HEADLINES
Existing-Homes Sales Jumped in May at Fastest Pace in Nearly Two Years
Canadian existing-home sales rose in May at the fastest pace since the fall of 2024, or before President Trump won a second term and imposed biting tariffs on some of Canada's key manufacturing sectors.
Real-estate brokers and economists are increasingly confident that May's jump marks the start of a rebound, albeit modest, after an extended slump in Canadian real estate. Sales and listings are either down or flat from a year ago, and benchmark house prices have declined for 16 straight months. All told, home prices are down nearly 21% from a February 2022 peak, prior to an aggressive rate-increasing campaign to tame historically high inflation.
The Canadian Real Estate Association said that existing-home sales on a seasonally adjusted basis rose 5.5% in May from the prior month, adding this was the first month in 2026 to demonstrate a meaningful increase in demand. On an unadjusted basis, sales fell 5.1% from a year ago. The 5.5% month-over-month increase is the largest since October 2024.
Gildan Activewear Shares Fall After Short Seller Flags Report
A short seller's report criticized Gildan Activewear's financial reporting and inventory management practices.
The stock sank 18.8% to settle at C$70.39.
The day's decline marked the sharpest single-day decline for the Montreal-based apparel manufacture since October 2019, when shares fell nearly 26% for both its Toronto and New York-listed shares.
The stock drop on the Toronto Stock Exchange follows the publication of a report by Joheshaphat Research, which disclosed that it holds a short position in the company's stock.
Dollarama Partners With BMO's Blue Rewards Program in Multi-Year Partnership
Dollarama has struck a multi-year partnership with Bank of Montreal's Blue Rewards loyalty program, allowing shoppers to earn points on their purchases.
The Canadian discount retailer on Tuesday said it is joining BMO's loyalty ecosystem as both companies look to appeal to cost-conscious shoppers.
Blue Rewards members will be able to earn points on Dollarama purchases of C$20 or more at the dollar store chain's more than 1,700 establishments across Canada.
Groupe Dynamite Shares Fall as Comparable Sales, Revenue Miss Targets
Groupe Dynamite reported first-quarter comparable sales that came in below market expectations, a sign that momentum may be cooling after several quarters of strong gains.
Shares plummeted 35.9%, settling at C$47.74.
The Canadian fast-fashion retailer reported same-store sales growth of 22.6% in the quarter ended May 3, above the 13% pace a year earlier but short of forecasts calling for a 25.4% increase.
The miss suggests growth may have moderated later in the quarter after what Desjardins analyst Chris Li estimated was a strong first eight weeks following more than 30% same-store sales growth in the fourth quarter.
Antitrust Watchdog Launches Probe of Food-Supply Chain
Canada's antitrust watchdog said it has launched a probe into the state of competition across the country's food-supply chain.
The Competition Bureau's decision comes less than a week after Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a food-security strategy that bemoaned the lack of competition along Canada's food-supply chain.
The agency said its examination would focus on food production and processing; transportation and distribution; and retail pricing practices. It intends to produce a report in about a year, the spring of 2027, that will recommend what steps lawmakers can take on improving food-supply competition.
High Tide Shares Climb on Swing to Profit, Higher Revenue
High Tide swung to a profit and reported record revenue in its fiscal second quarter.
The stock gained 11%, ending at C$3.53.
The Canadian cannabis company reported a profit of C$24,000 for its three months ended April 30. That compares with a loss of C$2.8 million a year earlier.
On a per-share basis, quarterly earnings came in at C$0.01. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected a loss of C$0.02.
BCE Slashes Nearly 700 Jobs Amid Tougher Telecom Market
BCE is slashing about 1% of its workforce as it looks to find efficiencies to better navigate the competitive telecom space.
The Canadian telecommunications company said it is cutting about 690 workers at the company, including roughly 230 unionized roles.
BCE began organization changes late last year to reflect its strategy of migrating customers to its fiber network as well as to seek out operating efficiencies.
Foreigners Bought C$46.91 Billion of Canadian Securities in April
Record purchases of Canadian federal government bonds by foreigners helped generate the largest net inflow of funds for the country's economy in six months.
International transactions in April generated a net inflow into Canada of C$58.28 billion, the most since October, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.
Nonresident investors overall bought C$46.91 billion in Canadian securities during the month, up sharply from recent months and taking purchases in the first four months of 2026 to a sizeable C$104.04 billion versus the C$17.31 billion in Canadian securities that was sold in the same period last year.
TALKING POINT
Bank of Canada Should Publish Expected Rate Path to Reinforce CPI Expectations, Think Tank Says
By Paul Vieira
OTTAWA--The Bank of Canada should publish a forecast for interest rates to demonstrate to the public how borrowing costs are expected to change to keep inflation at 2%, an influential Canadian think tank recommends.
The C.D. Howe Institute said in a piece it published Tuesday this could help keep inflation expectations anchored at 2%. Besides total, or headline, inflation, Bank of Canada officials also lean on other gauges of core prices, which strip out volatile items such as food and energy, to help craft policy decisions. Central bank officials view core inflation as being less volatile than total inflation, while still tracking total price trends over the long term.
The Bank of Canada's shifting emphasis on different inflation measures "can create confusion about which one is most relevant for people. Consequently, these measures do not make for good communication tools," say the authors, among them are the think tank's president, Jeremy Kronick.
The solution, the Toronto-based think tank said, is to focus on headline inflation's path over a period like eight quarters, "together with a forecast for interest rates that generates this inflation path."
The authors recommend that this approach be incorporated in the inflation-targeting agreement between the central bank and the country's Department of Finance. That agreement, which compels the Bank of Canada to achieve 2% inflation through rate policy, is up for renewal later this year. The central bank has previously signaled it is not recommending a change to the 2% target.
In its last rate-policy decision, the Bank of Canada kept its main interest rate unchanged at 2.25%, saying that headline inflation rose to 2.8% while noting measures of core inflation moved down to around 2%.
In 2016, the Bank of Canada introduced three new measures of core inflation which it judged to be a more statistically robust set of consumer-price index indicators. The central bank has since said it would no longer rely heavily on one of those measures due to concerns about its reliability.
The Federal Reserve releases at every other meeting something known as a dot plot, reflecting the individual interest-rate forecasts of its 19 Federal Open Market Committee members. Fed officials say the dot plot isn't an agreed-upon plan or promise.
Meanwhile, the central banks in Norway and New Zealand publish the type of interest-rate forecast that the C.D. Howe is advocating for. The Norweigan experience, the paper said, has helped reduce market volatility and led to a better alignment of inflation expectations.
The authors of the C.D. Howe paper said publishing an interest-rate forecast would increase transparency with the Canadian public. The central bank could explain its interest-rate forecast alongside other projections for inflation and growth, while highlighting their conditional nature. The idea is to improve the level of insight "to the public as to how the central bank responds to new economic information," the authors said.
"People need to know that inflation is well anchored at 2% and have confidence that the bank's current and future policy decisions ensure that it remains so. This can be done without them needing to understand technical measures of core inflation," the paper concluded.
Write to Paul Vieira at [paul.vieira@wsj.com]
Expected Major Events for Wednesday
06:00/UK: May Producer Price Index
06:00/UK: May CPI
08:00/FRA: Jun IEA Oil Market Report
08:30/UK: Apr UK House Price Index
11:00/US: 06/12 MBA Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey
12:30/US: May Advance Monthly Sales for Retail & Food Services
12:30/CAN: May New Housing Price Index
14:00/US: ISM Semiannual Supply Chain Planning Forecast
14:00/US: Apr Manufacturing & Trade: Inventories & Sales
14:00/US: May Pending Home Sales Index
14:30/US: 06/12 EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report
18:00/US: Federal Reserve economic projections
18:00/US: U.S. interest rate decision
All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.
Expected Earnings for Wednesday
CarMax Inc $(KMX)$ is expected to report $0.91 for 1Q.
Jabil Inc $(JBL)$ is expected to report $2.57 for 3Q.
LiveOne Inc (LVO) is expected to report for 4Q.
Progressive Corp $(PGR)$ is expected to report.
Richtech Robotics Inc (RR) is expected to report $-0.06 for 2Q.
Smith & Wesson Brands Inc $(SWBI)$ is expected to report $0.23 for 4Q.
Strata Skin Sciences Inc (SSKN) is expected to report for 1Q.
VivoSim Labs Inc $(VIVS)$ is expected to report for 4Q.
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
June 16, 2026 16:27 ET (20:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments