Good morning and happy Monday. A long weekend approaches as most Canadians are off next Monday. Just 5 more days to get through - or, if you’re into strategizing your PTO use, this may be a nice time to vacation.

A look at the week ahead. Things take off starting this Wednesday and momentum keeps up until Friday, where we’ll get decisions on:

• The Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision comes this Wednesday. Will there be a cut, or will it hold steady?

• Monetary policy report also comes out on Wednesday, giving us a look at Canada’s economic outlook.

• Canada’s GDP report for the month of May comes out on Thursday.

• Friday is August 1st, which is technically the deadline day for a trade deal with the United States before tariffs of 35% kick in on non-USMCA-compliant goods.

CANADA

Canada’s retail giant

With retailers facing existential threats in the Canadian market, one has continued to rise above the rest and continues to prove their dominance over the market. The Simons brand is prepared to open two new Toronto stores at Yorkdale and Eaton Shopping Centres, with the Yorkdale opening coming in just a few weeks on August 14.

Standing tall in a graveyard. The Simons brand, family-owned for 185 years, has slowly expanded its footprint nationwide. Including the Toronto expansion, they’ll have 17 stores in the country. The brand is described as an “enigma” for surviving Canada’s retail climate at a time when many retailers have shut down, filed for bankruptcy or flat out left the Canadian market.

Among the brands that have struggled to the point of shutting down or leaving Canada, the list of recent names includes Nordstrom, Saks, The Bay and Frank & Oak. Decathlon reduced its footprint down to one store in Ottawa, and more have filed for creditor protection in an attempt to restructure their Canadian business, including Hakim Optical.

It’s all about understanding the market. Simons’ success has been a rarity in Canada among the retail industry, but the brand has seen success with taking its time to expand to new locations, a focus on Canadian designers and art, unique store designs, a strong e-commerce platform and footprint and providing accessible price points while also having high-ticket items in their inventory.

Many retailers, especially those expanding from the United States, have ultimately faced headwinds in the Canadian market due to the lack of understanding of the differences between Canada’s market and the American market.

CANADA

🇨🇦 Canadian Stories

• A trade deal may not be in the cards for the United States and Canada after all, after Trump says he hasn’t had much luck negotiating a deal with Canada, and he may just slap a flat tariff rate on their non-CUSMA-compliant imports. How much of those imports fall under that bucket? It could be around 86%, leaving just 14% of Canadian imports to be slapped with a blanket tariff. Trump’s main sticking point still seems to be the Golden Dome defence system and Canada’s supply management.

• Telus and Bell are in a legal battle over IPTV services, as Bell filed a lawsuit against Telus claiming that they train their salespeople to sell unlicensed IPTV services in Ontario and Quebec.

• Rogers is requiring employees to return to the office 5 days a week as the company aims to decrease headcount increase productivity, just like they all do.

• Ottawa posted a $6.5-billion deficit in the first two months of its fiscal year. That’s an increase over the $3.8-billion deficit for the same April-May period last year.

• Three workers who were trapped in a BC mine for 60 hours were rescued on Friday.

• A policy expert is calling for a consumer protection review on the purchase of a Canadian cryptocurrency company, after a judge in the Supreme Court of BC signed off on Robinhood buying the company for $250-million. The concerns revolve around Canada’s economic sovereignty over its financial institutions.

• China has been importing record amounts of Canadian oil after cutting American imports by 90%. A record 7.3-million barrels of oil were imported into China from Canada in March.

• If you’re a Freedom Mobile user, you may have been gifted free data during their 30-million GB of data giveaway.

• 200% tariffs on pharmaceuticals entering the United States from Canada may go into effect on August 1st, which is separate from any tariff attached to the August 1st trade deal deadline. Canada only makes up for 5% of imports in the United States.

CLIMATE

Planning ahead

The climate visa program, as part of the Falepili Treaty Union, is the ticket to safety for 11,000 people who live in Tuvalu, an island country that is preparing for the first planned migration of a country due to the climate crisis.

Tuvaluans will be granted the same rights as Australian citizens and will be able to return home if the conditions allow for it, but the country, which sits about 2 metres above sea level on average, faces an existential threat due to rising sea levels that could submerge the country within 25 years.

8,750 people registered for the first stage of applications when the window opened on June 16th and closed on the 18th. 280 people will be drawn by ballot from the 8,750 registrants to decide who the climate migrants will be.

WORLD

🚨 More Headlines

🇪🇺EU and USA come to an agreement. The deal, agreed to on Sunday, comes with similar terms as the Japan agreement, which sees a 15% tariff on European imports into the States. Imports from the USA will see a 0% tariff, and there’s an agreement for the EU to buy a certain amount of energy and invest in the United States.

🇵🇸Ceasefire talks abandoned. The United States and Israeli leaders walked away from talks with Hamas, saying it was clear that they did not want to agree to ceasefire terms. Israel has begun a limited pause in fighting as its military sets up secure routes in place for aid as a hunger crisis sweeps through Gaza.

💰Trump’s next distraction. Facing criticism from all angles over Epstein’s list at the moment, Trump’s next task is publicly considering a “tariff rebate” cheque for lower-income Americans.

Business & Finance

• Stocks are reaching an all-time high, and while investors are enjoying seeing their portfolios balloon, there are warning signs present. Warren Buffett’s favourite metric, stock market cap to GDP, reached a new all-time high of 212% U.S. GDP. During the dot-com bubble in 2000, it was 138% and during the 2007 housing bubble, it was 105%.

• Job losses are coming: Intel aims to cut 25,000 jobs in 2025 as the company has struggled to remain competitive, and Paramount will be laying off hundreds of employees now that the merger with Skydance has been approved by regulators. Paramount’s new owners are aiming for $2-billion in cost savings.

• Spill the Tea, they said, as mobile app “Tea” rose to the top of the App Store charts over the weekend. The app allowed women to anonymously review men they went on dates with for other women to read. Just as quick as it rose in popularity, a data storage breach exposed 72,000 images, including 13,000 user images, that were submitted during account registration and were supposed to be deleted from servers after verification. The app claims to have 1.6-million users, but saw a recent surge in users.

• 3,200 workers from three St. Louis area Boeing plants that manufacture U.S. fighter jets are expected to go on strike after rejecting a deal that would give them a 20% pay increase over 4 years, despite the union advising them to vote yes.

• “Movie theatres are so back,” is what Tom Cruise is probably thinking somewhere. Continuing a string of successful summer releases, Fantastic Four had an opening weekend of $118-million, surpassing expectations. For Marvel, the challenge is momentum. After good opening weekend performances for offerings like Captain America in February, poor reviews led to the films being considered box office flops. The franchise has been looking for a reboot since Avengers: Endgame.

STAT

Matcha Mania runs wild

While coffees filled with syrups and copious amounts of sugar had their moment, a new favourite has stepped up to the plate and supply can’t keep up.

Fuelled by social media, matcha’s popularity has exploded. The matcha market is expected to hit $5-billion in 2028. The popularity of matcha has also been linked to Japan’s post-pandemic tourism boom. In 2024, Japan’s agriculture minister reported that tencha production was more than 2.5 times higher than in 2014. In the UK, sales jumped 202% in 2023.

In late 2024, two matcha companies, Ippodo and Marukyu Koyamaen, limited sales or stopped them altogether on certain types of matcha due to supply issues, which they expect to persist for the foreseeable future.

What’s driving the supply issues? The problem with matcha is that the crop is heavily dependent on the climate, and this year’s harvest was high quality, but low-yielding, according to one importer of the product from Japan. The average price of the crop has increased 1.7x from last year’s average.

NEWS

💭 What else is happening?

• Your local run clubs are probably taking on waitlists now. Shoe brand Hoka posted its most successful quarter ever with $653-million in revenue.

• Social media may have fooled you into thinking he changed his name to “the creator of ‘Breaking Bad’” but Vince Gilligan is returning with a new show, called ‘Pluribus’ that will premiere on Apple TV+ in November. It’s described as “the most miserable person on earth saving the world from happiness” as Gilligan returns to sci-fi.

• A Southwest Airlines passenger plane had to make a rapid descent of 300 feet in 36 seconds to avoid hitting another aircraft. A British fighter jet was in its vicinity.

• In response to the White House calling South Park ‘irrelevant’ after their newest episode depicted President Trump in bed with Satan, South Park’s creators took the stage at San Diego Comic Con to say they’re “terribly sorry,” followed by a long, deadpan stare.

• Gwyneth Paltrow, the ex-wife of Coldplay lead Chris Martin, is the temporary spokesperson for Astronomer, according to a new marketing video. The company is looking to capitalize on its viral moment that ended with the CEO and CPO resigning.

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