Author: Consultant

Magna International Inc. MG-T -1.03%decrease reported its third-quarter profit rose compared with year ago as its revenue edged lower.

The auto parts maker, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its net income attributable to the company amounted to US$383-million or US$1.44 per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

The result compared with a profit of US$305-million or US$1.08 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.

Sales for the quarter totalled US$10.06-billion, down from US$10.46-billion a year earlier.

Magna says the decline reflected lower light vehicle production and the impact of divestitures.

On an adjusted basis, Magna says it earned US$1.83 per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of US$1.33 per share a year earlier.

Cameco Corp. CCO-T -10.11%decrease reported a third-quarter profit attributable to equity holders of $43-million as its revenue edged up compared with a year ago.

The uranium miner says the profit amounted to 10 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a break even result in the same quarter last year.

Revenue totalled $619-million for the quarter, up from $615-million a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, Cameco reported a loss of $2-million or zero cents per diluted share compared with an adjusted profit of $32-million or seven cents per diluted share a year earlier.

Cameco says its results for the quarter and first nine months of the year were generally lower than in 2025, primarily due to lower equity earnings from its investment in Westinghouse, as well as lower sales volumes and higher average unit cost of sales.

The company says those factors were partially offset by higher realized prices.

Canadian energy company Imperial Oil IMO-T +0.63%increase beat profit estimates for third quarter on Friday, as stronger refining margins drove a sharp increase in downstream earnings, ​offsetting lower oil ‌production.

The Calgary-based company reported net income rose to $2.45-billion, or $5.11 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, beating analysts’ average estimate of $4.70 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The ⁠Iran war has disrupted ​energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz, while attacks on Middle Eastern and Russian energy infrastructure have further tightened ⁠global fuel supplies.

The disruptions have pushed up prices of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel relative to crude ⁠oil, widening refining ​margins.

Imperial Oil’s third-quarter downstream ⁠earnings climbed to $1.56-billion from ‌$444-million a year earlier, reflecting improved ​refining margins and a more favorable product mix.

Canadian National Railway Co. CNR-T -0.20%decrease reported a third-quarter profit of $1.21-billion, up from $1.14-billion in the same quarter last year.

The railway says the profit amounted to $2.00 per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from a profit of $1.83 per diluted share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, CN says it earned $2.16 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of $1.83 per diluted share a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter totalled $4.77-billion, up from $4.17-billion in the same quarter last year.

CN says its operating ratio, defined as operating expenses as a percentage of revenues, for the quarter was 63.7 per cent, up from 61.4 per cent a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, CN’s operating ratio 61.0 per cent, down from an adjusted 61.4 per cent in the same quarter last year.

Hackers stole US$6.3-billion from Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, in a theft that analysts blamed on North Korea and said could be the largest financial heist of all time.

Cryptocurrency prices fell on the news, while Binance halted withdrawals and said it would use company funds to cover the losses. Stablecoin issuers including El Salvador-based Tether and the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial froze about half of the stolen assets.

Binance is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service (USSS), a person familiar with the situation told Reuters.

“This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it,” Binance said in a post on X.

Gone in 20 minutes: How the biggest heist in crypto history unfolded

The exchange said customer funds were safe and it was working with partners to freeze some of the affected assets, with about US$3-billion located so far. It said earlier on Friday it expected to resume withdrawal services in the next 48 hours. It did not mention the status of the remaining US$3.3-billion.

Binance said it had set aside about US$6.34-billion of company funds internally to cover the losses, without giving details about where the funds had come from. The company has a US$1-billion bitcoin reserve fund designed to protect customer assets in the event of security breaches, according to its website. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said on X that the company owned SpaceX shares worth more than US$1-billion.

The bulk of the heist unfolded in about 20 minutes on Thursday and bore similarities to previous large attacks blamed on North Korea, according to U.S. blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis.

TRM said the attackers were able to order Binance wallets to empty into hacker-controlled wallets, mirroring a 2025 heist at crypto exchange Bybit, which the FBI attributed to North Korea.

“TRM attributes the attack to … North Korea’s elite hacking unit,” the firm said in an analysis posted on its website. Both TRM and Chainalysis said they were highly confident North Korea was responsible.

British blockchain analysts Elliptic also said they believed North Korea was behind the theft.

“This incident is almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind,” Elliptic said.

‘Biggest hack in history’

North Korea has for years used state-linked cyber units for espionage, financial theft and revenue, according to U.S. and South Korean authorities as well as cybersecurity experts.

North Korea routinely denies that. Its mission in Geneva and embassy in China did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The U.S. embassy in London said it had no comment on a possible investigation. The USSS did not respond to a request for comment sent via email outside of US hours.

Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority, which issued Binance’s main operating licence, said it was “engaging closely with Binance and monitoring the incident”.

“Your money is safe and we’re covering every loss,” Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said on X. “Our investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual.”

“It’s the biggest hack in history,” Aravind Srinivasan at market maker GSR said, as crypto prices fell broadly.

Bitcoin hit a six-week low of US$76,368 and ether fell more than 3 per cent to a two-month low of US$2,178 before markets stabilized.

BNB, a token originally launched as Binance Coin that can be used to pay Binance fees, was down 5.3 per cent over the past 24 hours at US$699.54, according to CoinGecko, while shaky confidence hit listed crypto exchange shares.

Compromised laptop

An initial investigation suggested the breach may have started with a hacked laptop belonging to one of Binance’s engineers, which let an attacker gain access to one of its systems and make unauthorized withdrawals, Binance said.

“Our security team is tracing the full attack path through the compromised computer which may be the entry point of the incident,” Binance said. The company later added it had uncovered additional points of breach.

Beyond the potential loss of assets, the security breach was likely to have wider ramifications for the crypto sector, which had already been under pressure due to higher US interest rates and softer demand from exchange-traded fund buyers, analysts said.

“It may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralized exchanges,” said Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group.

Hack size tops Binance secure asset fund

Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets, has 335 million registered users globally and had about US$162.8-billion in assets under custody as of its 2025 annual report.

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it had frozen nearly US$1.57-billion in assets linked to the incident, while Circle froze more than US$800-million.

World Liberty Financial said it worked with custodian BitGo to freeze funds, and Binance co-founder Yi He said US$27-million in stablecoins and about US$2-million worth of World Liberty tokens had been frozen. Crypto firm Ripple also froze roughly $200-million in funds, Yi said.

The incident adds to a string of crypto thefts. Last year, attackers stole US$2.9-billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs.

In September, Bitget said roughly US$350-million in crypto had been stolen from its platform.

“The broader credit and industry implications will depend on the ultimate losses, affected counterparties, asset recovery, and importantly, whether the incident leads to wider disruption or loss of confidence across the digital-asset ecosystem,” said Cristiano Ventricelli, vice president, digital assets at Moody’s Ratings.

Intel INTC-Q -28.64%decrease tumbled 29 per cent on Friday and ​was on track for its ‌sharpest one-day decline, deepening a broader retreat in technology stocks as investors grew increasingly wary of weakening PC demand and the vast spending required to build out ⁠AI infrastructure.

The ​steep fall put the U.S. chipmaker on track to shed more than US$137-billion in market value, underscoring the challenges facing CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s turnaround as a prolonged PC slump offsets heavy investments in AI ​and manufacturing expansion.

Semiconductor stocks, including Advanced Micro ‌Devices AMD-Q -9.78%decrease , Arm Holdings ARM-Q -11.28%decrease, Qualcomm QCOM-Q -11.56%decrease, Nvidia NVDA-Q -3.76%decrease, , Broadcom AVGO-Q -5.61%decrease and Micron MU-Q -5.44%decrease, fell between 2 per cent and 10 per cent.

“The market is in a sell first, ask questions later mood right now, and Intel’s warning has given investors an easy excuse to take some money off the ‌table ​across chip stocks,” said Matt ‌Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

The selloff spread to server makers, ​reflecting investor caution toward companies tied to the ⁠semiconductor and AI infrastructure supply chain.

Shares of server makers Dell ⁠Technologies DELL-N -10.35%decrease, Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE-N -6.61%decrease and Super Micro Computer SMCI-Q -6.42%decrease fell between 6 per cent and 10 per cent.

The STOXX Europe ​600 Technology Index fell 2 per cent, with sector heavyweight ASML ASML-Q -5.74%decrease shedding 4.6%. U.S.-listed shares of TSMC TSM-N -5.48%decrease, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, fell 3.3%.

Intel forecast fourth-quarter revenue of US$15-billion to US$16-billion, below analysts’ average estimate of US$17.07-billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Finance chief David Zinsner ⁠also said Intel does not expect positive cash flow this year.

Higher memory prices, driven by suppliers shifting capacity toward AI-focused high-bandwidth memory chips, are raising PC costs and weighing on already weak consumer demand.

PC chips accounted for roughly half of Intel’s third-quarter revenue, and the ⁠company expects sales from the segment ​to decline more than 20 per cent sequentially this quarter after a 5 per cent drop in the ⁠September period.

“It will be important to see if Intel can expand the highly profitable Xeon product ‌supply to help offset this developing weakness in PC,” said Brian Mulberry, chief ​market strategist at Zacks Investment Management.

“Bottom line, weaker sales volumes, higher manufacturing costs, and an out-of-cycle product mix is a recipe for the stock to decline over the near term as future earnings ​are under a lot of pressure.”

• The U.S. economy grew at a 3.4% pace in the third quarter, faster than expected.
• Inflation continued to run above the Fed’s 2% target in September, with a headline rate of 3.6% and core at 3.1%, according to the central bank’s preferred gauge.
• Consumer spending was slightly below forecasts, though still up 0.5%. Personal income increased just 0.2%

The pace of price increases stepped up in September, keeping inflation well above the Federal Reserve’s target, while the economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter, according to Commerce Department reports Thursday.

The personal consumption expenditures price index increased a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3.6%. The monthly increase was the largest since March but in line with the Dow Jones consensus, while the annual rate was 0.1 percentage point below.

Excluding food and energy, the core PCE posted respective readings of 0.3% and 3.1%, in line with the consensus. While the Fed follows both measures closely, officials generally see the core reading as more indicative of longer-term inflation trends.

While inflation continued to run ahead of the Fed’s 2% target, the Commerce Department also reported that gross domestic product was strong in the third quarter.

GDP increased at a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 3.4%, better than the 3.1% estimate and well ahead of the 2.2% in the second quarter.

Also, in September consumer spending proved resilient, climbing 0.5%, a bit below the forecast for a 0.6% gain, while personal income rose 0.2%, compared with the estimate for 0.3%.

The reports come the day after the Fed voted to hold its benchmark interest rate in a range between 3.75%-4%. Despite elevated inflation readings, central bank officials insist they can afford to evaluate incoming data before deciding on their next move.

“The period right in front of us is information rich. There is a lot that’s happening in the world. My colleagues and I are keen to take notice of it,” Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said Wednesday.

However, the data deluge from Thursday shows the Fed could have more work to do.

A Labor Department report also released Thursday showed that layoffs remain low. Initial jobless claims edged lower to a seasonally adjusted 194,000 for the week ended Oct. 24, below the estimate for 200,000 and near levels last seen in the late 1960s.

Stock market futures were negative following the releases while Treasury yields also fell.

“Net, net, economic growth is powering ahead despite the uncertainty of geopolitical risks and the damage posed to many sectors of the economy by higher energy costs,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds. “The economy was thought to have been a lost cause during much of the current Administration’s time in office, but real GDP has bounced back above a 3 percent run rate in Q3 2026 for the first time in a year.”

Read more CNBC economics coverage

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Economic growth has been driven by higher levels of investment from the artificial intelligence build-out, as well as high levels of consumer and government spending.

Consumer spending rose 3.8% in the third quarter, the same pace as the prior period. Gross private domestic investment soared 19.4%, driven by a 20.9% surge in equipment spending and an 8.4% jump on intellectual property products.

Real sales to private domestic purchasers, a proxy that Fed officials use for underlying demand, rose 4.9%, compared with a 4.6% increase in the second quarter.

There was some good inflation news for the period: On a quarterly basis, PCE prices rose 2.1% on the headline number and 2.5% for core, down respectively from 5% and 3.3% in the second quarter.

September’s price increases were driven largely by a surge in energy costs that economists fear could be spreading to other parts of the economy. Gasoline and other energy goods saw a 9.2% rise for the month while energy goods and services broadly jumped 5.4%.

At the same time, services prices excluding energy and housing rose 0.4%, and housing costs increased 0.3%.

• Audi plans to invest about $4 billion in its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Georgia, with production expected to start in the early 2030s.
• Audi executives said the project aims to expand the brand in the U.S. while reducing its exposure to import tariffs and other trade risks.
• Audi expects the factory to have an annual capacity of up to 200,000 vehicles.

The bank revised its inflation and economic growth forecasts higher, sees the annual rate of inflation remaining above 3 per cent through 2027

The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate to 2.5 per cent, up from 2.25 per cent, for the first time in three years. The bank also revised its inflation and economic growth forecasts higher, and sees the annual rate of inflation remaining above 3 per cent through much of next year.

Key moments:

• BoC hikes rate, suggests more may be needed to contain oil-price shock
• New bank forecasts show higher inflation, faster economic growth
• What the hike means for markets, homebuyers, mortgages and consumer costs
• Economists react to the decision and the possibility of further rate hikes