The Daily Chase: TD, CIBC hop on dividend hiking bandwagon; OPEC+ supply decision incoming

The dividend hikes and share buybacks keep raining down from the country’s largest banks. Today, it’s CIBC and TD that dished out rewards for their shareholders.

The dividend hikes and share buybacks keep raining down from the country’s largest banks. Today, it’s CIBC and TD that dished out rewards for their shareholders. We’ll see if BMO makes it six for six tomorrow. As for performance, CIBC is sticking out a bit as it set aside more money for loans that could go bad. The bank is attributing that to new modelling parameters. I’ve asked for details about that. Over at TD, profit came in way above expectations despite a notable drop in trading revenue. Credit for the beat mostly goes to the U.S. division, where retail banking profit more than doubled year-over-year.

OPEC+ DECISION DAY

We're about to find out how the cartel of oil-producing nations and its allies will respond to the coordinated release of oil from strategic petroleum reserves. Just a few days ago, there was plenty of talk that the group would either immediately scale back production hikes or signal an intent to do so in the future. But then Omicron happened and clouded the demand outlook. We will soon find out if OPEC+ stays the course with monthly output hikes of 400,000 barrels per day.

OMICRON WATCH

We’re seeing another reversal in the market this morning. After being firmly in the green for most of the early morning, Nasdaq futures turned red shortly before 8am ET and the other major market futures pared gains. We’ll see how the session plays out after yesterday’s news of the first U.S. Omicron case appeared to be the catalyst for sending the major indices into the red.

The Biden administration announced this morning that it will soon require all inbound international travellers – regardless of nationality or vaccine status – to test for COVID-19 within one day of their departure. There is no mention in the release of an exemption for Canada. Earlier this week, the federal government said it was exempting Americans from new testing requirements for fully vaccinated inbound air travellers. We’re seeking comment from the feds as well as Air Canada and Westjet.