HEADLINES

Bank of Canada Holds Policy Rate Steady, Expects Inflation to Peak in April

The Bank of Canada kept its policy interest rate unchanged at 2.25%, and signaled the rate may stay close to that level so long as the economy evolves as forecast.

The central bank's quarterly forecast expects inflation to peak in April at around 3% and assumes crude-oil prices fall to $75 a barrel by mid-2027. The forecast also anticipates no changes in U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods -- so neither a breakthrough on U.S.-Canada trade talks nor an escalation in U.S. levies.

Overall, the Bank of Canada largely kept its growth forecast intact, noting the economy stands to benefit from current geopolitical volatility as a net exporter of crude oil. The anticipated rise in national income would help offset the strains posed by President Trump's tariffs.

Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem said officials agreed not to overreact to a near-term surge in inflation. "But if energy prices stay high, we will not let their effects become persistent inflation," he said.

Lululemon Founder Takes Aim at New CEO Pick, Escalates Proxy Fight

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson sent a letter to shareholders urging them to vote for his three board nominees, as he critiqued the company's new selection for CEO as evidence of "broken governance."

Wilson's letter said Lululemon's board didn't understand the apparel company's brand, which has been leading to its challenges. Last week's announcement of 30-year Nike veteran Heidi O'Neill, which sent shares down, further demonstrates the board's disconnect with what the brand needs, Wilson said.

"The existing board does not have the skillset to hire a world-class brand/product person who can deliver on the newest zeitgeist or style of the moment," Wilson wrote.

CN Rail Profit Falls as Revenue Slips

Canadian National Railway reported lower first-quarter profit as revenue edged down and its operating ratio deteriorated, offsetting improved freight volumes.

The company's shares fell 6% to C$147.91.

The Canadian railroad posted on Wednesday a decrease in net income to C$1.15 billion, down slightly from C$1.16 billion in the comparable quarter a year ago. On a per-share basis, earnings were C$1.87, compared with C$1.85.

Revenues fell 1% to C$4.38 billion, in line with analyst expectations.

CGI Shares Slide After Second-Quarter Miss as Manufacturing, U.S. Business Weakness Drag on Results

CGI shares fell sharply as second-quarter results missed expectations, exacerbating already-weak sentiment around software stocks.

Shares fell 10.9% to C$89.78.

The Montreal-based IT and consulting firm said the quarter was hampered by slower client decision making in several key markets as well as continued softness in European manufacturing and lingering weakness in its U.S. federal business.

Lightspeed Sells U.S. Hospitality Product Line for Up to $81 Million

Payments platform Lightspeed Commerce sold its U.S. hospitality product line for as much as $81 million as it works to streamline its portfolio and focus on retail in North America and hospitality in Europe.

The Canadian company said it sold its Upserve business to Skyview Equity for $44 million in cash plus an earnout of up to $37 million, which will be structured over 24 months and tied to performance targets.

The divested operations, which cover 3,200 U.S. hospitality customer locations and 70 employees, contributed $140 million in revenue in the latest fiscal year.

Capital Power Quarterly Ebitda, Revenue Rise

Capital Power logged a rise in underlying earnings in the first quarter as market fundamentals in its core regions remained positive.

The Alberta-based power producer recorded fourth-quarter net income of C$15 million, or C$0.04 a share, against from C$150 million, or C$1.03, a year earlier.

Stripping out items such as impairments and unrealized changes in the fair value of commodity derivatives and emission credits, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed to C$404 million from C$367 million, beating the C$389 million mean estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue and other income rose 22% to C$1.21 billion for the three months from C$988 million in the same period of 2025.

Bausch + Lomb Lifts 2026 Guidance, First-Quarter Loss Narrows

Bausch + Lomb raised its full-year guidance, expecting a stronger lift from foreign-exchange movements after higher first-quarter revenue helped narrow its loss.

The eye health company now expects full-year revenue to be higher, at $5.42 billion to $5.52 billion, up from a previous range of $5.38 billion to $5.48 billion.

For the first quarter, Bausch + Lomb logged a narrowed net loss on Wednesday, coming it at $70 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with a loss of $211 million, or 60 cents a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.

Canada Approves Dr. Reddy's Generic Version of Novo Nordisk's Ozempic

The Canadian government authorized a generic version of Ozempic developed by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, making it the first G7 country to approve a generic version of the massively popular GLP-1 diabetes treatment.

The generic semaglutide injection is modeled off of Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and is approved for once-weekly treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes.

Health Canada, the country's health-policy arm, said it is reviewing eight other submissions for generic GLP-1 treatments and expects to make regulatory decisions in the coming weeks and months.

Correction

Canada projects a narrower deficit in the 2025-26 fiscal year of C$66.9 billion. This newsletter on April 28 incorrectly said the deficit is forecast to hit C$60.6 billion.

TALKING POINT

Bank of Canada Issues Policy Guidance Amid an Economic Tug of War

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem dipped into central banking's forward-guidance playbook to inform traders and Canadians about how policymakers might respond to competing economic forces.

The results: traders increased their bets on rate increases before year end.

Canada's central bank finds itself in a tug of war, managing competing risks that either push inflation upward, or deal another trade-related blow that adds to the spare capacity already sloshing around the economy. The central bank sets rate policy to reach and maintain 2% inflation.

Macklem decided Wednesday to share some of the central bank's thoughts during his press conference, providing a rare instance when the bank muses about increases and cuts. In the event energy prices remain elevated, the conflict in the Middle East drags on, and costs for other goods begin to jump sharply, "monetary policy will have more work to do, " he said. "There may be a need for consecutive increases in the policy."

Conversely, should U.S.-Canada trade talks fail and Washington adds new levies to Canadian imports, "we may need to cut the policy rate further to support economic growth," Macklem said.

Some economists say this amounted to forward guidance, or a tool central bankers use to inform the public about the likely course of monetary policy. In theory, businesses use this information to guide spending and investment decisions.

Macklem said senior officials believed it is "useful to convey, certainly directionally, how we would handle these various outcomes." He added that it is the central bank's job "to be a source of stability, a source of predictability."

Heading into Wednesday's decision and press conference, fixed-income traders had priced in at least one Bank of Canada rate increase before the end of 2026. Traders pushed that up to two quarter-point rate increases following the end of the press conference, based on activity in the overnight swap-index market.

Macklem's remarks were "less about guiding the market to a particular view, since the Bank of Canada is itself quite uncertain about what might happen next," said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC Capital Markets. "It is really just explaining to Canadians how the bank is thinking about various risks."

Nevertheless, traders "seem to have interpreted the governor's answers as more hawkish than expected," Shenfeld added.

During the press conference, the central bank's No. 2 official, senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers, said that U.S.-Canada trade turmoil represents the biggest longer-term risk to the domestic economy. U.S. and Canadian officials have exchanged criticisms and threats this month about the fate of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade treaty, or USMCA, which is up for renewal this summer. Talks between the U.S. and Canada have stalled, whereas negotiations between Mexico City and Washington have reached an advanced stage.

The central bank "was clearly focused on creating lots of optionality for itself given high uncertainty and risks on both sides of its inflation mandate," said Ali Jaffery, chief economist at KPMG Canada. He said increased expectations for rate increases in Canada also stem from worries about the U.S. and Iran failing to reach a deal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

"The bond market can be an impatient creature sometimes," Jaffery added, "and its recent track record on the Bank of Canada is poor with its ears only perking up on talks about firming inflation and ignoring other parts of the story."

Write to Paul Vieira at [paul.vieira@wsj.com]

Expected Major Events for Thursday

01:00/JPN: Mar Steel Imports & Exports Statistics

04:30/JPN: Mar Preliminary Report on Petroleum Statistics

05:00/JPN: Mar Housing Starts

05:00/JPN: Mar Construction Orders

05:00/JPN: Apr Consumer Confidence Survey

05:30/FRA: Mar Household consumption expenditure in manufactured goods

05:30/FRA: 1Q GDP - first estimate

06:00/GER: Mar Foreign trade price indices

06:00/GER: Mar Retail Trade

06:45/FRA: Mar PPI

06:45/FRA: Apr Provisional CPI

06:45/FRA: 1Q Flash estimate of job creation

07:55/GER: Apr Labour market statistics (incl unemployment)

08:00/ITA: 1Q GDP preliminary estimate

08:00/GER: 1Q GDP - 1st release

08:30/ITA: Mar Unemployment

09:00/ITA: Apr Cities CPI

09:00/ITA: Apr Provisional CPI

11:00/UK: Bank of England Monetary Policy Report

11:00/UK: UK interest rate decision

12:30/CAN: Feb Payroll employment, earnings and hours, and job vacancies

12:30/US: 1Q Advance estimate GDP

12:30/US: Mar Personal Income and Outlays

12:30/US: 1Q Employment Cost Index

12:30/CAN: Feb GDP

12:30/US: 04/25 Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report - Initial Claims

12:30/US: U.S. Weekly Export Sales

13:00/RUS: Weekly International Reserves

13:45/US: Apr Chicago Business Barometer - ISM-Chicago Business Survey - Chicago PMI

14:00/US: Feb Leading Indicators

14:00/US: Mar Leading Indicators

14:30/US: 04/24 EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report

19:00/US: Mar Agricultural Prices

20:30/US: Foreign Central Bank Holdings

20:30/US: Federal Discount Window Borrowings

23:30/JPN: Apr CPI (Tokyo), CPI ex-Food (Tokyo)

All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.

Expected Earnings for Thursday

ADT Inc $(ADT)$ is expected to report $0.19 for 1Q.

AO Smith Corp (AOS,X-SMCA) is expected to report $0.94 for 1Q.

Albany International Corp - Class A $(AIN)$ is expected to report $0.43 for 1Q.

Altria Group Inc $(MO)$ is expected to report $1.24 for 1Q.

Balchem Corp $(BCPC)$ is expected to report $1.25 for 1Q.

Bristol Myers Squibb Co $(BMY)$ is expected to report $1.18 for 1Q.

Brunswick Corp $(BC)$ is expected to report $0.37 for 1Q.

CNX Resources Corp $(CNX)$ is expected to report $0.90 for 1Q.

Caterpillar Inc $(CAT)$ is expected to report $4.57 for 1Q.

DT Midstream Inc $(DTM)$ is expected to report $1.14 for 1Q.

Darling Ingredients Inc $(DAR)$ is expected to report $0.61 for 1Q.

Donegal Group Inc - A Share (DGICA,DGICB) is expected to report $0.40 for 1Q.

FTI Consulting Inc $(FCN)$ is expected to report $2.10 for 1Q.

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (FMCC) is expected to report $0.00 for 1Q.

Gildan Activewear Inc (GIL,GIL.T) is expected to report $0.27 for 1Q.

Group 1 Automotive Inc $(GPI)$ is expected to report $8.68 for 1Q.

Illinois Tool Works Inc $(ITW)$ is expected to report $2.57 for 1Q.

Integer Holdings Corp $(ITGR)$ is expected to report $0.71 for 1Q.

International Paper Co $(IP)$ is expected to report $0.12 for 1Q.

L3Harris Technologies Inc (LHX) is expected to report $2.53 for 1Q.

LKQ Corp $(LKQ)$ is expected to report $0.59 for 1Q.

Labcorp Holdings Inc $(LH)$ is expected to report for 1Q.

Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc $(LECO)$ is expected to report $2.46 for 1Q.

Mechanics Bancorp (MCHB) is expected to report $0.41 for 1Q.

Merck & Co Inc $(MRK)$ is expected to report $-1.62 for 1Q.

Option Care Health Inc (OPCH) is expected to report $0.29 for 1Q.

PHINIA Inc $(PHIN)$ is expected to report $0.98 for 1Q.

ProPetro Holding Corp $(PUMP)$ is expected to report $-0.11 for 1Q.

Royal Caribbean Group $(RCL)$ is expected to report $3.18 for 1Q.

Saia Inc $(SAIA)$ is expected to report $1.80 for 1Q.

Sonic Automotive Inc - Class A $(SAH)$ is expected to report $1.52 for 1Q.

Southside Bancshares Inc (SBSI) is expected to report $0.75 for 1Q.

Tenet Healthcare Corp $(THC)$ is expected to report $5.58 for 1Q.

Textron Inc $(TXT)$ is expected to report $1.11 for 1Q.

Titan International Inc $(TWI)$ is expected to report $0.00 for 1Q.

TriMas Corp $(TRS)$ is expected to report $0.20 for 1Q.

TriNet Group Inc (TNET) is expected to report $1.48 for 1Q.

Valero Energy Corp $(VLO)$ is expected to report $3.11 for 1Q.

World Acceptance Corp $(WRLD)$ is expected to report $7.74 for 4Q.

Xcel Energy Inc $(XEL)$ is expected to report $0.88 for 1Q.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2026 16:31 ET (20:31 GMT)

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