HEADLINES
Barrick Aims for IPO of North American Gold Assets This Year
Barrick Mining will spin off its North American gold assets into a new publicly listed company in an effort to boost value at a time when prices for the precious metal have soared.
The miner's board gave management the go ahead to pursue an initial public offering of its prized gold operations by the end of the year, part of a reset for Barrick after it suddenly parted ways with former boss Mark Bristow last year.
Mark Hill, a company veteran who has been running Barrick since Bristow left, has been appointed chief executive and president permanently and is tasked with leading the IPO process.
Barrick Boosts Dividend by 40% After Metals Prices Lift Earnings
Canadian Miners Continue to Feel Pressure of Falling Silver, Gold Prices
Canadian mining stocks retreated Thursday as silver and gold prices fell. Canadian miners tend to move in lockstep with precious metal prices.
Barrick Mining and Kinross Gold slid, falling 8.5% and 5.2%, respectively.
Smaller players in the space also felt the pressure, with Discovery Silver falling 11.6%, Endeavour Silver falling 11.9%, and First Majestic Silver sliding 9.3%.
Still, these stocks are still up on the year, and in the past 52 weeks.
Thomson Reuters Rejects Market Fears About AI Threat to its Business
Thomson Reuters Chief Executive Steve Hasker says he sees no evidence that artificial intelligence is undermining its business, even after AI-related fears have shaken software stocks this week.
"We have growing confidence in the value of our content and expertise to deliver expert grade AI products," Hasker said in an earnings call Thursday, shrugging off concerns that recent developments in AI could pose a threat to core offerings, which had sent jitters across stock markets this week. "It's very difficult to replicate," he said.
Earlier in the week, Anthropic, the maker of Claude AI, revealed a new legal-automation tool that could potentially encroach on Thomson Reuters's core contract-review and workflow-software business.
Shares of Thomson Reuters fell 5.4% to C$120.95 on Thursday.
Canada Goose Shares Slide as Costs Bite Into Third-Quarter Profit
Shares of Canada Goose fell sharply after the company said higher costs and marketing spend weighed on profit in its critical holiday and Christmas period.
Shares fell 19.6% to C$14.56.
The Canadian luxury outerwear company reported net income attributable to shareholders of C$134.8 million, or C$1.36 a share, down from C$139.7 million, or C$1.42 a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.
The three months ending Dec. 28 capture Canada Goose's most critical stretch of the year, when demand for its high-end parkas peaks with the approach of colder weather and holiday shopping.
Canada to Toughen Tailpipe Emissions Standards, Ditch EV Sales Mandate
Canada is ditching its electric-vehicle sales mandate and replacing it with more stringent tailpipe-emissions standards for automobiles that officials project will spur carbon reduction equal to 75% EV sales by 2035.
The measure is part of the government's revamped automotive strategy, which officials say aims to make Canada's auto industry less reliant on the U.S. and gas-powered vehicles, and to transform the country into a global leader in EV production. The shift to tougher tailpipe-emission standards is also in contrast to the U.S., where the Trump administration has eased or rolled back Biden-era fuel-economy standards.
Bank of Canada Gov. Macklem Warns of Misdiagnosing Economic Weakness
Further interest-rate cuts won't necessarily help an economy that's being pulled down by U.S. trade friction, advances in artificial intelligence and lower population growth, Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem said Thursday.
The Canadian economy is undergoing a profound structural shift, Macklem said. The central bank can help support the transition but it's ultimately the response from policymakers, business executives and households that will determine Canada's future prosperity, said the central banker, in prepared remarks set for delivery in Toronto.
"We can be victims of U.S. tariffs and AI disruption, or we can lean into structural change, expand our internal market, diversify our trade, embrace new technology and raise our productivity," Macklem said.
Canadian Firms at Risk With Tepid Approach to AI, Macklem Says
BCE Targets Revenue Growth in 2026 After Dip in Fourth Quarter
Canadian communications giant BCE anticipates modest revenue growth over this year after little change in revenue for the final quarter of last year.
The parent of Bell broadband, internet, TV and media operations said it expects improvements in wireless pricing and wireless-product sales in 2026, and well as media-revenue growth and an expansion in artificial intelligence-powered enterprise offerings. At the same time, severance payments are set to be lower for the year, helping boost free cash flow.
That has BCE targeting a decline in adjusted per-share earnings of between 11% and 5% following a 7.9% drop in 2025, with revenue growth seen at 1% to 5% after it edged up 0.2% last year.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are expected to be flat to up 4%, against the 2025 rise of 0.7%.
Lightspeed Commerce Raises Fiscal 2026 Outlook
Lightspeed Commerce raised its fiscal 2026 outlook after stronger-than-expected results so far, including higher third-quarter revenue.
The point-of-sale and payments software company said that for the full year, it is targeting revenue of $1.216 billion to $1.22 billion, up from a previous expectation of $1.206 billion. Analysts on FactSet expect $1.22 billion.
Gross profit for the year is forecast to be $523 million to $525 million, with adjusted Ebitda of around $72 million, up $2 million from the previous target. Lightspeed said it also expects to generate positive free cash flow in fiscal 2026.
TALKING POINT
This Explains Silver's Tumble as Gold Finds a Footing in Precious-Metals Rout
By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
Silver's decline far outpaced that of gold on Thursday, with its sharp price losses leading to a turn lower for the week, even as gold looked to recover much of what it had lost during the recent downturn for precious metals.
High volatility levels and changes to market positioning following a drop that pulled silver prices down by more than 30% in just two sessions helped explain why silver's more than 9% drop in price Thursday far outpaced gold's more modest 1.2% decline.
The outsize move in silver is "much more about positioning and volatility than some sudden change in the physical metal markets," said Adam Koos, president and senior financial adviser at Libertas Wealth Management Group.
On Thursday, silver for March delivery settled at $76.71 an ounce on Comex, down $7.68, or 9.1% for the session, while April gold lost 1.2%, or $61.30, to finish at $4,889.50 an ounce. Week to date, silver is down 2.3%, even as gold has gained about 3%.
Volatility in silver was nearly three times higher than in gold, said Michael Armbruster, co-founder and managing partner at futures brokerage Altavest.
Silver's volatility, as represented by the Cboe Silver ETF Volatility Index, stood at around 95 on Thursday, while gold's volatility based on the Cboe Gold ETF Volatility Index was at around 36.
Yet volatility isn't unique to this year, said Aakash Doshi, global head of gold and metals strategy at State Street Investment Management. Looking back at weekly data from the 1980s onwards, silver prices have been significantly more volatile compared with gold and with the S&P 500, while gold during that same period has been less volatile than equities, he said.
Silver has thinner financial liquidity and a smaller physical market in dollar terms, and it's driven more by "pro-cyclical growth narratives and can suffer larger drawdowns during volatility spikes," he said.
Libertas's Koos also pointed out that lot more short-term traders, hedge funds and leveraged players are involved in the silver market, so when prices start moving, those positions have to adjust, and quickly, which can exaggerate the move in prices.
Gold, meanwhile, can also be used as a liquidity hedge but is more of a "core portfolio holding vis-à-vis silver," and the rise of central-bank gold demand lifts the gold price floor and dampens downside volatility for the yellow metal, Doshi said.
That's because gold is owned more by central banks, institutions and longer-term allocators, so it doesn't react as much to short-term developments, according to Koos.
So while the macroeconomic backdrop can be the same for both gold and silver, the metals have what Koos referred to as two "very different personalities."
Taking a look at the bigger picture for the precious metals, silver may have climbed too far, too fast, but gold prices may still be more likely to rise than to fall.
After the correction in precious-metals prices in late January and early February, gold appears to have found some "dip-buying and support" at the $4,500- to $5,000-an-ounce level, Doshi said. Over the next six to 12 months, he believes gold is more likely to climb to $6,000 than it is to fall to $4,000 an ounce.
It still could be a bumpy path in the very short term, he said, "given the recent spike in market volatility, de-risking and de-leveraging, and demand for liquidity."
Volatility, meanwhile, is more visible in silver, which entered a bear market after its historic run-up in January, Doshi said.
For the white metal, the price probably got ahead of fundamentals - and $70 to $80 an ounce makes "more sense" than $110 to $120 an ounce from a fundamental standpoint, he said.
Expected Major Events for Friday
05:00/JPN: Dec Indexes of Business Conditions - Preliminary Release
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2026 16:33 ET (21:33 GMT)
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