Here are five things you need to know this morning:

All-time closing high for TSX: Canada’s benchmark stock index finished at its highest level ever on Thursday — sort of. The S&P/TSX Composite Index finished the trading day on Thursday at 22,087.26. That beat the previous record closing high of 22,087.22 the index set almost exactly two years ago. Astute readers will note that winning margin — just 0.04 points — is about as slim as can be, but technically it meets the bar. It’s not the highest level the index has ever been however, as it was above that on an intraday basis back on April 5, 2022 when it briefly went as high as 22,213. It went as high as 22,197 at one point on Thursday before losing ground in the afternoon. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not the TSX will add to its gains on Friday or retrench, but after a year that has seen record-high after record-high on U.S. stock groupings like the S&P 500, Dow Jones and others, it’s nice to see Canadian stocks join the party.

Lululemon shares slump on weak forecast: Shares in Lululemon are poised to open as much as 12 per cent lower today after the high-end activewear maker missed analyst estimates for net revenue and adjusted earnings per share in the first quarter. After markets closed on Thursday, the company warned that visits to its U.S. stores are slowing, and that’s leading to a lower-than-expected sales outlook moving forward. That sell-off comes after an impressive run for the shares during the pandemic, as millions of people eschewing office clothes in favour of more relaxing gear while working at home was great for Lululemon’s business model. The stock briefly topped US$500 earlier this month, about twice what the company was trading at prior to the pandemic in March 2020. Numerous analysts have downgraded their price targets for the stock as a result of the weak numbers posted Thursday, but at least one says the company has a history of over performing every time consensus assumes they won’t. “Lululemon typically guides conservatively; guiding low and then beating,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal said. “So I suspect this to be the same. I think they will beat their conservatively set guidance. Plenty of opportunity exists —especially abroad and in men’s.”  

Activist shareholder demands change at Algonquin: Activist investor Starboard Value has nominated three candidates to join the board at TSX-listed Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. That’s the culmination of more than a year’s worth of pressure from Starboard, which owns nine per cent of Algonquin’s shares, to turn the company’s performance around. Starboard has expressed concerns to Algonquin about succession planning, poor balance sheet management and an ill-fated attempt to buy Kentucky utilities from American Electric Power Co., Starboard said in a release. Shares in Algonquin have lost more than half their value since 2022, when the company’s debt load prompted it to cancel the expensive Kentucky acquisition and slash its dividend. Starboard held talks with the company’s management in April 2023 that Bloomberg described as “amicable” shortly after taking a stake in the company. Many utility stocks have fared poorly in the era of high interest rates as they tend to have high debt loads, but Algonquin has been one of the worst performers in the sector on the TSX over the past two years.

DOJ wants to take a bite out of Apple: I’ll be watching with great interest for developments on the fight between Apple and the U.S. Department of Justice, after the agency and 16 attorneys general accused the iPhone maker in a court case launched Thursday of violating antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features on its popular devices. The lawsuit alleges that Apple has used its power over app distribution on the iPhone to thwart innovations that would have made it easier for consumers to switch phones, Bloomberg reports. The fight knocked US$115 billion off of Apple’s market cap on Thursday, a sign of just how high the stakes are in this fight. It’s not even the only such fight that the company is facing, after European regulators earlier this month launched a similar suit against the company for anticompetitive practices in music streaming. That case comes with a US$2 billion fine, although Apple is vowing to fight it.

Retail sales shrink in January: Canadian consumers were closing their wallets more in January, according to Statistics Canada, as the data agency released retail sales data for the month that showed total sales declined by 0.3 per cent to $67 billion. So-called core retail sales that strip out sales at gas stations and other merchants actually rose by 0.4 per cent, but a large decline in sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers dragged the headline figure lower. Sales in that sector declined by 2.4 per cent, the first drop in five months. The largest decline in core sales came from food and beverage retailers, where sales declined by 0.9 per cent. The data agency reports that overall retail sales rebounded somewhat in February, as preliminary data suggests a 0.1 per cent expansion.