Here are five things you need to know this morning:
Trump wins: There’s a lot we don’t know about what a second Donald Trump presidency will look like, but investors last night and this morning are saying loudly and clearly that they’ve got a good feeling about where things are headed. The Trump trade is on in a big way this morning, with plenty of non-correlated asset classes responding positively to the prospect of a second Trump term. Equity futures are up sharply, with the Dow up more than three per cent and the broader S&P up by more than two. Financial stocks like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America in particular are poised to open more than seven per cent higher. Tesla, which is now widely perceived as a Trump-linked stock due to its CEO’s increasingly close relationship with Trump, is up 15 per cent. The U.S. dollar is gaining steam, and bitcoin is up by more than eight per cent to a new all-time high. Bond yields are rising (and prices are falling) on the prospect that inflation may be headed higher, and gold prices that had been on a steady rally are pulling back. There’s perhaps no more obvious Trump trade than the shares in the company that bears his name, and as one might expect, shares in Trump Media are up 29 per cent premarket after news organizations started calling the election in Trump’s favour early this morning.
Nvidia passes Apple: Nvidia Corp. became the largest company in the world on Tuesday, surpassing Apple with a market capitalization of more than US$3.4 trillion. The chip maker has become the face of the ongoing AI boom and has so far managed to keep up with and surpass the lofty expectations that have been set for just about any name in the sector. The shares have gained more than 850 per cent since the end of 2022, and by itself the company is responsible for about a quarter of the gain in the S&P 500 this year. Analysts think there’s plenty more room for gains too, as target prices average between $150 and $180 for a stock that’s currently changing hands for roughly $139 – and was going for barely $100 just two short months ago.
Toronto home sales surge: Home sales in Canada’s biggest city surged 14 per cent last month, the third month in a row of gains. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said this morning that new listings declined by seven per cent during the month, which, when coupled with the sales surge, pushed the market closer toward balance. That’s a recipe for prices moving sideways which is exactly what we saw – the benchmark price inched up 0.1 per cent to $1.083 million. That’s the first uptick since July.
LNG Canada to narrow natty price gap, BMO says: Canada’s first major liquefied natural gas export plant will boost the price of natural gas toward parity with price in the U.S. That’s according to BMO analyst Randy Ollenberger, who told a Calgary business audience yesterday that he thinks the opening of the Shell-led LNG Canada plant will cause depressed prices in Canada to move higher. Outside of temporary demand surges such as during cold snaps, natural gas prices in Canada have been cheaper than those in the U.S. for decades. Gas at Alberta’s AECO hub is selling about 89 cents cheaper than the corresponding product at the Henry Hub in the U.S. on Monday.
Cineplex earnings fall flat against Barbenheimer comparisons: Shares in Cineplex will be one to watch today after the movie theatre chain published financial results before the bell this morning that missed expectations. The company reported a quarterly loss of $24.7 million during the quarter. That compares with a profit of $24.5 million last year, when movie theatres were full of people eager to watch Hollywood hits like Barbie and Oppenheimer. Revenue slipped almost five per cent to $396 million.