HEADLINES

Bank of Canada Gov. Macklem Warns of Excess Imbalances Amid Shifting Financial System

Excess global imbalances are widening again, with risks of an economic disruption heightened by an increasing share of financial activity being conducted outside of the regulated banking sector, says Canada's top central banker.

Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem said it's up to global officials to adjust their policies to encourage increased savings in the U.S., more consumption in China and a pickup in investment in Europe. Complicating these efforts, Macklem said, is the growing influence of nonbank lenders such as hedge and pension funds, private-finance companies and other asset managers in global financial activity. This has created a financial system that's faster but also more opaque, he said.

"That leaves us with two clear risks. First, large capital inflows into the U.S. could once again be misallocated--stretching valuations in equities and credit and setting the stage for a painful correction," Macklem said in Paris at an event hosted by the France-Canada chamber of commerce.

U.S.-Iran Deal Removes Some Inflation Risk, Macklem Says

Couche-Tard Shares Surge on Fuel Margins, Profit Amid Oil-Market Turbulence

Alimentation Couche-Tard shares jumped as the convenience-store operator rode a wave of war-driven oil volatility to one of its strongest fuel-margin performances in years.

Shares rose 11.7% to C$91.87.

"When volatility exists, we are well positioned to capture the advantages there and margin that becomes available without volatility," Chief Executive Alex Miller said in a call to investors.

The war in Iran, which began on Feb. 28, sent crude prices sharply higher and kept them volatile throughout the fighting and subsequent peace talks between the U.S., Israel and Iran. That kind of whipsaw trading often widens fuel margins for retailers, and companies such as Couche-Tard benefited from the turbulence, reporting unusually strong U.S. gasoline margins during the quarter.

Ballard to Buy U.K. Hydrogen Power Company GeoPura For as Much as $401 Million

Ballard Power Systems is buying U.K. hydrogen-power company GeoPura for up to 302.5 million pounds ($401 million) as it looks to expand its current fuel cell business and pushes toward profitability by 2028.

The Canadian company said it entered a definitive agreement to acquire GeoPura.

An initial 275 million pounds will be funded with 82.5 million pounds of cash on hand plus the issuance of 50.8 million Ballard shares. Ballard will pay a further 27.5 million pounds if GeoPura hits certain financial milestone after the deal closes.

The combination of the companies builds on an existing partnership that has seen Ballard supply the U.K. company with fuel-cell engines for hydrogen power units.

Imperial Oil Renews Share Buyback Program

Imperial Oil renewed a one-year buyback program for up to 5% of its outstanding shares.

The Exxon Mobil-controlled Canadian energy company said it received final acceptance from the Toronto Stock Exchange for a normal course issuer bid for a maximum 24.2 million of its shares.

The total will be reduced by the number of shares bought from Exxon Mobil, which will be allowed to sell in order to maintain its stake in Imperial at about 69.6%, the Calgary, Alberta company said.

The new buyback program will begin on June 29.

Canadian Solar Wins Battery Storage Contract in Southern Italy

Canadian Solar's energy-storage arm has signed a deal with Swiss energy company Axpo to build a battery storage system in southern Italy to help ease strain on one of the country's most congested power networks.

The Kitchener, Ontario-based, Nasdaq-listed company said that e-Storage will provide an Axpo subsidiary with 8 megawatt, 40 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system in the country's southern region of Calabria.

The contract marks the company's first project in the country and a further step in its expansion across Europe, Canadian Solar said Tuesday.

Construction at Axpo's Rizziconi combined-cycle gas power plant is expected to begin at the end of the year, while connection to the broader grid and commercialization is expected in early 2028.

HLS Therapeutics Gets TSX Green Light to Buy Back up to 8% of Public Float

HLS Therapeutics intends to buy back up to 8% of its issued and outstanding shares over the course of a one-year period.

The Toronto-based pharmaceutical company said the Toronto Stock Exchange accepted its plans to launch a normal course issuer bid to repurchase 1.5 million shares for cancellation.

Shares fell 1.1% to C$4.42.

At Monday's closing price, the value of the shares would be worth about C$6.7 million. HLS can begin buying back shares starting June 25.

TALKING POINT

Xanadu Quantum Bets on Photons to Power Computing Revolution

By Adriano Marchese

Christian Weedbrook spent nearly a decade betting that light, not silicon, would power the next revolution in computing.

The wager paid off handsomely in recent weeks.

Xanadu Quantum Technologies, the Toronto-based company he founded in 2016, went public in March through a merger with a blank-check company. The deal raised a little more than $300 million to help fund plans to develop a $1 billion data center powered by quantum computing.

The stock's turbulent performance also made Australian-born physicist a billionaire on paper, at least for a time, when its valuation touched a high of $10.78 billion in May. Today, his 15% stake in Xanadu, currently sporting a market capitalization of $3.74 billion, is worth around $561 million.

Weedbrook recalled recently that he launched the company at a time when he said the concept of using photonic quantum computing at a commercial level was unproven. "No one was really doing this at the time when I started Xanadu," he said in an interview.

Now, he sees a clearer path toward developing a commercially viable business using the technology by 2030.

Xanadu is up against some technology heavyweights in the quantum computing race. Companies such as IBM and Google build quantum computers using superconducting electronic circuits. Xanadu, meanwhile, has developed machines that run on photonics, or particles of light, to perform its operations rather than electrical signals.

Weedbrook said his confidence in the technology rests on a breakthrough Xanadu published last year, showing it could link smaller quantum machines together into a larger system. "The end goal is not to have a single quantum computer, but to have tens or hundreds of smaller ones that are networked together," Weedbrook said.

Since then, the company has reported progress in key challenging areas for photonic quantum computing, such as reducing the amount of light lost as photons move through its chips.

Xanadu expects its quantum data center will help tackle broader commercial problems in drug discovery, battery design and materials science, areas that are beyond the reach of today's conventional computers.

To fill the fundraising gap, Xanadu is pursuing government support in Canada and the U.S. and has secured access to additional capital through a $300 million equity facility.

In the meantime, the company is trying to get a handle on photon loss, the tendency for light particles to scatter before completing their path through a circuit and a key hurdle to scaling the technology. Xanadu has been forming partnerships with suppliers such as materials-science company Corning and Japanese semiconductor equipment maker DISCO, which have helped the company reduce the optical losses that still limit size and reliability of photonic quantum systems.

For now, Weedbrook said Xanadu has enough cash to operate for three to four more years regardless of how the remaining funding negotiations play out. The company also has paying partners following its progress. German carmaker Volkswagen is working with Xanadu on technological approaches to longer-lasting batteries, while Lockheed Martin and AMD have also signed on. He describes their relationships as customers along the journey to be among the first users of the tech once it becomes commercially viable.

At the same time, he expects the quantum computing race to produce multiple winners with different architectures rising to the top, including ones built by rivals. For now, Weedbrooks' fortune remains tied to a technology that has promised to change computing for decades.

"It's just a question of timelines now," Weedbrook said.

Write to Adriano Marchese at [adriano.marchese@wsj.com]

Expected Major Events for Wednesday

08:00/GER: Jun ifo Business Climate Index

11:00/US: 06/19 MBA Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey

12:30/US: 1Q International Transactions

12:30/US: Annual U.S. International Investment Position

14:00/US: May New Residential Sales

14:30/US: 06/19 EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report

23:01/UK: BRC Consumer Sentiment Monitor

23:01/UK: May UK monthly automotive manufacturing figures

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

Expected Earnings for Wednesday

AGF Management Ltd - Class B (AGF.B.T) is expected to report $0.54 for 2Q.

Burcon NutraScience Corp (BU.T) is expected to report for 4Q.

Crown Crafts Inc $(CRWS)$ is expected to report for 4Q.

Culp Inc $(CULP)$ is expected to report $0.23 for 4Q.

Daktronics Inc (DAKT) is expected to report $0.20 for 4Q.

Evertz Technologies (ET.T,EVTZF) is expected to report $0.18 for 4Q.

HB Fuller Co $(FUL)$ is expected to report $1.14 for 2Q.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc $(JEF)$ is expected to report $1.16 for 2Q.

LiveOne Inc (LVO) is expected to report for 4Q.

Methode Electronics Inc (MEI) is expected to report $-0.20 for 4Q.

Micron Technology Inc $(MU)$ is expected to report $20.24 for 3Q.

MillerKnoll Inc (MLKN) is expected to report $0.45 for 4Q.

NovaGold Resources Inc (NG,NG.T) is expected to report $-0.02 for 2Q.

Paychex Inc $(PAYX)$ is expected to report $1.22 for 4Q.

Raymond James Financial Inc $(RJF)$ is expected to report.

Richtech Robotics Inc (RR) is expected to report $-0.06 for 2Q.

Roadzen Inc $(RDZN)$ is expected to report for 4Q.

Strata Skin Sciences Inc (SSKN) is expected to report for 1Q.

VivoSim Labs Inc $(VIVS)$ is expected to report for 4Q.

Worthington Steel Inc (WS) is expected to report for 4Q.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 23, 2026 16:32 ET (20:32 GMT)

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