HEADLINES
Canada, Alberta Finalize Carbon-Tax Deal, Set Stage For New Pipeline Proposal
Canada's oil-rich province of Alberta agreed to a stringent levy on carbon from its energy producers, the first of a series of conditions it has to meet before Prime Minister Mark Carney backs a new crude-carrying pipeline to the Pacific Coast.
The higher industrial carbon tax is the latest development in Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's bid to build a new pipeline aimed at meeting the energy demands from the faster-growing economies in Asia. With a deal on an industrial carbon tax now settled, Canadian officials will now focus on talks with energy producers in Alberta about the construction of a carbon-capture storage project that Carney has repeatedly said is required before pipeline construction can start.
The steps by Canada and Alberta are an attempt to capitalize on demand for energy from sources other than the Middle East, given the geopolitical uncertainty exposed by the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Sherritt Seeks to Dissolve Cuba Ventures, Cutting Ties With the Island
Sherritt International is seeking a quick exit from its activities in Cuba as it looks to escape the threat of being targeted in the Trump administration's efforts to force regime change on the island.
The Canadian miner said it plans to tell its venture partners in Cuba it will leverage provisions in their agreements to dissolve the partnerships, which effectively would sever its Cuban interests.
The company said it has informed Cuban authorities of its intentions. Since the process of dissolution could take at least several months and possibly several years, it said it would seek relief from the Alberta Court of King's Bench to facilitate accelerated dissolution to the extent possible. Sherritt is scheduled to appear before the court on Tuesday.
Housing Starts Jumped 17% in April
Canadian housing starts rebounded strongly in April after months of steady declines.
Housing starts across Canada came in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 279,317 units, a 17% rise from the month before, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said. This was slightly stronger that the 245,000 residential housing projects the market had forecast were started last month, according to economists at TD Securities.
The trend measure--a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts--advanced 3.2% to 256,777 units in April, Canada's national housing agency said.
Transat Squeezed by Jump in Fuel Costs Despite Measures to Counter Impact
Air Transat's parent has seen a jump in costs since the conflict in the Middle East erupted that it hasn't been able to fully counter with measures including fuel surcharges and a scaling back of planned capacity.
Transat AT said it has seen a significant increase in aviation fuel prices, buoyed by the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz that has restricted the movement of crude oil, driving up operating costs for the entire airline industry.
The spike in fuel prices has meant additional costs of about C$70 million for March and April, an increase of more than 75% on the same two months last year, the Montreal-based company said. The additional costs will be reflected in quarterly financial results set to be released mid-June.
Baylin Secures Financing, Approval to Close Kaelus Acquisition
Baylin Technologies said it has secured the financing and shareholder approval necessary to complete its acquisition of telecommunications equipment company Kaelus AB.
The Toronto-based diversified wireless technology company said that it has arranged for a C$30.9 million non-revolving secured credit facility arranged by private lender SAF Group, with an initial advance of $20.6 million, and a further $10.3 million to follow.
The company will use part of the new money to pay off its existing revolving credit line, it said.
Baylin also said it has also closed a C$10.3 million offering of 41.25 million subscription receipts.
Factory Sales Climbed 3% in March to Highest Level in More Than a Year
Canadian manufacturing activity continued to rebound in March, with a spike in energy prices driving factory sales to their highest level in more than a year.
Manufacturing shipments increased 3% from the month before to a seasonally adjusted C$73.57 billion, Statistics Canada said Friday. That marked the highest level since the start of 2025, before manufacturers were hit with uncertainty and softer demand in the wake of the Trump administration's tariffs.
March's growth, although slightly softer than the data agency's advance estimate for a monthly rise of 3.5%, built on February's 3.4% increase. As a result, factory sales edged up 0.1% in the first quarter of the year.
Americas Gold and Silver Slides After Earnings Miss
Shares of Americas Gold and Silver slipped after the company posted first-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street estimates.
The Canadian mining company's stock declined 8.7% to settle at C$8.96.
The company posted a profit of $10 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a loss of $19.7 million, or 8 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 7 cents a share.
Poet Technologies Raises $400 Million in Direct Offering
Poet Technologies raised $400 million in a direct offering to a single institutional investor.
The company agreed to issue and sell 19 million shares and a warrant exercisable for 19 million shares.
The combined price of the offering is $21 a share. The warrant will be exercisable at a price of $26.15 a share for three years.
Poet intends to use the net proceeds for the expansion of its manufacturing infrastructure, targeted acquisitions, scaling up of research and development, acceleration of the light source business and expanding operations.
Onex Distributable Earnings Surge as Covex Segment Swings to Profit
Onex posted a jump in distributable earnings in the first quarter as its newly acquired Covex credit insurance unit swung to profit, even as net income fell.
The Canadian private equity and alternative asset manager on Friday posted a lower net income of $129 million, or $1.76 a share, down from $168 million, or $2.36 a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.
Distributable earnings, which measure the company's cash earnings from its asset management business and realized investment gains, rose to $217 million from $38 million.
Covex, Onex's credit insurance platform, which the company closed in February, contributed $143 million in the quarter.
Foreigners Bought C$4.62 Billion of Canadian Securities in March, Lowest Level This Year
Foreign investment in Canadian securities slowed to is lowest level in March since the start of the year as investors offloaded holdings of Canadian shares for a second month running.
Canadian investment in foreign securities also was down for the month, resulting in international transactions generating a net inflow into the Canadian economy of roughly C$719 million in March after an outflow the month before of more than C$19.4 billion, Statistics Canada said.
Nonresident investors purchased a net C$4.62 billion during March. After heavy investment to start the year, foreign acquisitions of Canadian securities over the first quarter totaled C$57.77 billion, a sharp reversal compared with the C$5.99 billion in Canadian securities sold in the same period last year.
TALKING POINT
The World Is Burning Through Its Oil Safety Net
By Georgi Kantchev
An underappreciated surplus of crude oil, sloshing around storage tanks and aboard ships, cushioned the global economy when the Persian Gulf closed 2 1/2 months ago.
That excess supply is now dwindling at a record pace, with oil executives and analysts predicting that a harsh reckoning is set to upend the relative calm in energy markets. Acute shortages of key fuels and soaring prices could emerge within weeks if the Strait of Hormuz remains shut.
The drawdown in private storage and government strategic reserves along with a fall in demand due to the higher prices, has bought time and prevented oil prices from exploding. But it has left little margin for error in the months ahead.
"You can only decrease consumption so much, and when inventories run out, they are going to run out," said Ellen Wald, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center. "At some point the market is going to collide and prices are going to shoot up."
Global oil inventories-which include onshore tanks and oil floating on tankers at sea, and are a measure of the slack in energy markets-have fallen at a record pace since the start of the war. They plunged by 250 million barrels over March and April, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based club of energy consuming nations. That is equal to around 2 1/2 days of global oil use.
The runway to avoid reaching critical levels-known as tank bottoms in industry parlance-is vanishing rapidly.
In a report titled "The illusion of plenty," JPMorgan Chase estimated that if the strait remains blocked, stockpiles in a group of wealthy nations could plunge to "operational stress levels" early next month and to system-straining "operational floor level" by September. The bank said it doesn't expect inventories to actually reach those levels because history suggests demand would be curtailed first.
The implications of an oil supply shortage are vast. Prices at the gas pump are already touching their highest levels in years in the U.S. and could shoot higher when stocks run low. Airlines are reorganizing flights to adapt to potential shortages of jet fuel. Central bank decisions over whether to raise interest rates will depend in large part on whether oil markets remain well supplied.
The chief executive of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, said this week that global stockpiles for refined products such as gasoline and jet fuel could reach "critically low levels" ahead of the summer driving and travel season.
In a possible sign the supply worries are bleeding into markets, oil prices jumped Friday, with global benchmark Brent crude rising at one point more than 3% to $109 a barrel. That's still below its closing high of $118 at the end of March.
The oil market's saving grace was the remarkable surplus it carried into the conflict, which cushioned the blow far better than analysts predicted when the Strait of Hormuz first closed. Both Iran and Russia had millions of barrels of oil floating at sea, looking for buyers. U.S. Treasury waivers on sanctions of Russian oil unleashed a gusher of supply onto the market.
Another major part of the emergency backstop is coming from the U.S. and other Western governments. The 32 member nations of the IEA deployed roughly 164 million barrels through May 8, helping to offset the 10 million barrels a day lost in the Gulf.
The IEA expects its members to release an additional 210 million barrels of government stocks through the end of July.
Write to Georgi Kantchev at [georgi.kantchev@wsj.com]
Expected Major Events for Monday
04:30/JPN: Mar Revised Retail Sales
08:00/ITA: Mar Foreign Trade EU
08:30/UK: S&P Global UK Consumer Sentiment Index
14:00/US: May NAHB Housing Market Index
14:00/US: 1Q Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales
20:00/US: Mar Treasury International Capital Data
23:50/JPN: 1Q 1st Preliminary Quarterly GDP Estimates
All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.
Expected Earnings for Monday
ASP Isotopes Inc (ASPI) is expected to report $-0.17 for 1Q.
Agilysys Inc $(AGYS)$ is expected to report $0.28 for 4Q.
Aspira Women's Health Inc (AWHL) is expected to report for 1Q.
Brady Corp - A Share $(BRC)$ is expected to report $1.27 for 3Q.
CervoMed Inc (CRVO) is expected to report $-0.70 for 1Q.
Genesis Land Development Corp (GDC.T) is expected to report for 1Q.
Golden Minerals Co (AUMN,AUMN.T) is expected to report for 1Q.
Gossamer Bio Inc (GOSS) is expected to report $-0.11 for 1Q.
IGC Pharma Inc (IGC) is expected to report for 1Q.
Lyra Therapeutics Inc $(LYRA)$ is expected to report for 1Q.
Omnitek Engineering (OMTK) is expected to report for 1Q.
Siebert Financial Corp (SIEB) is expected to report for 1Q.
Solidion Technology Inc $(STI)$ is expected to report for 1Q.
Transcat Inc (TRNS) is expected to report $0.23 for 4Q.
XWELL Inc $(XWEL)$ is expected to report for 1Q.
Powered by Factset and Dow Jones.
We offer an enhanced version of this briefing that is optimized for viewing on mobile devices and sent directly to your email inbox. If you would like to sign up, please go to https://newsplus.wsj.com/subscriptions.
This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 15, 2026 16:29 ET (20:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments