U.S. stocks edge higher after swinging through worries about AI and the economy
BNN Bloomberg
A quiet finish for the U.S. stock market on Tuesday masked big swings underneath the surface as companies talked about how discouraged their customers are feeling and some tech stocks continued to feel the downside of the artificial-intelligence boom.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1 per cent after flipping earlier between a gain of 0.5 per cent and a loss of nearly 1 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 32 points, or 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.1 per cent.
Paramount Skydance helped lead the market and rose 4.9 per cent after Warner Bros. Discovery said it would allow Paramount a chance to give its “best and final” bid to buy the entertainment company. Paramount is trying to top an offer from Netflix.
Warner Bros. Discovery rose 2.7 per cent, and Netflix added 0.2 per cent.
On the losing end of Wall Street was General Mills, which sank 7 per cent after warning that its customers are feeling uneasy. The company behind the Cheerios, Nature Valley and Pillsbury brands cut its forecast for an underlying measure of profit for 2026, saying declines would likely be sharper than it earlier expected.
Several surveys have recently shown weak confidence among U.S. households, which are struggling with inflation that remains higher than anyone would like, a job market coming off a weak year of growth and worries about tariffs.
Canada home prices fell to a nearly five-year low in January as sales dropped and new listings rose, according to CREA data.
Mark Zuckerberg and opposing lawyers dueled in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday, where the Meta CEO answered questions about young people’s use of Instagram, his congressional testimony and internal advice he’s received about being “authentic” and not “robotic.”
The grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups has lashed out at The Hershey Co., accusing the candy company of hurting the Reese’s brand by shifting to cheaper ingredients in many products.
Global food and beverage companies from PepsiCo to Coca-Cola are focusing on shorter ingredient lists and smaller pack sizes in 2026 as more people take appetite-suppressing GLP-1 drugs for weight loss.
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Parents can use a Registered Education Savings Plan to pay for their children’s post-secondary education while growing their savings tax deferred as tuition costs continue to rise, a financial advisor says.
YouTube Canada outlines ad-driven growth, subscription expansion and fraud controls as streaming leadership challenges Netflix and traditional TV.
An arbitrator reviewing wages for flight attendants at Air Canada has finalized rates at the airline, bringing an end to the labour dispute that saw travel disrupted for thousands of people last summer.
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Shares in Europe and Asia were higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s benchmark gaining more than one per cent after a quiet finish for U.S. stocks.
A deeper look at the cost of living shows Atlantic Canadians facing higher inflation and steeper grocery bills than much of the country.
Canada has failed both to adequately fund its military and to build up the domestic defence industry, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday as he rolled out an ambitious new plan to grow the defence sector.
Five years after Warren Buffett sold off all of Berkshire Hathaway’s newspapers and predicted unending declines for most of the industry, Berkshire disclosed a new US$350 million investment in the New York Times on Tuesday.