HEADLINES

Trade Deficit Balloons as Exports to U.S. Falter

Canada's trade deficit inflated sharply last year after exports were slugged by U.S tariffs and heightened uncertainty.

The country recorded a yearly merchandise-trade shortfall of C$31.18 billion, the widest on record outside of the first year of the pandemic, Statistics Canada said. Despite a recovery in the final month of 2025, exports dipped 0.2% annually, and would have been down a sharper 3% if not for a jump in precious-metals sales and a surge in the price of gold.

The driver of the trade gap was a pullback in shipments to the U.S., by far Canada's largest market, though that lessened in 2025 as trade activity further afield rose strongly.

Sporting-Goods Banners Lift Canadian Tire's Holiday Sales

Canadian Tire reported strong holiday sales at its SportChek and Mark's banners, lifting both adjusted profit and revenue.

Shares gained 2.3%, settling at C$216.00.

SportChek, the company's sporting-goods banner, delivered a strong holiday showing, lifted by demand for outerwear and fan gear. Mark's also posted solid growth as weather and Black Friday traffic helped drive shoppers toward its workwear and casual apparel.

Denison Mines Gets Regulatory Green Light to Build Uranium Mine in Saskatchewan

Denison Mines has received regulatory approval to build its uranium mine in Saskatchewan, granting the company the go-ahead to begin constructing the mine and processing plant.

The Canadian uranium miner said that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has approved the company's environmental assessment for the Wheeler River Uranium Project, located in the eastern Athabasca Basin in the northern part of the province.

The approval also comes with a licence which allows Denison to prepare the site and begin construction of a mine and mill.

B2Gold Shares Fall as Lower Gold Sales Weigh on Profit

B2Gold shares fell after the company reported lower fourth-quarter gold sales and foreign exchange pressures that weighed on profit.

Shares lost 4.6% to settle at C$7.00.

The miner said late Wednesday that quarterly gold sales came in lower than expected because of shipment timing, noting that about 20,500 troy ounces from its Fekola mine in Mali were shipped near year's end and recorded as sales only after the quarter closed.

The company logged a profit of 11 cents a share, missing consensus forecasts of 18 cents a share, while cash-flow per share also came in shy of expectations at 14 cents.

Aritzia Acquires Fred Segal Fashion Brand

Aritzia has acquired the Fred Segal fashion and lifestyle brand along with its flagship location in Los Angeles, giving the Canadian retailer a foothold in a prominent spot on the West Coast.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Acquisition of the 65-year-old fashion brand is part of Aritzia's strategy to expand its offerings across the U.S., the company said.

Aritzia, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, company operates around 130 stores across North America, with a little more than half in Canada, while most of its revenue is generated in the U.S.

Cenovus Profit Jumps on Higher Production

Cenovus Energy posted higher profit in the fourth quarter, thanks to greater oil output from its operations.

The Canadian integrated oil and natural gas company posted higher net income of C$934 million, or C$0.50 a share, up from C$146 million, or C$0.07 a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.

According to FactSet, analysts were expecting C$0.40 a share.

Cash from operations were also higher, reaching C$2.41 billion, up from C$2.03 billion, while adjusted funds flow rose to C$2.67 billion from C$1.6 billion.

MDA Space Broadens Defense Footprint With New 49North Subsidiary

MDA Space has launched a new subsidiary focused on defense-oriented command-and-control systems and mission-critical capabilities, expanding beyond space into broader national-security domains.

MDA, the Canadian space technology and robotics company, has created 49North which aims to deliver secure, multi-domain command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, also known as C4ISR, as well as technologies essential to defense missions for Canada's national military priorities outside the space domain.

The move comes after Ottawa announced its C$6.6 billion Defense Industrial Strategy which plans to rebuild the country's defense-industrial base by steering more procurement, investment and research toward domestic firms.

MTY Food's Profit, Revenue Rise, but U.S., International Sales Remain Soft

MTY Food Group reported higher fourth-quarter profit and revenue, but weaker sales across its U.S. and international restaurant networks weighed on underlying performance.

For the three months ended Nov. 30, the Canadian restaurant franchiser posted net income of C$32.1 million, or C$1.40 a share, compared with a loss of C$55.3 million, or C$2.34 a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.

The year-over-year improvement is mainly due to lower impairment losses, it said.

According to FactSet, analysts were expecting a profit of C$0.86 a share.

Revenue rose to C$305.4 million from C$284.5 million, topping analyst forecasts calling for a decline to C$282.2 million.

Financial-Intelligence Agency Directed to Shift Resources to Combat Extortion

Canada has directed the country's financial-intelligence agency to immediately shift resources toward working with law-enforcement authorities and banks to disrupt extortion.

Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the agency, known as the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, must take a leading role in disrupting the illicit financing that fuels extortion, which involves obtaining property through coercion and is often associated with fraud.

The most recent criminal-justice data, from Statistics Canada, indicate the police-reported rate of extortion was over four times higher than it was a decade ago. Regional politicians in suburban Toronto and suburban Vancouver have called on Ottawa to redouble efforts against extortion.

TALKING POINT

OceanaGold Leveraging Gold Price to Explore, Lift Returns

By Robb M. Stewart

OceanaGold plans to leverage the jump in the price of gold to ramp up exploration for the precious metal and boost shareholder returns this year.

The Canadian mining company rode the surge in gold to record earnings and cash flows in 2025. Now, ahead of the addition of a U.S. listing set for early April, OceanaGold is tripling its dividend and doubling the scope of its share buyback program.

Chief Executive Gerard Bond said in an interview that thanks to no debt on OceanaGold's balance sheet, no financing royalties and no forward hedging contracts, most of the rise in the gold price in 2025 has gone to the bottom line.

"We made a bucket load of cash and that's because we got all the settings right in our business," Bond said. "We have been working for many years to have the right portfolio of assets, run them the right way...so it was really pleasing to see all that come together and catch the wave of this strong gold price."

That achievement, he added, reflected an average gold price for the company in 2025 of roughly $3,500 a troy ounce. That is up almost $1,000 on the year before, but well below the about $5,000 an ounce gold has been trading at of late.

With what Bond describes as a bullet-proof balance sheet, rising cash on hand and expectations for increased production this year, OceanaGold can invest in exploration, he said.

Spending on exploration is set to double from last year's $40.3 million.

Much of that will be poured into New Zealand and the company's Waihi mine on the country's North Island as part of a broader investment in the operation that will include plant improvements and power upgrades. OceanaGold in December secured the permits needed to develop its Waihi North project, including approval to double the allowable drill rigs to six.

OceanaGold also aims to spend about $12 million this year exploring around the Macreas mine on New Zealand's South Island, a sixfold rise from last year and the most in the mine's 35-year history, Bond said. And some $10 million will be spent on searching at the Haile mine in South Carolina, the miner's largest-producing asset, he said. A technical report on Haile is set to be released at the end of March as part of efforts to make the operation a consistent 200,000 ounce producer annually, which would rank it as one of the top 10 gold mines in North America, Bond said.

OceanaGold is targeting gold production this year of between 520,000 and 590,000 ounces. At the midpoint, that would mark an about 12% increase from 497,500 ounces in 2025, when output edged up 1.8%. The growth is expected to be driven by a 35% increase at Haile, after an investment last year in open-pit waste stripping to give access to high-grade ore in 2026.

The CEO said OceanaGold has the go-ahead to join the New York Stock Exchange on April 7, tapping what he said is heightened interest among investors for both physical gold and the shares of miners of the metal.

With the company's financial results, it said its board approved a rise in the quarterly dividend to 9 cents a share. Directors also gave the go-ahead to lift the share buyback program in 2026 to $350 million, after a $175 million program was completed last year at an average price of C$24.54 a share, less than half the C$52.34 they were changing hands at on Thursday.

OceanaGold recorded a jump in its fourth-quarter net profit to $327.7 million from $102 million a year earlier, on the back of a 53% increase in revenue to $652.4 million.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at [robb.stewart@wsj.com]

Expected Major Events for Friday

00:30/JPN: Feb Japan Flash Manufacturing PMI

01:00/JPN: Jan Steel Imports & Exports Statistics

05:00/JPN: Jan Convenience Store Sales

05:00/JPN: Jan Steel Production

07:00/GER: Jan PPI

07:00/UK: Jan Retail sales

07:00/UK: Jan Public sector finances

07:45/FRA: 4Q New home sales

08:15/FRA: Feb France Flash PMI

08:30/GER: Feb Germany Flash PMI

09:30/UK: Feb Flash UK PMI

11:00/UK: Jan Aluminium Production report

13:30/US: 4Q Advance estimate GDP

13:30/US: Dec Personal Income and Outlays

13:30/CAN: Jan Industrial product and raw materials price indexes

13:30/CAN: Dec Retail trade

14:45/US: Feb US Flash Manufacturing PMI

14:45/US: Feb US Flash Services PMI

15:00/US: Dec New Residential Sales

15:00/US: 4Q Advance Quarterly Services

15:00/US: Feb University of Michigan Survey of Consumers - final

All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.

Expected Earnings for Friday

Abundia Global Impact Group Inc $(AGIG)$ is expected to report for 4Q.

AdvanSix Inc $(ASIX)$ is expected to report $-0.16 for 4Q.

Array Digital Infrastructure Inc $(AD)$ is expected to report $0.25 for 4Q.

Arrive AI Inc (ARAI) is expected to report for 4Q.

Atlantic International Corp $(ATLN)$ is expected to report for 4Q.

Balchem Corp $(BCPC)$ is expected to report $1.18 for 4Q.

Barnwell Industries Inc (BRN) is expected to report for 1Q.

Blaize Holdings Inc $(BZAI)$ is expected to report for 4Q.

DNOW Inc $(DNOW)$ is expected to report $0.15 for 4Q.

Hudbay Minerals Inc (HBM,HBM.T) is expected to report $0.38 for 4Q.

Jefferson Capital Inc (JCAP) is expected to report for 4Q.

Lamar Advertising Co - Class A $(LAMR)$ is expected to report $1.58 for 4Q.

Lifecore Biomedical Inc (LFCR) is expected to report $0.16 for 2Q.

MCAN Mortgage Corp (MAMTF,MKP.T) is expected to report for 4Q.

National Healthcare Corp (NHC) is expected to report for 4Q.

Oil States International Inc (OIS) is expected to report $0.11 for 4Q.

Onex Corp (Canada) (ONEX.T) is expected to report for 4Q.

PPL Corp $(PPL)$ is expected to report $0.41 for 4Q.

Secure Waste Infrastructure Corp (SES.T) is expected to report for 4Q.

Telephone & Data Systems Inc (TDS,TDSS) is expected to report $0.08 for 4Q.

Western Union Co $(WU)$ is expected to report $0.39 for 4Q.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 19, 2026 16:29 ET (21:29 GMT)

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