HEADLINES
Pet Valu Trims Earnings Forecast as Value-Seeking Consumers Squeeze Margins
Pet Valu's customers aren't shaking their bargain-hunting trend, as value-seeking behavior tightens its grip on how Canadians buy pet products.
Canadian pet owners are still shopping for kibble, but increasingly in the same way they're shopping for everything else: seeking value for their everyday items. With fuel costs surging and inflation still nibbling at wallets, the Canadian pet specialty retailer is finding that shoppers continue trading down, leaning harder on promotions and waiting for deals. The pattern is putting a strain on margins and profit.
"We saw higher discount sales penetration as heightened value-seeking industrywide saw devoted pet lovers lean heavier into periods of events and promotions, which weighed on our margin rate in the quarter," said Chief Executive Greg Ramier in an earnings call.
Shares slid nearly 14% to settle at C$17.00.
Margins Finally Crack on Fuel Costs, Consumer Softness
Thomson Reuters Connecting Anthropic's Claude to CoCounsel Legal Product
Thomson Reuters is integrating Anthropic's Claude into its CoCounsel Legal artificial-intelligence tool.
The next generation of Thomson Reuters's legal-assistant platform is rebuilt on Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK, which it said marks a shift to a system that plans, selects tools, retrieves authoritative content, and adapts mid-workflow.
Lawyers will be able to describe a matter in plain language and have CoCounsel Legal pursue the right inquiry, draft with citations, and include validated references in the fiduciary-grade work product, it said.
Keyera Finalizes Buy of Plains' Canadian Assets Even as Regulatory Threat Looms
Keyera has finalized the roughly $3.9 billion acquisition of Plains All American Pipeline's natural gas liquids business in Canada despite the threat of regulatory opposition.
The transaction closed in its entirety, Keyera said, wrapping up the Canadian energy company's largest-ever takeover.
The assets were picked up for C$5.3 billion, including closing adjustments. The deal was funded in part by a C$2.07 billion sale of subscription receipts, which entitle each holder to Keyera shares.
The company finalized the acquisition despite the country's Commissioner of Competition earlier this month filing an application with the Competition Tribunal seeking to quash the deal due to worries it will entrench control over critical energy infrastructure.
PACS Group Boosts Outlook as Results Top Views
PACS Group raised its full-year earnings outlook following a stronger-than-expected first quarter.
Shares jumped 28.6%, settling at $41.01.
The healthcare company said it now expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of between $605 million and $625 million, up from a previous guidance of $555 million to $575 million.
Analysts polled on FactSet expected $567.2 million.
For the first quarter, revenue rose 11% to $1.42 billion, topping Wall Street expectations of C$1.36 billion, according to FactSet.
Paramount Resources Increases 2026 Output Targets
Paramount Resources lifted its production outlook for 2026 on the back of stronger output from its Alberta operations, a bright spot as the company reported lower profit in the first quarter.
The Canadian oil-and-natural-gas company said it now expects to produce more on average in 2026 thanks to the higher output at its Willesden Green Duvernay property in Alberta and an earlier start-up of its Alhambra processing facility.
Paramount set a new output guidance of between 48,000 barrels and 52,000 barrels of oil-equivalent a day, representing a 1,500 barrel-a-day increase at the midpoint.
In the quarter, net income fell to C$53.2 million, or C$0.36 a share, down from C$1.29 billion, or C$8.74 a share, in the comparable quarter a year earlier.
Canada Growth Fund to Invest Up to C$145 Million in Expansion of Elevra's Big Quebec Lithium Mine
The Canadian government's arms-length investment vehicle has agreed to invest in Elevra Lithium's planned expansion of a lithium mine in Quebec.
Canada Growth Fund said it committed to invest as much as C$145 million in Elevra's Canadian subsidiary, Sayona. The injection is part of Elevra's push to raise C$417 million in all, including a roughly C$272 million equity raising.
The transaction will help fund a staged expansion of Elevra's flagship North American Lithium mine in Abitibi, Quebec, where the company is seeking to lift cost competitiveness and boost production.
George Weston Profit, Revenue Rise
George Weston's first-quarter profit rose as its two main units, grocery giant Loblaw and real-estate trust Choice Properties REIT, delivered higher revenue.
The Toronto-based company, which houses Canadian grocer Loblaw and Choice Properties REIT, posted net income of C$106 million, or C$0.27 a share, up from C$83 million, or C$0.21 a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.
The increase was largely driven by lower amortization at Loblaw after certain intangible assets tied to its 2014 Shoppers Drug Mart acquisition became fully amortized, as well as a favorable fair-value adjustment of the trust unit liability, it said.
Revenue rose 4.2% to C$14.64 billion. Analysts expected C$14.65 billion.
Bank of Montreal Hires Leader for Digital Assets, Tokenization Push
Bank of Montreal has appointed Imran Ibrahim to a newly created role leading the big Canadian bank's digital assets and tokenization strategy.
Ibrahim's work heading up the department will focus on bringing what the bank says are the efficiency and flexibility of digital assets to bank deposits, while maintaining trust, security and regulatory foundations.
The hiring builds on Bank of Montreal's push into digital assets, including a move in March to launch tokenized cash capabilities that will allow institutional clients to move funds securely at all times.
BMO Financial Group to Sell Transportation-, Vendor-Finance Businesses to Stonepeak
TALKING POINT
Trans Mountain CEO Sees No Urgency to Return Pipeline to Private Hands
By Robb M. Stewart
Canada should be in no rush to offload the operator of the country's sole oil pipeline to the Pacific, the heads of Trans Mountain and its state owner say.
The backdrop has shifted since the federal government stepped in to buy Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline to ensure an expansion project that would triple capacity went ahead, Trans Mountain Chief Executive Mark Maki said.
"That was in a different market and that was in a different time," Maki told an audience at a Canadian Club Toronto event. "Just look where we are and look how important energy security is and look how incredibly profitable this asset is. I'd say there's a lot of merit to holding on to it and realizing that full value."
Canada's Liberal government in 2018 agreed to buy the pipeline for C$4.5 billion, about US$3.29 billion today, in an extraordinary step to ensure construction of a planned C$7.4 billion expansion that faced regional opposition. Ottawa has long held to plans to sell the asset when the time was right, though the expansion project took roughly six years to complete, and by the time it was done in 2024 the cost had ballooned.
"There should be no rush to move this out into the private sector at all, " said Elizabeth Wademan, president and CEO of Canada Development Investment Corp., which counts Trans Mountain among its assets. It is in the "taxpayer's interest to hold this for a while, get things done that add a whole bunch of value to it before you even think about monetization."
Wademan said the intention remains to offer a stake in Trans Mountain to indigenous communities, though with about 127 nations on or near the land the pipeline runs through it is a complex situation and negotiations will take time. "It is important and it will happen, but there's other strategic pieces that I think have to be sorted out to make sure it's at the right timeline and being very thoughtfully progressed," she said at the event.
The vast majority of Canada's oil exports head to the U.S., but Trans Mountain has opened up other markets. More than 65% of shipments from Canada's west coast go to Asia.
Tariffs and trade uncertainty and more recently the conflict in Iran that has sent the price of oil soaring has heightened interest in sourcing oil and in energy security, Maki said.
"I think Canada is recognized as a very stable partner," he said. "I think there's an opportunity to double down on that and recognize that what we have is exactly what the market wants. And we have the ability to further strengthen those partnerships and diversify our customer base."
Write to Robb M. Stewart at [robb.stewart@wsj.com]
Expected Major Events for Wednesday
04:30/JPN: Apr Corporate Insolvencies
05:00/JPN: Apr Economy Watchers Survey
05:30/FRA: 1Q ILO Unemployment and Labour Market-related indicators
06:00/GER: Apr WPI
06:45/FRA: Apr CPI
08:00/FRA: May IEA Oil Market Report
11:00/US: 05/08 MBA Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey
12:30/US: Apr PPI
14:00/US: Apr Online Help Wanted Index
14:30/US: 05/08 EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report
16:59/GER: Mar Balance of Payments
23:01/UK: Apr RICS Residential Market Survey
23:50/JPN: Apr Money Stock, Broadly-defined Liquidity
All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.
Expected Earnings for Wednesday
AIM ImmunoTech Inc $(AIM)$ is expected to report for 1Q.
Abeona Therapeutics Inc (ABEO) is expected to report $-0.34 for 1Q.
Aimia Inc (AIM.T) is expected to report for 1Q.
Altimmune $(ALT)$ is expected to report $-0.25 for 1Q.
Aprea Therapeutics Inc $(APRE)$ is expected to report $-0.21 for 1Q.
Arbutus Biopharma Corp (ABUS) is expected to report $-0.03 for 1Q.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
May 12, 2026 16:34 ET (20:34 GMT)
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