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Gold prices were in freefall on Friday as traders locked in profits from recent gains. In addition, the naming of the next candidate for U.S. Federal Reserve Chair and today’s producer price data pushed the U.S. dollar higher, weighing on the yellow metal.

Front Month Comex Gold for February delivery nosedived by $604.50 (or 11.37%) to $4,713.90 per troy ounce. However, gold prices skyrocketed by $388.30 per troy ounce (8.98%) for this month and have increased for six consecutive months.

Front Month Comex Silver for February delivery also were in freefall by $35.747 (or 31.35%) to $78.290 per troy ounce. However, silver prices also skyrocketed by $8.1560 (or 11.63%) per troy ounce for this month, increasing for the ninth consecutive month.

In January, gold and silver prices soared by around 17% and 39% respectively.

Yesterday, Front Month Comex Gold for February delivery hit a new record closing high at $5,318.40 per troy ounce after eight consecutive sessions of gains. As a result, investors today opted to book profits.

The U.S. Fed held interest rates steady at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on January 28. The Fed’s economic outlook has diminished expectations of any near-term rate cuts. The Fed had instituted rate cuts thrice consecutively in late 2025.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been criticizing current Fed Chair Jerome Powell for keeping rates too high.

With Powell’s tenure coming to an end by mid-2026, Trump announced his intent to nominate Kevin Warsh, who served as a Fed governor from 2006 until 2011, as Powell’s successor. Warsh’s appointment requires Senate confirmation.

Economists are a bit “surprised” with Trump’s pick, as Warsh is a “hawkish leaning” banker, supporting higher interest rates in an inflationary environment.

The U.S. dollar index was last seen trading at 97.00, up by 0.72 (or 0.75%) today.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics data revealed that month-on-month producer prices rose 0.5% in December 2025, the largest gain in three months, accelerating from a 0.2% increase in November.

Year-over-year, producer prices rose 3.0% in December, unchanged from the previous month.

The month-on-month core producer prices (excluding food and energy) jumped by 0.7% from the previous month in December and on an year-over-year basis, core prices rose by 3.3%.

A funding bill passed by Congress last year to run the U.S. government is lapsing by midnight tonight.

After hectic parleys between Senate Democrats and Republicans and the White House, a deal has been reportedly struck to pass five bills to finance a large portion of the government spending except the Department of Homeland Security.

Recently, immigration officials fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, triggering public anger.

Reflecting on this, a few Democrats threatened to halt any funding that would include bankrolling the DHS, which was a sticking point in the negotiations.

Though today’s bill strips DHS funding, it has to pass back to the House from the Senate. The House is in recess, with a vote not likely to happen until Monday.

Hence, the likelihood of a partial shutdown at least for a brief period appears inevitable.

Despite Trump’s ultimatum to Iran to negotiate on a nuclear deal before time runs out or face severe attacks, Iran has refused to bow to U.S. pressure.

Yesterday, Iran’s army announced adding 1,000 new “strategic” drones.

With Iran’s neighbors pushing for diplomacy, tension still persists in the Middle East. Turkey has come forward to mediate a solution.

In Europe, Russia has consented to pause strikes on Ukraine until February 1 owing to Trump’s appeal.

Trump made the request to support Ukrainians who are facing a “harsh winter” with heating equipment made inactive after Russian strikes on energy installations.

Russia is yet to take positive steps on the U.S.-authored peace proposal though Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is prepared to expedite the deal.

Sunday February 1

OPEC+ meeting

Monday February 2

China, Japan and euro area PMIs

S&P global manufacturing PMIs

North American auto sales

Earnings include: Walt Disney, Tyson Foods

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Tuesday February 3

10 am ET: U.S. job openings and labor turnover survey

Earnings include: AMD, Pepsico, Pfizer, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Electronic Arts, PayPal, Clorox, Match Group

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Wednesday February 4

Euro area consumer price index

S&P global services PMIs are released across the globe

815 am ET: U.S. ADP national employment report

Earnings include: Alphabet, Eli Lilly, UBS, CME Group, McKesson, Suncor Energy, Yum! Brands, Brookfield Asset Management, New York Times, Methanex

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Thursday February 5

Euro area retail sales and Germany factory orders

Bank of England monetary policy meeting

830 am ET: initial jobless claims for previous week

10 am ET: Global supply chain pressure index

1225 am ET: Bank of Canada Governor Macklem speaks in Toronto

Earnings include: Amazon, Shell, ConocoPhillips, ArcelorMittal, Constellation Software, BCE, Telus, News Corp., Open Text, Boyd Gaming, Lightspeed Commerce, Canada Goose, Great West Lifeco, Saputo, Canaccord Genuity, Rogers Sugar, TMX Group

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Friday February 6

Japan household spending

Germany industrial production and trade surplus

830 am ET: Canada employment report for January. Consensus is for 7,000 net new jobs, holding steady from the previous month, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 6.8%

830 am ET: U.S. nonfarm payrolls. Consensus is 65,000 net new jobs, ahead of December’s 50,000 new jobs, with the unemployment rate steady at 4.4%.

10 am ET: University of Michigan consumer sentiment

Earnings include: CAE, Canopy Growth, Philip Morris

Sunday, February 8

Japan’s election

Canada’s economic growth stalled in November as an expansion in services was offset by weakness in goods-producing industries, data showed on Friday, as Canada’s economy slows down after almost a year of tariffs and trade uncertainty.

Gross domestic product was flat month-on-month in November, after a 0.3-per-cent contraction in October, Statistics Canada said.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast marginal growth of 0.1 per cent.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel, automotive, lumber, and aluminum have hobbled output in these sectors.

While the tariff malaise has largely not spread beyond these sectors, a recent Bank of Canada survey showed that business sentiment was subdued, investment was down, and companies expected layoffs.

On a preliminary basis, Statistics Canada said output was expected to edge 0.1-per-cent higher in December, though the agency cautioned the estimate could be revised.

November’s figures indicate an annual growth contraction of 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, undershooting the Bank of Canada’s most recent forecast of no growth in the final three months of the year, based on monthly GDP by industry data.

Two consecutive quarters of contraction would constitute a technical recession.

Canada’s economy is expected to have grown 1.3 per cent in 2025, Statscan said.

Canada’s economy to end year on weak footing after tariff turmoil

Final reported quarterly GDP numbers are based on income and expenditure and can differ from the estimate calculated from GDP by industry.

“The still sluggish momentum towards quarter end may be a concern, as monthly growth rates will need to accelerate for the economy to achieve the (Bank of Canada’s) near 2% MPR forecast for Q1,” Andrew Grantham, senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note.

Services-producing industries, which account for roughly three-quarters of economic output, mainly drove growth in November.

Retail trade, transportation and warehousing and educational services were the top three performing sectors.

However, wholesale trade declined 2.1 per cent, its largest contraction since April last year, the statistics agency said.

The strength in services was offset by a 0.3-per-cent contraction in goods-producing industries, the third such contraction in four months.

Manufacturing output, which contributes over 8 per cent of GDP, contracted 1.3 per cent. The industry remains among the most exposed to trade uncertainty and U.S. tariffs and global trends.

Output of motor vehicles and parts manufacturing shrank 6.4 per cent owing largely to a global semiconductor shortage, Statscan said.

The drop in manufacturing was closely followed by the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sub sector, which contracted 1.1 per cent, the agency said.

The Canadian dollar weakened 0.36 per cent to $1.3537 to the U.S. dollar, or 73.87 U.S. cents. Yields on the two-year government bonds were down 0.5 basis points to 2.407 per cent.

the performance of U.S. tech stocks does influence the share prices of Canadian tech names like Shopify Inc. Class A (SHOP.TO) and Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO), but the relationship isn’t mechanical — it’s driven by sentiment, index flows, and growth-tech correlation effects.

Here’s how U.S. tech performance typically impacts these Canadian tech stocks:

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1. Market Sentiment & Risk Appetite

• U.S. tech stocks (Nasdaq/S&P 500 Info Tech) often set global growth-tech sentiment: when big U.S. tech names rally (e.g., Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia), investors become more willing to buy growth-oriented tech stocks globally, including Canadian ones.
• Conversely, when U.S. tech sells off, risk appetite declines and capital tends to rotate out of growth-y stocks like SHOP.TO and KXS.TO into defensive or value sectors.

→ Impact: SHOP.TO and KXS.TO often move in the same direction as U.S. tech indices, especially during broad tech rallies or drawdowns.

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2. Correlation with U.S. Tech Indexes

• Shopify’s shares are also listed on the Nasdaq (SHOP), and historically have shown meaningful correlation with U.S. tech benchmarks. When the Nasdaq or S&P 500 Info Tech strongly outperforms, Shopify often participates in that tech rally because it behaves like a global tech growth stock.
• Kinaxis is a software/AI-related growth name, so it also tends to track broad tech sector moves — albeit usually less closely than Shopify because it’s smaller and more niche.

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3. Leadership Flows & Index Inclusion Effects

• Shopify was added to the Nasdaq-100 index, meaning index funds and ETFs tied to Nasdaq tech have to hold SHOP, boosting its demand when those funds attract flows.
• When U.S. tech ETFs outperform and attract capital, some flows spill over into tech ETFs globally, supporting SHOP.TO and often smaller capped tech like KXS.TO too.

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4. Earnings & Macro Sentiment Spillover

• If big U.S. tech beats expectations — e.g., strong earnings from Apple, Meta, Microsoft — it tends to lift sector sentiment, improving valuations and multiples for tech growth peers globally.
• That positive mood can spill into SHOP.TO and KXS.TO even if their own fundamentals or earnings are unchanged.

Example: Canadian tech stocks “zoomed past” tech benchmarks in years when U.S. tech was strong — the rally in U.S. mega-cap tech contributed to stronger performance in Shopify and broader Canadian tech sentiment historically.

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5. Risk-Off Episodes & Valuation Compression

• During periods where U.S. tech underperforms or growth stocks get repriced lower (e.g., higher interest rate fear, slowing earnings), then growth valuations fall globally.
• Canadian tech names like SHOP.TO and KXS.TO can get hit harder than broader TSX because they are growth-oriented, higher-multiple stocks — similar to the way U.S. tech is affected in selloffs.

Example (Historical): When Shopify itself gave a weaker forecast and the TSX tech sector weakened, it dragged Canadian tech down significantly, echoing tech sentiment issues.

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Summary Table: Link Between U.S. Tech ↔ SHOP.TO & KXS.TO

Driver	Shopify (SHOP.TO)	Kinaxis (KXS.TO)
U.S. Tech Rally	Often benefits as growth sentiment flows in	Typically positive, though less correlated than SHOP
Tech Selloffs	Can lead to share price weakness due to risk-off	Also sees pressure, especially on valuation multiples
Nasdaq Index Strength	Directly benefits via index inclusion effects	Indirect benefits via broader tech sentiment
Earnings Beats in U.S. Tech	Boosts sector sentiment → can lift SHOP	Provides positive backdrop but often company-specific
Macro Shifts / Risk Aversion	Can amplify volatility in Shopify	Often amplifies KXS volatility too

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In short:

Canadian tech stocks like SHOP.TO and KXS.TO don’t move solely on U.S. tech performance, but they are strongly influenced by it through sentiment, flows, and risk appetite dynamics. When U.S. tech is outperforming, Canadian tech often follows suit, and when U.S. tech retraces or underperforms, Canadian tech stocks tend to retrace too.
This linkage is strongest for Shopify due to its Nasdaq status and large market cap, and somewhat less tight for Kinaxis, though still meaningful given its growth tech characteristics.

High-Level Takeaways

• Apple and Meta clearly beat street forecasts on both revenue and earnings, driving positive stock reactions (especially for Meta).
• Microsoft beat estimates too, but market reaction was negative due to concerns about cloud slowdown and higher AI spending.
• Tesla’s results were weaker relative to expectations, particularly deliveries — a key operational metric — and there’s no clear consensus that it beat on both earnings and revenue.

Imperial Oil Ltd. raised its quarterly dividend by 20 per cent and reported its fourth-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as it saw lower oil prices. The company says it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 87 cents per share, up from 72 cents per share. Imperial says it earned $492 million or $1.00 per diluted share for the final quarter of 2025 quarter compared with a profit of $1.23 billion or $2.37 per diluted share a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, Imperial says it earned $1.97 per diluted share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $2.37 per diluted share a year earlier. Revenue and other income totalled $11.28 billion, down from $12.61 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. Upstream production in the quarter averaged 444,000 gross oil-equivalent barrels per day, compared with 460,000 a year earlier. Refinery throughput averaged 408,000 barrels per day, compared with 411,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Canadian National Railway Co. raised its dividend as it reported its fourth-quarter profit and revenue rose compared with a year earlier. The railway says it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 91.5 cents per share, up from 88.75 cents per share. CN says it earned $1.25 billion or $2.03 per diluted share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up from $1.15 billion or $1.82 per diluted share in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue totalled $4.46 billion, up from $4.36 billion. On an adjusted basis, CN says it earned $2.08 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of $1.82 per diluted share a year earlier. CN’s operating ratio — a key measure of efficiency and profitability for a railway — for the quarter was 61.2 per cent, an improvement from 62.6 per cent a year earlier. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2026.

Canada’s trade deficit widened in November as gold shipments plunged and exports of automobiles and parts hit a three-year low.

Goods exports declined 2.8 per cent while imports declined 0.1 per cent, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. That brought the merchandise trade deficit, the difference between goods imports and exports, to $2.2-billion in November from $395-million the month before.

The result was mainly owing to a massive swing in gold shipments, which have been a key but volatile driver of export growth over the past year. Excluding metal and non-metallic mineral products, the export picture looked more positive, rising 2.5 per cent and increasing in eight out of 11 categories.

Trade with the United States continued to slide, while there were some signs that Canada’s diversification push is gaining traction.

Only 56 per cent of imports came from the U.S., which is the lowest share since records began in 1997, excluding the pandemic, according to Bank of Montreal senior economist Shelly Kaushik. On the other side of the ledger, 68 per cent of Canadian exports went to the U.S., also well below historic norms.

“Looking through the volatility from energy and metals prices, it’s clear that Canadian trade flows remain under pressure as long as uncertainty stays elevated. Despite some support from diversification, trade headwinds will remain until we get certainty in the form of relief on sectoral tariffs and clarity on the future of USMCA,” Ms. Kaushik wrote in a note to clients, referring to the North American free-trade agreement.

Exports of services decreased 1.5 per cent in November, while services imports rose 0.5 per cent. This left services trade essentially in balance.

U.S. trade deficit widens by the most in nearly 34 years in November

Through much of 2025, gold was a star Canadian export, thanks to the extraordinary run-up in the price of the yellow metal. In September and October alone, the value of gold exports surged by $4.7-billion.

Gold exports then plunged by $3.2-billion in November. This was mostly driven by a decline in volumes – rather than prices – which fell 35 per cent month-to-month. Statscan noted a sharp drop in shipments to Britain, the United States and Hong Kong.

Since November, gold prices have continued their stratospheric rise, hitting a record US$5,500 an ounce earlier this week.

Exports of automobiles and parts also decreased 11.6 per cent from October to November. This was mainly the result of lower auto production in November, owing to a semiconductor shortage that has affected the auto industry, Statscan said.

Exports of heavy trucks and buses – which make up a much smaller part of the Canadian auto industry – declined 53.8 per cent following the introduction of U.S. tariffs on heavy vehicles at the start of November.

The decline in gold and auto exports was partly offset by an 8.5-per-cent rise in energy exports. Oil and crude bitumen exports rebounded after temporary shutdowns at refineries in the U.S. had curtailed shipments the month before.

Meanwhile, the value of imports declined slightly, falling in seven out of 11 categories, although this was driven by lower prices rather than lower volumes. There was a notable decline in energy and auto imports, balanced against by an increase in consumer goods and pharmaceutical imports.

“Smoothing through the noise, Canadian export volumes remain a few per cent below their pretariff levels. The recovery in Canada’s overall trade picture has been uneven, and businesses can anticipate challenging conditions in the months ahead,” Toronto-Dominion Bank economist Marc Ercolao wrote in a note to clients.

Ottawa, Seoul agree to work on bringing South Korean auto sector manufacturing to Canada

In the face of U.S. protectionism, Ottawa is trying to promote trade diversification. Prime Minister Mark Carney and his ministers have been travelling the world pursuing new trade agreements and trying to rustle up overseas business for Canadian companies. This includes the resumption of stalled trade talks with India and an agreement with China earlier this month to lower tariffs on a portion of electric vehicles in return for lower Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola and seafood products.

Trade with non-U.S. partners increased through 2025, particularly with Germany, Britain, China and Japan. And in November, exports to Germany rose 54 per cent, while exports to China rose 8.8 per cent.

“Canada’s recent strategic partnership with China may alleviate some strain in key sectors like autos and agriculture. But the future of North American trade will be highly contingent on the outcome of the upcoming review of the USMCA agreement,” Mr. Ercolao wrote.

The larger trade deficit will weigh on Canadian economic growth numbers in the fourth quarter, as net exports are added or subtracted from the GDP calculation. On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada published a new forecast, estimating that GDP growth essentially flatlined in the fourth quarter.

Statistics Canada will publish November GDP numbers on Friday.

 Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CP) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $772.6 million.

The Calgary, Alberta-based company said it had net income of 86 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 95 cents per share.

The results missed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 99 cents per share.

The railroad posted revenue of $2.81 billion in the period, also falling short of Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.87 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $2.96 billion, or $3.23 per share. Revenue was reported as $10.79 billion.

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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 CP at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CP

 Celestica Inc. (CLS) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $267.5 million.

On a per-share basis, the Toronto-based company said it had net income of $2.31. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $1.89 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.74 per share.

The electronics manufacturing services company posted revenue of $3.65 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3.47 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $832.5 million, or $7.16 per share. Revenue was reported as $12.39 billion.

For the current quarter ending in March, Celestica expects its per-share earnings to range from $1.95 to $2.15.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $3.85 billion to $4.15 billion for the fiscal first quarter.

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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 CLS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CLS