One of the world’s largest gold producers is ready to invest more in Canada. Fresh off the Canada Investment Summit, Amber Kanwar sits down with Ammar Al-Joundi, President & CEO of Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, for a wide-ranging conversation about Canada’s changing investment climate, the outlook for gold and why he believes this could be a pivotal moment for the country’s resource sector.
Looking to invest in high-quality companies without high fees? The HAMILTON CHAMPIONS™ suite of ETFs offers exposure to diversified portfolios of equity champions across tech, financials, utilities, and dividend strategies, all with a low 0.19% management fee, designed to help you stay invested with confidence for the long term. For more information on the HAMILTON CHAMPIONS™ suite, visit: www.hamiltonetfs.com/hamilton-
FROM AMBER’S DESK
My lucky son got Lego from nearly every single one of his friends this year for his birthday. Which means his lucky mom and dad get to frantically look for microscopic pieces to build naval ships and fighter jet planes all under the supervision of a very impatient five year old telling us to move faster.
Here are five things to know today
1.
Markets in recovery mode after Fed rate hike
Stocks sold off and bond yields rose after the US increased rates for the first time since 2023 and signaled another rate hike is on the table. The move sparked US President Donald Trump’s ire, calling for rates in the US to be as low as 1%, but he stopped short of attacking his appointed Fed Chair Kevin Warsh directly. Stocks are up strongly this morning as the market is currently pricing in what would be the shallowest rate hike cycle in modern history. The rate hike is being billed as an effort to see inflation have a “timelier return” to 2% while financial conditions remain accommodative. Oil prices are pulling back for a second day in a row which is also helping sentiment. Tech offered safe harbour yesterday while energy and financials bore the brunt of the sell off. The Bank of England kept rates unchanged this morning despite both the ECB and the Fed increasing recently. However, it warned that if the war in Iran continues they could very well increase rates.
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ◆ ◆ ◆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
2.
Lennar -2% pre-market after earnings missed + cutting forecast
The US homebuilder missed on nearly every metric: profit dropped 40% while sales, orders, backlog, and average selling price were all below consensus. Lennar also cut its forecast for the number of homes it can deliver in 2026. But the stock is already down 40% over the past year and trading around a four-year low. So the 2% decline pre-market seems pretty tame. A rate hike doesn’t help – especially since the CEO called out already high mortgage rates.
|
“Mortgage rates increased through the quarter, with the 30-year rate at approximately 6.8% at quarter end and even higher since. Rates are responding as inflation remains above the Fed’s target, driven by geopolitical tension and higher oil prices. Additionally, consumer confidence has declined as rates and affordability have driven more consumers to slow their purchase decision.” — Stuart miller, ceo, lennar |
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ◆ ◆ ◆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
3.
Bidding war reported for GFL Environmental
Several hours after the waste management company’s CEO Patrick Dovigi appeared on Bloomberg TV saying no decision has been made on going private but there are several interested bidders, Bloomberg came out with a report saying it is at the heart of what could be the biggest leveraged buyout of the year. KKR, Energy Capital Partners and Blackstone are reportedly bidding together while Brookfield Asset Management and IFM Investors are working together on a rival bid. The strategic review began shortly after GFL announced a deal to buy Secure Waste Infrastructure – a deal the market didn’t like and the stock sold off. Dovigi has said he would roll his ownership into any future deal.
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ◆ ◆ ◆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
4.
Generac soars 30% on Amazon data-centre deal
The maker of generators signed a long-term contract with Amazon to supply $8 billion worth of generators for Amazon data centres. The deal also gives Amazon a warrant for a stake in the company. For context, Generac’s revenue this year is projected to be $5 billion. The deal cements Generac as an AI stock now – instead of just a provider of generators to the likes of Costco and Home Depot. Shares have actually been under pressure over the past few months on concerns that a crucial part for its generators is made in China. Recently, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning foreign-sourced grid equipment. While this might not directly impact Generac because it is a back-up power source and not plugged into the grid, it has weighed on sentiment.
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ◆ ◆ ◆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
5.
Agnico Eagle sells Mexican mining asset
The 2nd largest gold producer in the world is selling an undeveloped gold-silver-copper project to Luca Mining. Agnico Eagle primarily has its assets in Canada with some exposure to Mexico. On the podcast, we discussed Agnico’s future plans for growth and CEO Ammar Al-Joundi said that many of the measures announced recently in Canada during the Canada Investment Summit make it more likely for him to invest in Canada. Agnico Eagle’s focus on stable jurisdictions and lowering costs has worked so far: the stock has handily outperformed peers and bullion over the last 5 and 10 years.
Don’t miss the next episode! Time to get your questions in! Click here to submit a question!
