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OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to raise oil production by 547,000 barrels a day for September, the latest in a series of accelerated output hikes to regain market share, as concerns mount over potential supply disruptions linked to Russia.

The move marks a full and early reversal of OPEC+’s largest tranche of output cuts plus a separate increase in output for the United Arab Emirates amounting to about 2.5 million b/d, or about 2.4 per cent of world demand.

Eight OPEC+ members held a brief virtual meeting, amid increasing U.S. pressure on India to halt Russian oil purchases – part of Washington’s efforts to bring Moscow to the negotiating table for a peace deal with Ukraine. President Donald Trump said he wants this by Friday.

In a statement following the meeting, OPEC+ cited a healthy economy and low stocks as reasons behind its decision.

Oil prices have remained elevated even as OPEC+ has raised output, with Brent crude closing near US$70 a barrel on Friday, up from a 2025 low of near US$58 in April, supported in part by rising seasonal demand.

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“Given fairly strong oil prices at around $70, it does give OPEC+ some confidence about market fundamentals,” said Amrita Sen, co-founder of Energy Aspects, adding that the market structure was also indicating tight stocks.

The eight countries are scheduled to meet again on Sept. 7, when they may consider reinstating another layer of output cuts totalling around 1.65 million b/d, two OPEC+ sources said following Sunday’s meeting. Those cuts are currently in place until the end of next year.

OPEC+ in full includes 10 non-OPEC oil producing countries, most notably Russia and Kazakhstan.

The group, which pumps about half of the world’s oil, had been curtailing production for several years to support oil prices. It reversed course this year in a bid to regain market share, spurred in part by calls from Mr. Trump for OPEC to ramp up production.

The eight began raising output in April with a modest hike of 138,000 b/d, followed by larger-than-planned hikes of 411,000 b/d in May, June and July, 548,000 b/d in August and now 547,000 b/d for September.

“So far the market has been able to absorb very well those additional barrels also due to stockpiliing activity in China,” said Giovanni Staunovo of UBS. “All eyes will now shift on the Trump decision on Russia this Friday.”

As well as the voluntary cut of about 1.65 million b/d from the eight members, OPEC+ still has a 2-million-b/d cut across all members, which also expires at the end of 2026.

“OPEC+ has passed the first test,” said Jorge Leon of Rystad Energy and a former OPEC official, as it has fully reversed its largest cut without crashing prices.

“But the next task will be even harder: deciding if and when to unwind the remaining 1.66 million barrels, all while navigating geopolitical tension and preserving cohesion.”

The Bank of Canada held its policy interest rate at 2.75 per cent for the third consecutive time as U.S. trade policy continues to muddy the economic outlook.

The bank once again held off publishing a central forecast in its quarterly Monetary Policy Report. Instead, it detailed three potential paths for the Canadian economy that depend on the trajectory of U.S. tariffs, ranging from a mild downturn to an extended recession.

Key moments:

• BoC’s policy interest rate remains on pause for the third consecutive time
• Markets react to today’s BoC decision and probabilities of further rate cuts this year
• Why the BoC hold won’t do much for Canada’s real estate market

Canadian Pacific Kansas City CP-T -0.16%decrease has reported an increase in profits and revenues during the second quarter.

The continent-spanning railroad, headquartered in Calgary, posted net income of $1.23-billion for the three months ended June 30, up from $903-million during the same period a year earlier.

Diluted earnings per share came in at $1.33, an increase from 97 cents.

Revenues were $3.7-billion for the period versus $3.6-billion in the second quarter of 2024.

CPKC’s operating ratio – a key metric watched by investors, where a lower number is better – decreased to 63.7 per cent from 64.8 per cent a year earlier.

The railroad is maintaining its most recent forecast of adjusted diluted earnings per share growth of 10 to 14 per cent in 2025, which was lowered in April from an earlier prediction of 12 to 18 per cent growth.

Air Canada AC-T -10.62%decrease saw an 11-per-cent decline in U.S-bound seat sales in the second quarter amid trade and sovereignty tensions spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Canada’s largest airline posted a 2-per-cent per cent rise in overall operating revenue as travellers chose domestic or overseas destinations.

“In the transborder market, we continue to see less demand for trips to the U.S.,” said Mark Galardo, Air Canada’s chief commercial officer.

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Air Canada on Tuesday reported profit of $186-million for the three months ending on June 30, compared with $410-million in the year-earlier period. Adjusted for a tax settlement, profit was $207-million, or 60 cents a share, compared with $369-million (98 cents) in the same period a year ago.

Analysts had expected adjusted profit of 72 cents a share.

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“This second quarter was not business as usual,” Mr. Galardo told analysts on an earnings conference call on Tuesday morning. “We navigated through a period of significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty and we contended with reduced demand for transborder travel.”

Other headwinds included reduced demand for travel to the Middle East and India amid geopolitical turmoil, increased competition in China and Hong Kong, and currency fluctuations, he said.

Mr. Galardo said the drop in U.S. travel was expected and accompanied by an 8-per-cent decline in seat capacity and better per-seat yields.

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Canadians have adopted an elbows-up stance against Mr. Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state and crush its industries with tariffs. They have shunned U.S. visits and products and lauded campaigns to spend their money at home.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of Canadians crossing the border by plane has fallen through the first five months of the year, and is down in April and May by 14 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, compared to a year ago. Trips by car, which comprise three-quarters of travel to the U.S., fell by more than 35 per cent for these months.

The diminished U.S. market is significant for Canada’s airlines because it was the destination for 75 per cent of all trips abroad by Canadians in 2024.

Celestica Inc. CLS-T +16.92%increase continued in the second quarter to benefit from surging demand from tech giants engaged in a global arms race to build giant artificial intelligence-driven data centres, surpassing heightened market expectations.

The Toronto-based global manufacturing giant reported Monday after the market close that it generated US$2.89-billion of revenue in the quarter ended June 30, up 21 per cent from the same period a year earlier. It also reported adjusted earnings of US$1.39 a share, up 54 per cent, and net earnings of US$1.82 a share, up 128 per cent.

Celestica’s U.S.-listed shares jumped more than 10 per cent in after-market trading Monday after the stock closed at an all-time high of $238.07 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock has appreciated by nearly 80 per cent this year and is up more than 15-fold since the end of 2022, giving the company a market capitalization of nearly $27-billion. That makes Celestica the fourth-most valuable technology company on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Celestica Inc Sv

238.07+105.41 (79.46%)

Year to date

Dec. 31, 2024

132.66

July 28, 2025

238.07

SOURCE: BARCHART

Celestica came into the quarter expected to not only beat its own increased projections from April, but also recent analyst forecasts after exceeding their estimates for revenue and adjusted earnings in each of the past four quarters. It did so.

Revenues were about $200-million above the upper end of the company’s forecast revenue and analyst estimates, while its adjusted operating margin of 7.4 per cent was 20 basis points above its forecast. The company also raised its guidance for 2025, forecasting revenue of US$11.55-billion (up US$700-million from its increased forecast in April) and adjusted earnings per share of US$5.50, up from its prior US$5 forecast.

Analysts had widely expected Celestica to increase its forecast after doing so last quarter,and three times in each of the past two years. In addition, rivals Accton Technology Corp., Broadcom Inc. AVGO-Q +1.72%increase and Jabil Inc. JBL-N +3.10%increase recently reported financial results above expectations,and AI chip giant Nvidia Corp. 

N/A recently surpassed US$4-trillion in stock market value.

Celestica, which supplies equipment to data centres and server farms that provide the computing power for AI models, has been on a tear since 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT and kicked off the generative AI revolution.

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The Canadian company is a key supplier to tech giant “hyperscalers” including Google, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com Inc. They have heavily upgraded computing capacity for AI development and are accelerating plans to do so: Google said last week it would make US$85-billion of capital expenditures this year, US$10-billion higher than previously forecast. Revenue from the Celestica segment which supplies the AI boom, increased by 28 per cent in the quarter to US$2.07-billion, accounting for 71.6 per cent of total company revenues.

“Celestica is benefiting from AI-driven data center expansion through its storage and networking produces, as well as servers for AI applications,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Paul Treiber said in a note to clients last week.

Celestica provides computing modules, network switches and data storage capacity for server farms, none of which is a straightforward manufacturing job. It incorporates custom silicon and has proprietary thermal and power management designs to help companies manage the extreme heat and electricity needed to run data centres.

Celestica was briefly a stock market darling a quarter century ago, after the former IBM division was purchased by Onex Corp. ONEX-T -0.22%decrease and spun out into a public company as dot-com mania heated up. (Onex sold out of its position in 2023, before most of the stock’s current run). Its stock soared as the company supplied fibre-optic cables and other equipment used to build out the internet.

But Celestica shares crashed amid the dot-com bust and remained in investor purgatory for two decades.

Chief executive Rob Mionis arrived in 2015 after the company had experienced years of losses, job cuts and shareholder lawsuits. The American-born private equity and aerospace industry veteran shifted Celestica’s orientation, moving it away from manufacturing low-margin products and competing on price to building more complex equipment that required engineering expertise. It improved its mix of customer segments with higher margin products in aerospace and defence, renewable energy, electric vehicle chargers and medical devices.

But the company’s coup was landing a lead position servicing tech giants as they built out data centres. Those relationships, forged before ChatGPT’s arrival, put the company in position to take off with the arrival of the generative AI wave that is now rapidly transforming the global economy,Mr. Mionissaid in a 2023 interview.

Now, the company’s shares trade above its peers and at the high end of their 10-year range, and it is likely to maintain its premium valuation, Mr. Treiber wrote last week.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/george-weston-reports-strong-operating-performance-offset-by-earnings-impact-of-fair-value-adjustment-related-to-choice-properties-unit-price-gain-of-4-9–849698264.html

Canadian National Railway Co. CNR-T +0.22%increase reported its net income inched up to $1.17-billion during its second quarter compared with last year, as it said the trade uncertainty is making it difficult for it to provide investors with an outlook. 

The Montreal-based company says revenue fell about 1 per cent, to $4.27-billion compared with $4.33-billion a year earlier. 

Diluted earnings per share for the quarter came in at $1.87, up from $1.75 a year earlier. 

CN lowered its 2025 forecast for adjusted diluted earnings per share growth, saying it now expects growth in the mid to high single-digit range. 

A previous estimate from CN expected adjusted diluted earnings per share to increase between 10 and 15 per cent for 2025.

CN says it is removing its 2024-26 financial outlook given continued uncertainty surrounding trade and tariff uncertainty. 

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan on Tuesday, placing a 15-per-cent tax on goods imported from that nation.

“This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs – There has never been anything like it,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that the United States “will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan.”

The President said Japan would invest “at my direction” US$550-billion into the U.S. and would “open” its economy to American autos and rice. The 15-per-cent tax on imported Japanese goods is a meaningful drop from the 25-per-cent rate that Trump, in a recent letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, said would be levied starting Aug. 1.

With the announcement, Trump is seeking to tout his ability as a dealmaker – even as his tariffs when initially announced in early April led to a market panic and fears of slower growth that for the moment appear to have subsided. Key details remained unclear from his post, such as whether Japanese-built autos would face a higher 25-per-cent tariff that Trump imposed on the sector.

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But the framework fits a growing pattern for Trump, who is eager to portray the tariffs as win for the U.S. His administration says the revenues will help reduce the budget deficit and more factories will relocate to America to avoid the import taxes and cause trade imbalances to disappear.

But the wave of tariffs continues to be a source of uncertainty about whether it could lead to higher prices for consumers and businesses if companies simply pass along the costs. The problem was seen sharply Tuesday after General Motors reported a 35-per-cent drop in its net income during the second quarter as it warned that tariffs would hit its business in the months ahead, causing its stock to tumble.

As the Aug. 1 deadline for the tariff rates in his letters to world leaders is approaching, Trump also announced a trade framework with the Philippines that would impose a tariff of 19 per cent on its goods while American-made products would face no import taxes. The president also reaffirmed his 19-per-cent tariffs on Indonesia.

The U.S. ran a US$69.4-billion trade imbalance on goods with Japan last year, according to the Census Bureau.

America had a trade imbalance of US$17.9-billion with Indonesia and an imbalance of US$4.9-billion with the Philippines. Both nations are less affluent than the U.S. and an imbalance means America imports more from those countries than it exports to them.

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The President is set to impose the broad tariffs listed in his recent letters to other world leaders on Aug. 1, raising questions of whether there will be any breakthrough in talks with the European Union. At a Tuesday dinner, Trump said the EU would be in Washington on Wednesday for trade talks.

“We have Europe coming in tomorrow, the next day,” Trump told guests.

The president earlier this month sent a letter threatening the 27 member states in the EU with 30-per-cent taxes on their goods to be imposed starting on Aug. 1.

The Trump administration has a separate negotiating period with China that is currently set to run through Aug. 12 as goods from that nation are taxed at an additional 30-per-cent baseline.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would be in the Swedish capital of Stockholm next Monday and Tuesday to meet with his Chinese counterparts. Bessent said his goal is to shift the American economy away from consumption and to enable more consumer spending in the manufacturing-heavy Chinese economy.

“President Trump is remaking the U.S. into a manufacturing economy,” Bessent said on the Fox Business Network show “Mornings with Maria.” “If we could do that together, we do more manufacturing, they do more consumption. That would be a home run for the global economy.”