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Today’s reading time is 5 minutes.
MARKETS
| ▼ | TSX |
31,250.02 |
-0.04% |
|
| ▼ | S&P 500 |
6,721.43 |
-1.16% |
|
| ▼ | DOW JONES |
47,885.97 |
-0.47% |
|
| ▼ | NASDAQ |
22,693.32 |
-1.81% |
|
| ▲ | GOLD |
4,371.4 |
+0.90% |
|
| ▲ | OIL |
56.74 |
+2.92% |
|
| ▼ | CAD/USD |
0.73 |
-0.21% |
|
| ▼ | BTC/USD |
86,113.45 |
-1.78% |
Markets: Canada’s main stock index saw its losing streak extend to four straight sessions yesterday as general market malaise outweighed gains in cannabis stocks and the energy sector.
ECONOMY
Canada sees largest population decline on record
Source: Shutterstock.
Ottawa has pulled off a tire-squealing U-turn on immigration.
What happened: Canada’s population fell by ~76,000 people in the third quarter, the largest decline in the country’s history and just the second time on record that the population has fallen in a quarter.
A record drop in international students and non-permanent residents drove the decline. Temporary residents made up 6.8% of Canada’s population as of the third quarter, down from a peak of 7.6%.
Catch-up: Coming out of the pandemic, Ottawa opened the door to millions of temporary workers and international students. In February of last year, one in 40 people in the country was an international study permit holder.
Strain on housing, healthcare, and other public services sparked a public opinion backlash to the country’s immigration policy. Per Abacus polling, nearly half of Canadians now hold negative views on immigration.
In response, the feds have committed to cutting the share of temporary residents to 5% of the overall population.
Why it matters: Newcomers have driven Canada’s GDP growth for years, but despite the recent pullback in immigration, the economic picture for Canadian households — at least in the aggregate — has actually improved.
A recent RBC report found that GDP per capita, a measure of how big the average Canadian’s slice of the economic pie is, will grow in 2025 for the first time in three years.
What’s next: GDP per capita is expected to improve at an even higher clip over the next two years, although the upcoming CUSMA negotiations could throw a wrench in that peachy forecast.—LA
BIG PICTURE
Source: nicepix / Shutterstock.
Ottawa signs AI deal with homegrown firm Coveo. The Montreal-based AI company will work with the feds to integrate its technology into various government services. Governments in Australia and New Zealand already use Coveo’s AI products to help answer questions on their tax departments' websites. (The Logic)
YouTube poaches the Oscars from ABC. Hollywood’s biggest night will be broadcast on YouTube for free starting in 2029. The award ceremony, which has been on ABC since 1976, generated US$150 million in revenue for the Academy last year. Not bad for a night’s work. (Hollywood Reporter)
Amazon in talks to invest US$10 billion in OpenAI. The e-commerce giant is reportedly set to join the long list of big-name investors backing OpenAI. While talks are still ongoing, the investment could reach $10 billion and value the AI firm at over $500 billion. Amazon has already invested $8 billion in OpenAI’s rival Anthropic. (Reuters)
Trump blockades Venezuela. A week after seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, the U.S. president has ordered a complete blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” heading in or out of the country. Trump also officially designated president Nicolás Maduro’s regime as a terrorist organization. (Associated Press)
Quebec Liberal Party leader resigns. Just six months after taking the post, Pablo Rodriguez quit following allegations of campaign finance violations. (CBC News)
Waymo set to raise US$15 billion in new funding round. The Alphabet-backed self-driving car company could be valued as high as $110 billion after the new raise, more than doubling its valuation since October. Its stock apparently didn’t suffer from one of its cars driving directly through a crime scene. (CNBC)
TECH
Oracle shares do the electric slide
Source: Tada Images / Shutterstock.
It’s a rough time to be an Ellison-run company.
What happened: Shares in Oracle fell yesterday after the Financial Times reported that its largest data centre partner, Blue Owl Capital, had backed out of talks to fund a US$10 billion AI data centre in Michigan. Blue Owl was scared by Oracle’s debt and high AI spending.
Oracle disputed the report, pulling the old ‘actually, we broke up with them’ — saying that it selected the best equity partner, “which in this instance was not Blue Owl.”
Big picture: Oracle shares have cratered by 45.7% from their all-time high in September. And, after a revenue miss, investors have grown wary of Oracle’s spending commitments ($248 billion on data centre leases alone over the next 15 to 19 years), versus what it’s bringing in.
A Wall Street Journal piece highlighted Oracle’s remaining performance obligations; basically, future sales that are probable but haven't happened yet. Oracle had $523 billion worth of RPOs as of last month, with concern growing that some of these sales might be less than probable.
Zoom out: Oracle is not the only AI canary in the coal mine. CoreWeave, whose business model is predicated on simply owning a bunch of Nvidia chips, has fallen 22.3% over the past five days on similar concerns about debt, spending, and delays in data centre construction.
One analyst went so far as to tell the WSJ that CoreWeave has the “ugliest balance sheet in technology, by far.”
Why it matters: As the AI bubble debate rages on, these stock slips are a real expression of investor fear that many big ticket commitments will never actually materialize as real sales.—QH
ONE BIG NUMBER
⚽️ US$50 million. Prize money that the FIFA World Cup champion team will take home, a record high for the tournament. Overall, $655 million in prize money is expected to be distributed among the teams, with each guaranteed at least $10.5 million.
PEAK PICKS
Get up to $5,700 in value when you switch your mortgage to RBC. Enjoy up to $3,500 cash, 55,000 Avion points and up to $1,100 in switch fees covered. Offer ends December 31, 2025. Click here to get started.*
The most borrowed books from the Toronto Public Library this year.
Watch: Why people are paying $200 to watch sports in a planetarium.
Eight magical Christmas cafes across Canada.
Read: How Wikipedia has survived every era of the internet (The Verge, paywalled).
Meet the 90-year-old Italian grandmas teaching Instagram how to cook.
Netflix is adding a soccer video game for the World Cup next year.
*This is sponsored content.
GAMES
Make some time for today’s mini-crossword.
And, while you’re at it, play the daily sudoku (our testing of this is almost complete, but do still let us know if you encounter any bugs).