Here are five things you need to know this morning
All eyes on Nvidia: We’ll get quarterly results from semiconductor giant Nvidia after the bell today, numbers that may well set the tone for which way the entire market is going to go. While the company’s financial performance is always noteworthy, this set of results will be even more interesting than usual since they are the first since DeepSeek reset spending expectations in AI with its launch last month. After rocketing higher for the last several years, Nvidia shares have quietly been rangebound of late, as the US$3 trillion company is worth less today than it was last summer. This quarter is also the first where the company is going into an earnings release worth less than it was prior to the previous one. When expectations are sky high, anything less than an absolute blowout will be viewed as a miss, so watch this one closely whether you buy into the hype or not because Nvidia is among the most widely held stocks in the world, with the power to move entire markets almost by itself.
National Bank beats: They don’t have the same sex appeal of the Magnificent Seven companies like Nvidia, but in terms of their importance in Canadian markets, it’s hard to beat the significance of the big banks, and we have fresh numbers to digest from one of them. National Bank reported first quarter results this morning, numbers that showed adjusted EPS came in at $2.93. That’s better than the $2.67 expected. Most of the bank’s business lines showed growth, although the bank did set aside more money to cover bad loans. Provisions for credit losses came in at $254 million, well ahead of the $182 million expected.
Scotiabank CEO sits down with BNN Bloomberg: Scotiabank posted quarterly results yesterday, and while the bank beat on most metrics, investors seemingly didn’t like what they saw, sending the shares lower. We heard from the CEO of the bank this morning when Scott Thomson sat down with Jon Erlichman in studio in the 9 a.m. hour.
Simpson Oil comes out swinging at Parkland: The simmering tension between Parkland Corporation and its biggest shareholders has bubbled over, with Simpson Oil publishing an open letter yesterday, demanding wholesale changes at the company. In the letter, Simpson says the company’s weak performance in recent years raises concerns about its strategy and leadership. Simpson says it asked for a strategic review of the company last April, but that request was dismissed so they are now going public. Simpson says it is “exploring all available options in pursuit of a pathway to value for shareholders” and will provide details of its recommendations in the coming weeks. Parkland shares are worth less today than they were before the pandemic, and prior to a recent surge, the stock had lost 30 per cent of its value in under a year. We’ll be watching the action in Parkland shares closely today.
Trump takes aim at copper: Not content with putting tariffs on steel and aluminum, Donald Trump has seemingly taken aim at copper now, too, directing the U.S. Commerce Department to look into potential tariffs on the ubiquitous industrial metal. Trump and officials in his administration say dumping and overcapacity in world copper markets have impacted U.S. copper production, leaving weapons systems and other products critical to national security dangerously reliant on imports. Independent market analysts, however, say that there isn’t enough global production of the metal to satisfy demand. It’s worth noting that China is a major player in the metal that’s used in just about everything from electronics to construction, producing almost half of the world’s refined copper last year. Copper prices surged five per cent in New York trading.
