A year ago, Bob Thompson called commodities the trade of the decade. Since then, silver miners, energy stocks and commodity-focused funds have delivered massive gains. But with gold down sharply from its highs, oil rolling over and investors questioning whether the trade has become too crowded, is it time to take profits—or is this just a correction within a much bigger bull market?
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Summer hours are officially in effect, the youngest slept in until 9am! I know I’ll pay for that tonight and in two months from now when school starts back. But that’s a problem for future me. She’s used to getting screwed over by current me anyway.
Here are five things to know today:
Vibe shift: Tech stocks sold off after semiconductor earnings signaled rising input costs, with Apple’s fresh round of price hikes on iPads and Macs serving as the catalyst. The fear is that higher chip prices will eat into margins across the board. Apple fell 6%, but the pain spread: Dell (-6%), Palantir (-5%), Microsoft (-3%), Oracle (-3%), Amazon (-3%), and Meta (-2.5%) all got caught in the downdraft. These are companies whose AI spending bill could climb even higher if chip prices keep rising. Meta is down 17% so far this year and Microsoft is down 27% – both are trading below market. Is that a buy? I’ll put that to our guest next week. Interestingly, the S&P 500 actually finished flat because there were more stocks up than down on a rotation into other areas of the market like industrials and health care.
Clean up on aisle 2: Metro is warning that ongoing strikes at its Laval fresh produce distribution centre is hurting sales and profit will be lower than expected. The strike, which has been going on since March 30th and still isn’t resolved, has resulted in a 1.5% sales drop. Profit for the third quarter will be between $1.22-$1.27/share which is down from last year and worse than the $1.53/share analysts expected. The warning that food sales dropped 1.5% is also worse than the 1% expected growth. Metro is the worst performing grocer in 2026, down 4% compared to an increase of 7-9% for Loblaw and Empire.
Paper deal: ON Semiconductor is plunging 12% after announcing an all-stock deal to buy smart-device chipmaker Synaptics. This is a second run at a major deal following an abandoned effort to buy Allegro MicroSystems last year. But back then the stock was trading at $60/share. Thanks the semiconductor boom – it is now trading at $103/share. Worth listening to the Bob Thompson interview to find out what part of the cycle we are in when companies start doing “paper deals.” Spoiler: It’s not the beginning. But Evercore says this is an extension of the AI play – not a pivot. “We’re Buyers of ON….after it announced its all-stock acquisition of Synaptics (SYNA)” wrote Evercore’s Mark Lipacis, “This deal extends ON’s power, sensing and control franchise into edge AI compute and physical AI, growing TAM by $30B to $243B by 2030, with $200M run-rate synergies and EPS accretion within 18 months of the close.”
Freeze: Watch shares of GO Residential REIT – a New York based apartment REIT – after the city passed rent freezes for the next two years. This was very well telegraphed and a key part of Mayor Mamdani’s platform before he was elected. However, now that it has actually come to fruitition it could put further pressure on the stock argues Desjardins. “…The actual near-term impact on the REIT’s portfolio should be relatively limited, with just ~32% of the pro forma portfolio being rent-stabilized…” wrote Kyle Stanley of Desjardins, “That said, should the pending rent freeze, which will take effect on leases signed after October 1, 2026, extend for the duration of Mayor Mamdani’s term, it will begin to limit revenue growth in the future—we estimate a ~100–150bps impact to GO’s long-term revenue growth beyond our forecast period.” Stanley warns shares could come under pressure today. I own GO Residential.
Distress: Watch Corus Entertainment after sales fell 16% and its loss was worse than expected. The embattled media company lamented continued pressure from linear TV advertising demand. The owner of Global News and Teletoon is in the process of being taken over by creditors led by Canso Investment Counsel. However, yesterday Pierre Karl Péladeau of Quebecor made another push with the CRTC to open up the process so that Quebecor could make the case for buying the company. Sherritt International is warning of a potential going concern issues after Trump’s sanctions in Cuba. The nickel and cobalt producer has a mine in Cuba it has shuttered since February because of energy constraints. But that has also affected its operations in Alberta because the refinery has no product coming in – Sherritt announced the Alberta refinery was going idle this week. It’s ability to meet its current debt obligations and refinance “remains uncertain.” The stock has been cut in half since the sanctions were announced earlier this year.
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