 29-times estimated earnings from analysts over the next 12 months, compared with a forward price-to-earnings of about 14 for Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU-Q +0.52%increase, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

For what it’s worth, that’s also more than Google-parent Alphabet Inc., which trades at less than 25-times estimated earnings.

Aritzia’s steep valuation might give some investors pause. But the company’s strong financial results in its most recent fiscal quarter, released last week, points to the sort of growth that makes the P/E ratio look far more acceptable – perhaps even reasonable.

Consider that net income increased by a dazzling 263 per cent over the same period last year, and handily exceeded analysts’ estimates.

While analysts had been expecting the retailer to report a profit of 39 cents a share after adjustments, Aritzia delivered 59 cents a share.

Revenue rose by 32 per cent over the same period. And comparable sales, or online sales and at stores open for at least one year, gained 21.6 per cent – which is nearly double the pace of growth that analysts had been expecting.

The results highlight Aritzia’s ability to navigate U.S. tariffs and the recent end to exemptions on imported packages valued under US$800.

The company accomplished this by expanding its distribution centre in Ohio to handle U.S. orders and accepting margins that are lower than they would have been with open borders.

More importantly, though, the retailer’s quarterly numbers underscored the long-term bullish case for sticking with the stock: Aritzia has established the sort of brand awareness among young and working-aged women that can drive lots more expansion.

“We see still a ton of runway in the U.S.,” Jennifer Wong, Aritzia’s chief executive officer, said during a conference call with analysts last week.

There are now 68 Aritzia boutiques in the United States. The company is reopening its flagship store in Manhattan, and is on track to open six additional stores over the next couple of months in Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Scottsdale.

You can understand why there is so much interest in the United States. U.S. stores and e-commerce activity generated 60 per cent of sales in the most recent quarter. U.S. sales in the fiscal second quarter increased by 41 per cent over the same period last year, compared with 34 per cent growth in Canadian sales.

Over the long term, the U.S. footprint could expand to something closer to 200 locations, on top of a rising e-commerce channel. That is a big increase for what is essentially a mid-sized company worth about $10-billion, based on the combined value of its outstanding shares.

Stores are getting bigger, too. A decade ago, a typical store was about 6,000 square feet. Today, the average is about 10,000 square feet.

“The great news is that we have a pipeline of stores that are identified, and we see that this as something that we can really capitalize on over the next few years,” Ms. Wong said.

There is even the hint of international expansion to keep investors glued to further growth prospects.

Aritzia relaunched a new and improved international e-commerce platform in late August to handle sales outside farther afield.

Prior to the relaunch, these sales generated just 1 per cent of the company’s e-commerce revenue.

But that was without any dedicated marketing effort, which will begin next month. Ms. Wong expects to triple international sales within about two years, which could put new markets within the company’s sights.

“It’s still obviously early days, but it’s very encouraging because we continue to gather more data about how we could perform beyond the borders of Canada and the U.S.,” Ms. Wong said on the conference call.

Aritzia is an expensive stock. But the brand is popular with women and the company is making big gains in a difficult economy – so it may just stay that way.