Author: Consultant

Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. ATD-T tallied its best U.S. same-store sales growth of the last three years during its latest quarter, a sign consumer confidence is slowly returning in its biggest market as the company also surprised investors with major gains in U.S. gasoline profit margins.

Its shares hit a new all-time high, closing the day at $91.87 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company now has a market value of $75.5-billion.

Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle K chain, reported a 3.4-per-cent, year-over-year increase in merchandise sales at comparable U.S. stores during its latest three-month period. Store traffic increased and customers snapped up more packaged beverages, nicotine products and food than in the previous quarter, and the company said it continued to take share from rivals.

Meanwhile, Couche-Tard’s profit margins on gasoline sold in the U.S. hit a five-year high, even as it sold two per cent less fuel at comparable stores.

Stifel analyst Martin Landry said the company was able to use arbitrage strategies to take advantage of volatile crude oil prices seen this year as a result of the war in the Middle East, tallying a US$0.52 per gallon margin during the quarter that outpaced the US$0.35 per gallon industry-wide average.

Both data points helped power Couche-Tard during the quarter ended April 26. Revenue came in at US$19.5-billion for the period, up 20 per cent from the US$16.3-billion last year. Net earnings were US$863.3-million, including a gain on the settlement of a long-standing legal battle over interchange fees. On an adjusted basis, profit was US$667-million or US$0.73 per share, easily beating the average analyst estimate of US$0.54.

“We see better traffic, margin expansion and a more productive network, while we continue to invest in the capabilities that will extend these advantages over time,” Couche-Tard chief executive Alex Miller told analysts on a call Tuesday. “And importantly, our fuel platform continues to perform as our teams lean into the strength and agility of our supply chain and global scale to capture opportunities and grow market share.”

After a solid trajectory of profit growth over the past two decades, Couche-Tard’s business has come under pressure more recently as consumers cut spending to deal with higher levels of debt as well as inflation. Global conflict, including in Ukraine and the Middle East, has added to those worries as retail industry observers analyze whether it will lead to any lasting change in consumer behaviour.

Many of those consumers now appear to be shaking off the bad news, at least south of the border. Others might simply be responding to what Circle K has to offer, including $3 meal deals. With its latest earnings report, Couche-Tard tallied same-store sales growth in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive quarter.

Mr. Miller launched a new five-year strategy in February that builds on Circle K’s traditional strengths in selling fuel, nicotine products and drinks. With the push, Couche-Tard has said it expects it can generate year-over-year adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 10 per cent or more from fiscal 2026 through 2030.

“We believe this quarter demonstrates more proof” that profit growth level can be achieved, Scotiabank analyst John Zamparo said in a note to clients. The company’s earnings beat this quarter “reveals the strength of its fuel business, which is probably more durable than investors give it credit for,” he said.

Couche-Tard has built up its global fuel business over the past decade and now runs that unit from logistics hubs in Houston and Geneva, Switzerland. The company sold 15.4-billion gallons of gasoline and diesel in fiscal 2025, operates a fleet of about 575 trucks, and owns several fuel terminals. It recently bought three terminals in Germany to add to its supply capabilities.

This scale gives the company options on where to source fuel when supply gets squeezed, as it has in recent months. Said Mr. Miller: “It’s about recognizing various markets, how those markets receive product, what options are there to supply those markets, and building those options so that when you need them or when opportunity exists, you can take advantage of that.”

AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. ATRL-T +0.60%increase has launched efforts to license its Candu reactor in the United States, an opening salvo into a market that has traditionally been regarded as off-limits to foreign vendors.

The Montreal-based company submitted a notice to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, Tuesday morning, beginning the process to obtain a license for its Enhanced Candu 6, or EC6, reactor.

The application arrives at a moment when the U.S. government is working to discourage imports of many Canadian products including cars, steel and aluminum through tariffs and other measures. Yet AtkinsRéalis could benefit from a drive by U.S. President Donald Trump to reorganize the NRC with the explicit goal of speeding up licence applications for commercial nuclear power plants.

AtkinsRéalis is applying under a new streamlined process, known as Part 53, which compels the NRC to decide on granting licences for commercial power plants within 18 months. That deadline was imposed by an executive order Mr. Trump signed last May, which also demanded “wholesale revision” of the NRC’s regulations and large reductions in its staffing to remedy what he regarded as overzealous oversight.

Nuclear strategy raises questions about Canada’s predilection for Candu

The EC6 is an updated, 730-megawatt version of a 1970s-era reactor that was exported to Argentina, Romania, Korea and China. Because it’s not a first-of-a-kind reactor, and because it completed a prelicensing review by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission more than a decade ago, the company hopes the NRC might license the EC6 even more quickly.

“We’re shooting for 12 months,” said Joe St. Julian, president of AtkinsRéalis’s nuclear business.

The U.S. has traditionally been regarded as a difficult market for foreign reactor vendors to crack. Nearly all of the more than 130 reactors built in the U.S. decades ago used technology from four domestic vendors; most were boiling water reactors and pressurized water reactors, technologies the Americans also exported worldwide.

Partly for this reason, Mr. St. Julian said, AtkinsRéalis dedicated few of its marketing efforts to the country in recent years. But the company sensed an opening after Mr. Trump’s May, 2025, order, which demanded the NRC facilitate the expansion of U.S. nuclear generating capacity four-fold by mid-century, implying that hundreds of large new reactors are needed.

Mr. St. Julian said that only one U.S. vendor offers large reactors: Westinghouse Electric Co., which markets a large reactor known as the AP1000. He’s betting Westinghouse lacks adequate resources to build hundreds of them.

“The U.S. does not have the capacity to do that any more, given the fact that their entire nuclear industry has atrophied over 30 years.”

According to reports, the Trump Administration has opened talks with other foreign vendors, including South Korean diplomats representing Korea Electric Power Corp. Mr. St. Julian said AtkinsRéalis has been in talks with the NRC for more than a year, and the U.S. federal government has encouraged its application.

“We’re not sure how this is going to play out, but all signs and all dialog have been very encouraging for us to actually go there.”

AtkinsRéalis is also developing an updated version of its 1980s-era Candu 850 reactor, dubbed the Monark, which has a planned capacity of 925 megawatts. Mr. St. Julian said the company intends to seek an NRC licence for that reactor once it has completed licensing with the NRC’s counterpart in Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Federal plan aims to boost nuclear sector with up to 10 new reactors, expand international footprint

Canada’s nuclear industry previously made forays into the U.S., with little success.

Decades ago, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., or AECL, (a Crown corporation and the predecessor of AtkinsRéalis’s nuclear division) designed a reactor known as the Candu 3U for the U.S. market, but it was never built or sold.

AECLmarketed another product known as the Advanced Candu Reactor 700 south of the border in the early 2000s. Intending to make a more compact, cheaper version of the Candu 6, AECL planned to use slightly enriched uranium fuel and light water as a coolant. It formed a partnership with a major American utility, Dominion Energy D-N +0.34%increase, to explore the possibility of building the reactor, and sought to license from the NRC beginning in 2002.

The NRC, though, advised that AECL would have to resolve a variety of technical issues to satisfy its concerns.

“The staff expects that the review and evaluation of the ACR-700 design will be more challenging, will involve expenditure of more resources, and may take longer to review than a typical light-water design,” it warned in a letter to the company in 2004, estimating the certification process could take longer than 60 months.

Shortly afterward, Dominion dissolved the partnership, citing concerns about how long the NRC review would take.

The NRC has since acknowledged that its regulatory framework was tailored to the American-designed light water reactors it was familiar with, and has cast Part 53 as a remedy. (Critics have made similar complaints about Canada’s regulatory framework, which evolved largely with a focus on the heavy water Candu technology.)

The drive to speed up NRC licensing decisions has worried some critics.

In a commentary published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists last July, former NRC chairs Stephen Burns, Allison Macfarlane and Michard Meserve warned that the Trump administration had undermined its previous status as an independent regulator free from industry and political influence, and that its new licensing deadlines were “arbitrary.”

“We are concerned about the unintended safety consequences that a reduced NRC independence and a schedule-driven regulatory paradigm threaten to bring,” they wrote.

Saskatchewan uranium miner Cameco Corp. CCO-T -1.97%decrease is cheering the U.S. Department of Energy’s announcement of a conditional US$17.5-billion loan package to speed up new reactor builds.

The department’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing says the loans are for five eligible projects – each with two reactors – sponsored by utilities and energy companies across the U.S.

The goal is to quickly deploy 10 large-scale commercial reactors by providing financing for components that take a long time to manufacture and deliver.

The only licensed large-scale advanced commercial reactors operating in the United States currently are Westinghouse Electric Co.’s AP1000 units.

Saskatoon-based Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management BAM-T -1.98%decrease together own Westinghouse.

Cameco says certain technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions must be met before the Department of Energy enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loans.

Just over a year ago, U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders with the goal of quadrupling domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years.

“When combined with the May 23, 2025 executive orders and other U.S. government initiatives, we believe the right incentives are being created to advance the rapid deployment of AP1000 reactors in the U.S.,” Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel said in a news release Tuesday.

“The expansion of nuclear power in the United States is expected to create significant opportunities for Westinghouse and Cameco, accelerating growth in Westinghouse’s energy systems segment during the procurement and subsequent construction phase.”

The Department of Energy says each project will be jointly owned by Westinghouse and a utility or energy company partner. Both parties are required to fully commit their project equity – US$500 million each – upfront before accessing loan funds.

Each of the reactors would generate 1.1 gigawatts of power, with the combined output enough for almost 10 million households, the Department of Energy said.

“These conditional loans will play an important role in reviving the supply chain needed for America to once again build large-scale commercial reactors,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a news release.

“They will also help accelerate the timeline of building those large-scale reactors by up to three years, lowering construction costs and ensuring the United States is able to deliver on President Trump’s bold and ambitious energy addition agenda.”

Ottawa is naming three projects for potential listing under the new Building Canada Act by the fall, when they would be declared as being in the national interestto accelerate their construction timelines.

The projects include two that have previously been referred to the federal Major Projects Office – the Mackenzie Valley Highway Project in the Northwest Territories and the Grays Bay Road and Port Project in Nunavut.

Federal ministers announced Wednesday in Yellowknife that a third project – a nuclear waste deep storage project in northwestern Ontario – is also being referred to the Major Projects Office.

“The initiation of this process marks a major shift in how we accelerate nation-building infrastructure,” said Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson in a statement.

Mr. Hodgson announced the plan alongside Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon and Crown-Indigenous Minister Rebecca Alty.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government introduced and passed the Building Canada Act, also known as Bill C-5, a year ago.

The S&P 500 was lower on Tuesday as a tech sell-off that began during the prior session picked up steam overnight, with global markets in Asia routed as memory chip-related shares tumbled.

The broad market index fell 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded around the flatline.

The major averages came off their lows as tech stocks outside of chipmakers such as Microsoft and Amazon as well as defensive stocks like Walmart, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson moved higher. Additionally, International Business Machines shares popped 4% following an upgrade to overweight at JPMorgan, while Sherwin-Williams and Merck saw gains as well.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 1.3% in Monday’s session, dragged down by shares of Alphabet primarily. The selling then picked up globally with South Korea’s Kospi leading the region’s losses. Memory chip leader SK Hynix, which has led a speculative AI frenzy in the country, closed down more than 12%. The South Korea benchmark, which is up 95% this year, was down almost 10%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 3.55%, breaking eight sessions of gains.

U.S.-traded Micron Technology then followed suit, with the memory chipmaker down 10%. Sandisk fell 12% while components maker Seagate Technology also shed more than 7%. Intel pulled back 3%, while Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm lost 5% and 9%, respectively.

The State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) dropped 3%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell 6%. Meanwhile, SpaceX ticked up more than 1%.

Alphabet continued its losing ways, down marginally after a 5% down day on Monday tied to concerns about high-profile AI talent departures at the company.

“The AI beneficiaries are the sell-off, and I don’t think they’re expensive, but they’re crowded,” said Andrew Slimmon, a senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday. “It’s captured kind-of the zeitgeist of the momentum traders and when that happens, you’re going to have sharp sell offs like we’re having. I’d argue it’s healthy.”

European shares also fell sharply on Tuesday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 down 1%.

The Stoxx 600 Technology index led regional losses, with a decline of 3%. Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASMI and chipmaker STMicroelectronics, both down more than 6%, were among the biggest downward movers on the Stoxx 600.

Recent IPO Cerebras will report earnings after the bell Tuesday, while Micron will report results on Wednesday after the close

Lindy Li says Democrats feared being ostracized if they challenged Biden, calling it pure ‘self-interest’

Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who switched party affiliation over unheeded warning signs about President Joe Biden’s decline in the 2024 election, is revealing new details about the red flags the party blew by.

“Whatever was out there, it wasn’t the truth. They wanted him to go, and also in my book, I will be telling people exactly who was aware of Biden’s cognitive decline but pretended otherwise,” Li told Fox News Digital during a phone interview.

Li, who is publishing a new book titled “Unburdened” later this year, adds to the picture of the internal discussions, the research, and the panic behind the scenes of the Democratic Party, indicating that Biden enjoyed only shaky support even among his own camp long before he ultimately dropped out of the 2024 election.

Above all, Li said she was shocked by some of the party’s leading figures who expressed reservations behind the scenes about Biden’s decline, but remained staunch defenders of the president in public.

Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser, pictured alongside former President Joe Biden, right. (Lindy Li; Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

“I remember getting a text from Schiff,” Li said, referring to Adam Schiff, D-Calif., then a Democratic candidate for Senate and top Democrat in the House of Representatives.

“I have it in my book. Basically, Adam Schiff was — I can’t remember what he said on TV, but I’m telling you right now that behind the scenes he very much wanted [Biden] to go.”

A spokesperson for Schiff responded to Li’s claims, noting that the Senator had made his doubts about Biden known publicly after a 2024 debate where the president stumbled over his words, lost his train of thought and spoke in a whispery voice that, at times, was difficult to understand. He eventually called for Biden to step aside that July

“The Senator’s concerns and call on President Biden to not run was very public, so none of this is news,” the spokesperson said.

But even beyond Schiff, Li, who ran a formidable fundraising operation for the party and was connected with a wide swath of its figures, said that many figures who were hesitant about Biden’s cognitive abilities were afraid of putting themselves in the path of his political momentum.

“They didn’t want to get ostracized by the party. It’s like the axiom: you come at the king; you better not miss. Everyone would have missed,” Li said.

Li said that fear was bolstered by internal research the party had done, indicating that no one else in the party had the capital to challenge Biden.

“There are many candidates who polled themselves against Biden and then realized that they couldn’t beat him in a primary. It wasn’t a matter so much of anti-Trumpism. It was self-interest,” Li said.

“I’ve seen the polling data, and I also include that in my book — polling no one has seen before.”

Li said that internal discussion had also revealed that Harris wasn’t considered a particularly strong candidate to take on Biden’s mantle.

“She was the weakest candidate in the field,” Li said.

“I also have polling data right before Kamala ascended. We stacked her against Buttigieg, Newsom, Shapiro, Whitmer — all of them,” Li said, referring to a handful of other key figures in the Democratic Party.

Along with fears about going after Biden and coming up short, Li said she believes the Bidens — particularly Joe Biden — inspired a sense of loyalty in the people around him that was hard to shake.

“He had decades of loyalty — his bond with people like James Clyburn,” Li explained, referring to the chief Biden ally who had helped steer the party for decades.

“There’s something about Joe Biden. He was incredibly kind,” Li said.

• U.S. Vice President JD Vance said “great progress” was made in peace talks with Iran over the weekend.
• Mediators Qatar and Pakistan said U.S. and Iranian officials had agreed on a roadmap aimed at reaching a final deal within 60 days.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/22/oil-prices-wti-brent-crude-trump-iran-threat-strait-hormuz-closure.html

• The U.S. Treasury Department has authorized the production, delivery and sale of Iranian oil for 60 days.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the authorization comes after “productive talks” between Tehran and Washington in Switzerland.
• The U.S. Navy last Thursday lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and coastal areas.

The U.S. on Monday authorized Iranian oil sales through August after “productive talks” between Tehran and Washington in Switzerland over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

“As part of the framework, Treasury has issued a temporary 60-day general license authorizing the production, delivery, and sale of Iranian oil,” Bessent said in a post on X. The authorization expires August 21, unless its renewed.

Vice President JD Vance said earlier Monday that “great progress” was made during the talks in Switzerland, despite Iran’s declaration over the weekend that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said Hormuz had not been closed.

Vance said Iran agreed to allow weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency back into the Islamic Republic, while Bessent said Tehran had also committed to free and open transit through Hormuz.

The U.S. Navy last Thursday lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and coastal areas. Iranian supertankers have switched on their transponders, after going dark during the war, as they depart the Persian Gulf loaded with oil.

Iran typically loaded more than 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) for export before the U.S. imposed its blockade in April, with most of that oil going to China. Loadings declined to just 260,000 bpd in May as the blockade took hold.

Ship traffic through Hormuz plunged during the war as Iran attacked vessels, triggering the largest oil supply disruption in history. About 20% of global crude supplies were exported through the strait before the war.

Traffic has since increased after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17. Transits rose sharply to 35 on Saturday before declining to 17 crossings on Sunday amid confusion over whether the strait was open or closed due to Iran’s threats, according to data from Kpler.

Traffic remains far below prewar levels, when more than 100 vessels transited Hormuz daily.

Iran must allow ships to transit Hormuz toll free for 60 days under the agreement with the U.S. After that, Tehran is supposed to discuss with Oman and the Gulf states how the strait will be administered, leaving open the possibility that tolls could be imposed later.

Canada’s annual inflation rate in May accelerated more than expected to 3.2 per cent, a 29-month high, data showed on Monday, as the impact of higher crude oil prices due to the Iran conflict continued to filter through gasoline costs.

Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated the annual inflation rate to touch 3 per cent in May, up from 2.8 per cent in April.

The prices, however, are already showing a major reversal in June after an interim peace deal was signed between the United States and Iran last week, which, analysts have said, could help ease the headline number in June.

Statistics Canada said excluding the impact of gasoline prices, the consumer price index still posted a higher increase of 2.2 per cent in May from 2 per cent in April led by elevated cost of food, recreation and alcoholic beverages.

The monthly inflation rate rose to 1 per cent in May, exceeding expectations of 0.8-per-cent rise. This is the highest monthly rise in 15 months.

How market bets and economist views for future BoC rate moves have shifted in the wake of today’s hotter-than-expected inflation data

Gasoline prices in May rose by 33.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis. Consumers in May shelled out more for gasoline than from its previous peak four years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine, Statscan said.

This led to an increase in the cost of transportation, which accounts for almost 18.5 per cent of the CPI basket, posting a 9-per-cent annual increase last month.

The inflation number is not likely to alter Bank of Canada’s assessment of underlying inflation as it said earlier this month that it was seeing limited evidence higher energy prices were fuelling broad-based inflation.

Cost of food, which also contributes around 17 per cent of the CPI basket, rose 3.8 per cent in May from 3.5 per cent in April, Statscan said, adding that this was fuelled by an increase in prices of fresh fruits and vegetables which rose by 5.3 per cent and 9 per cent respectively in May.

The impact of higher transportation and food prices were largely offset by shelter costs, the biggest contributor to the CPI basket at close to 30 per cent. Shelter costs rose by 1.7 per cent in May following a 1.8-per-cent increase in April, data showed, especially led by a reduction in mortgage costs which shrunk by 0.2 per cent last month.

The closely tracked measure of core inflation stayed unchanged in May.

CPI-median, the centremost component of the CPI basket, was at 2.1 per cent, while CPI-trim, which excludes the most extreme price changes, was at 2 per cent.