The latest Market Talks covering Energy and Utilities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1005 ET - April's surprisingly muted inflation report gives the Bank of Canada the scope to be patient on rate policy in the face of conflict-fueled higher energy prices, says Royce Mendes, managing director at Desjardins Capital Markets. Headline inflation rose in April but nowhere close to the 3.1% expectation among traders. A traditional measure of core CPI, which strips out volatile items like food and energy, rose 1.5% in April, or well below the BOC's 2% inflation target. Mendes says a sharp decline in prices for travel tours and further reductions in the price of cellphone services, combined with soft prints in large categories such as food and rent, dulled overall price pressures. He adds that higher gasoline prices "may cannibalize spending in other areas, thereby keeping underlying price pressures contained." (paul.vieira@wsj.com; @paulvieira)
0958 ET - Canada's CPI data for April is "unambiguously soft," says Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. Porter has been arguing for weeks that rate increases from the Bank of Canada would mark a policy error, due to softness in the labor market and excess spare capacity remaining in economy. The BOC has raised the prospect of rate increases in the event crude-oil prices stay elevated for longer. Porter says it appears the economy's spare capacity is applying disinflationary pressure in sectors not linked to oil and transport, judging by the easing in the BOC's preferred core-CPI measures. Near-term BOC rate-hike expectations should calm on the April data that indicated inflation rose in April but not near the 3%-plus market expectations, Porter says. (paul.vieira@wsj.com; @paulvieira)
0955 ET - Fitch Ratings reaffirms its call that the Bank of Canada will keep its policy rate on hold through 2026 after reviewing April CPI data. The jump in inflation due to gas prices was widely expected, says Jessica Hinds, an economist at Fitch, because the consumer carbon tax--which PM Mark Carney ditched in March, 2025--fell out of the year-over-year comparison. Inflation did accelerate, 2.8%, from the prior month but fell short of the 3%-plus expectations. Stripping out gasoline, Hinds notes that inflation in Canada decelerated in April to 2% from 2.2% the prior month, and both of the BOC's preferred gauges of core CPI eased in April. "The softness of the labor market will help to dampen broader price pressures," she says. (paul.vieira@wsj.com; @paulvieira)
0931 ET - Oil futures are modestly lower as traders wait to see progress toward a U.S. agreement with Iran after President Trump said he had postponed imminent military action at the request of several Gulf state leaders to allow for negotiations. "We have been down this road before. Lot of talk, but the Strait of Hormuz remains shut," Mizuho's Robert Yawger says in a note. Most-active WTI is off 0.4% at $103.95 a barrel and Brent is down 1% at $110.92 a barrel.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
0856 ET - Dominion Energy Chief Executive Robert Blue says on CNBC that the power industry needs to better communicate with customers and communities on data center projects. "Any energy infrastructure, frankly any infrastructure causes folks who are impacted by it to have a reaction," he says. "The appropriate way to go about it is to communicate with people early, to be honest with them, straightforward with them," he says. "We need to step up our game in terms of communicating with communities. I think we're seeing that more and more across the industry." (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)
0853 ET - NextEra Chief Executive John Ketchum says on CNBC that the company's acquisition of Dominion Energy will improve energy affordability. "In our industry, bigger is better," he says. "We're able to spread cost out over more investments. We're able to buy at a lower cost, build at a lower cost, operate at a lower cost and finance at a lower cost." Ketchum says the combined company plans to invest $60 billion a year in order to supply the power needed to meet skyrocketing energy demand. "We're a builder that's committing capital," he says. (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)
0836 ET - The Treasury selloff picks up steam, sending yields higher, as markets fret about the impact of rising energy costs on inflation while the debt of rich nations grows larger. President Trump says the U.S. will hold off on attacking Iran while negotiations take place. Oil futures slip, but prices remain around $110 a barrel. The WSJ Dollar Index rises 0.3%. The 10-year yield is at 4.615% and the two-year at 4.079%. (paulo.trevisani@wsj.com; @ptrevisani)
0705 ET - Fund managers raised their investments in commodities, utilities, the euro and emerging market stocks in May, the latest Bank of America global fund manager survey shows. Investors reduced their investments in consumer staples, cash, and the U.S. dollar, the report shows. (miriam.mukuru@wsj.com)
2005 ET - Oil falls in early trade amid easing supply-disruption concerns. President Trump said he will hold off on a planned U.S. attack on Iran at the request of Gulf leaders to make room for talks with Tehran over a prospective deal to end the war. "The bull run [in oil prices] is not without its limits," Tradu.com's Nikos Tzabouras says in an email. "Trump has consistently expressed a preference for a deal and has kept the cease-fire alive, leaving the door to a diplomatic resolution open," the senior market analyst adds. Front-month WTI crude oil futures are down 1.3% at $107.28 per barrel; front-month Brent crude oil futures are 2.7% lower at $109.11 a barrel. (ronnie.harui@wsj.com)
1510 ET - Crude futures rise amid market concerns that the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz is draining global stocks, while the U.S. and Iran appear no closer to a deal to settle the conflict. Prices rose on "the perception the war in Iran is turning into yet another forever war, with as many as 14 million barrels a day of Middle East oil production shut in," Mizuho's Robert Yawger says in a note.He sees the market "perpetually ticking higher as supply drains out across the globe." WTIfor June delivery settles up3.1% at $108.66 a barrel ahead of tomorrow's expiration. Brent rises 2.6% to $112.10 a barrel.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1417 ET - NextEra Energy's acquisition of Dominion Energy highlights the long-term growth potential of the U.S. electrification infrastructure sector, but is unlikely to trigger a broad wave of utility consolidation given regulatory hurdles and the localized nature of utility oversight, says Tortoise Capital senior portfolio manager Rob Thummel. The greater scale from the deal could provide more financial flexibility and additional opportunities for future growth, he says, noting that Dominion's generation assets are "strategically located in the heart of 'Data Center Alley,' where electricity demand from AI and cloud infrastructure is accelerating." The deal likely faces a "lengthy and complex regulatory approval process," he adds. Dominion rises 7.8% and NextEra falls 7%.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1322 ET - Tokenization, the process of putting real-world assets onto the blockchain, is growing exponentially in 2026 but may expand into a market worth over $1 trillion by 2030, according to Moulik Nagesh of Binance Research in a note. Nagesh says that currently, these tokenized assets account for $31.4 billion of value. That's already up 46% from the start of the year, and more than five times what they were worth in 2025, he says. But there is much more growth potential for tokens representing commodities like gold and oil ahead. "The long-term opportunity is large because current penetration remains extremely low," says Nagesh, assessing that penetration at 0.01%. Tokenization of 1% of the markets they represent would result in values over $1 trillion, Nagesh says. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 19, 2026 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
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