📈 Tamago sando

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Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Canada’s main stock index reached a new record high yesterday on, you guessed it, higher gold and oil prices lifting the energy and minerals sectors. Elsewhere, top Wall Street indexes fell amid uncertainty in the private equity space.

7-Eleven Canada is upping its food game beyond Slurpees and reheated taquitos.

Driving the news: 7-Eleven’s tamago sando is coming to Canadian stores next month. Now normally, the launch of a new rest-stop sandwich wouldn’t be headline news, but the tamago sando is a marquee item of the chain’s superior Japanese stores and has a cult following. 

Big picture: The sando is just one plank in 7-Eleven’s five-year Canadian expansion plan, where it will look to make the leap from convenience store to quick-service restaurant (the industry term for a fast-food joint), complete with better food options and a franchise model.

Why it matters: 7-Eleven’s expansion reflects the state of Canada's restaurant sector, which is shaky but projects growth in certain areas. According to a Restaurants Canada report from last fall, lunchtime traffic at quick-service eateries surpassed pre-pandemic levels last year. 

Zoom out: Canadian competitor Couche-Tard, which you’ll recall mounted a failed takeover bid of 7-Eleven’s parent company last year, is also planning to invest more in food.—QH 

Danielle Smith called a provincial referendum thats avoid the question of separation. Alberta’s premier said the province will hold a referendum on immigration policy and constitutional matters in October. Notably, the vote will avoid the question of whether Alberta should separate from Canada. (CTV News)

OpenAI set to raise US$100 billion. The AI company is close to finalizing the fundraising round at a valuation that could exceed US$850 billion. Amazon, SoftBank, Nvidia, and Microsoft are expected to account for the lion’s share of that cash, though the deal is not yet finalized. (Bloomberg News)

U.S. forces are massing near Iran. The U.S. has moved more naval and air forces to the Middle East, laying the groundwork for a major attack on Iran. The buildup amounts to the most U.S. air power gathered in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Donald Trump said he would decide whether to attack Iran within the next 10 days. (NBC News) 

📡 What else is on our radar: 

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eBay is acquiring fashion resale app Depop from Etsy for US$1.2 billion. Etsy is selling Depop at a loss — it purchased the app in 2021 for $1.6 billion — as it refocuses on its core marketplace. eBay is hoping the app can help attract younger users. For its part, Depop’s merchandise sales grew last year, although it has also faced stiffer competition from rival platforms. 

Why it matters: Both cost- and eco-consciousness from younger consumers have made secondhand clothing one of the hottest retail trends in recent years. Whether it's an e-commerce platform providing resale tools or a brand launching resale programs, thrift is a newly vital part of retail strategies.

Catch up on yesterday:

What’s happening today: 

When it comes to the stock market, the news cycle, and boring conversations at cocktail parties, AI is inescapable. But it hasn’t really shown up in economic data — that may be changing. 

What happened: A newly published study found that, across 12,000 European firms, AI increased productivity levels by 4%. To put that in perspective, productivity in Canada increased by around 1% per year from 2000 to 2019 (and has been even lower since). 

Meanwhile: Last year’s U.S. jobs numbers were revised downward by 403,000 jobs at the same time as the economy was growing quickly, a trend technology researcher Erik Brynjolfsson called a “hallmark of productivity growth.” 

Why it matters: You can find all manner of predictions about how AI will either have no impact on jobs or completely eliminate white-collar work, but the hard data suggests an outcome somewhere in between those extremes is more likely — at least for the time being.

Yes, but: We’re only beginning to get hard evidence as to how AI is impacting the labour market, and it’s difficult to establish causality when it comes to trends across the entire economy. We’ll need many more quarters of data before we can reach any definite conclusions.—TS

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💨 43%. Share of vape shops that Health Canada inspected between April 2024 and March 2025 that were non-compliant with federal regulations — alarming considering this number was under 1% for convenience stores selling vapes. Top violations included the sale of banned flavours, the use of customer testimonials, and packaging without health warnings. 

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Then, take on the trio of the mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, and Codebreaker.