The Daily Chase: BMO & National Bank earnings top expectations
BNN Bloomberg
Here are five things you need to know this morning.
CWB boosts National Bank results: National Bank beat profit estimates in the first quarter with strong results across the board. The bank’s personal and commercial banking income grew by almost 50 per cent from a year earlier, with its recent acquisition of Canadian Western Bank contributing double-digit gains. The Montreal-based lender also plans to return more capital to shareholders by repurchasing more shares than before.
Trump touts economy: One of the biggest takeaways from U.S. President Donald Trump’s state of the union speech was his message on a strong economy. With the U.S. mid-term elections in November, Trump addressed affordability concerns with statistics and self congratulations. The nearly two-hour speech mentioned his signature tax legislation and trade policies. Trump largely focused on domestic issues and also called out Democrats on immigration and transgender policies.
Mixed results for Loblaw: We’ll be watching shares of Loblaw this morning. Profit in the latest quarter came in slightly above analyst estimates, while revenue was just below expectations. The grocer says e-commerce growth was strong, as omnichannel shopping remained a priority. Earlier this week, the Brampton-based company laid out its $2.4 billion investment plan which includes building dozens of new stores.
Thomson Reuters CEO on BNN Bloomberg: Our big interview of the day is Steve Hasker, CEO of Thomson Reuters. The company’s shares have been taking a beating on worries that artificial intelligence would erode much of its digital information business. However on Tuesday, Thomson Reuters’ stock jumped by the most since 2008, after the company said it reached one million professional users of CoCounsel, its legal and business artificial intelligence tool. It also announced that it is working with Anthropic’s Claude model. That interview is coming up at 9:40 eastern time.
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Markets in Canada and the U.S. continued to trade lower while oil went up late morning on Friday as inflationary fears prevailed among investors.
Gold prices fell by 1.8 per cent on Friday as the dollar strengthened on a report that the United States will deploy extra troops in the Middle East, fanning concerns of higher oil prices, inflation, and with it, elevated interest rates.
Canada’s federally backed farm lender is offering financial aid to farmers, agricultural businesses and food companies hit by the spike in fertilizer and energy prices, it said on Friday.
Statistics Canada says retail sales were up 1.1 per cent at $70.7 billion in January, led by sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers.
As Qatar reels from an Iranian attack that has hobbled its giant natural gas company, its boss, who doubles as the country’s energy minister, says he had warned officials and executives of just such a danger should Iran’s own sites be hit.
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U.S. stocks are sinking Friday as hopes wither on Wall Street for a possible cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year because of the war with Iran.
Pinterest CEO Bill Ready called on world leaders to ban social media for youth under 16 in a LinkedIn post on Friday.
Wall Street is stumbling toward the finish line of a fourth straight losing week on Friday, but an ease in oil prices is taking some of the pressure off stock markets worldwide.
FedEx shares surged about 10 per cent before the bell on Friday, after the package-delivery giant raised its full-year profit forecast and signaled steady shipping demand despite geopolitical tensions and surging fuel costs.
Wall Street is stumbling toward the finish line of a fourth straight losing week, but an ease in oil prices is taking some of the pressure off stock markets worldwide.
In the latest episode of Ticker Take on YouTube, I spoke with Madden, chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Counsel, about how his team searches for companies that score well across multiple investment disciplines.