Finance Evening | October 2, 2026 — Nvidia Tops $5.7 Trillion Market Cap; Stellantis Idles Windsor Plant for Three Weeks

📊 Today's North American Markets

🇺🇸 US Stocks

Nvidia's Intraday Market Cap Tops $5.7 Trillion as Stock Hits Record High

Source: Yahoo Finance

Nvidia shares hit a new all-time intraday high on Friday, eclipsing their previous record of $235.54 a share. The stock reached $237.55 in early trading after opening at $236.05, and the company's intraday market capitalization touched $5.7 trillion.

The rally rides on continued global spending on AI infrastructure. Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPUs) along with the networking and other systems built around them, and is widely seen as the poster child for the AI hardware race. In its August second-quarter report, the company posted revenue of $96.2 billion and gave third-quarter guidance above expectations, projecting sales of between $105.8 billion and $110.1 billion.

The report noted that the AI trade has swung up and down repeatedly since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022, with investors regularly asking whether the market is in a bubble. Nvidia also faces questions about so-called "circular investing" — it invests in its own customers, who then buy more of its chips — and growing competition, as AMD rolls out a rival rack-scale system and customers such as Amazon and Google increasingly offer their own custom chips.

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Nike Falls as Another Bleak Quarter Sets Off Fresh Warning Signs

Source: Yahoo Finance

Sportswear giant Nike disappointed investors once again on earnings day. Shares fell as much as 6% in early trading on Friday, extending a slide that has left the stock down 76% over the past five years alone.

Nike's quarter and earnings call were littered with red flags: Nike Brand sales fell 4%, online sales dropped 13%, Converse sales slid 28%, China sales fell 26%, and inventory was down only 3%. The company signalled another major round of layoffs and said it expects sales to fall by a high single-digit percentage in fiscal 2027. Earnings guidance also came in well below consensus, at $1.15 to $1.35 a share versus estimates of $1.66.

CEO Elliott Hill acknowledged on the call that "there's a lack of energy in the lifestyle space right now, which is impacting traffic," adding that while the consumer is cautious, "as the leader in the industry, it's on us to bring more creativity to sportswear." Wall Street was divided: Stifel recommended challenger brands instead, Jefferies said the turnaround is progressing, and Guggenheim cut its price target to $50 from $60 while keeping a Buy rating.

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Tesla Deliveries Dip in Q3 as Cybertruck Sales Go Into Free Fall

Source: Ars Technica

Tesla delivered fewer vehicles than a year earlier in the third quarter. The company sold 486,532 electric vehicles in Q3 2026, a 2.1% decrease from the 497,099 it sold in Q3 2025. Even so, the figure beat analysts' expectations of 456,600 — which would have meant a steeper 8% decline — and Tesla shares rose in early trading on Friday.

On the production side, Tesla built 464,391 vehicles, up 3.7% year over year. Of those, 457,387 were Model 3 and Model Y, a 4.9% increase. The remaining 7,004 were other models — mostly Cybertrucks, plus some Semis and Cybercabs, since the Model S and Model X are now retired — and that category fell 39.8% year over year. The sales mix split sharply: 478,237 Model 3 and Model Y were sold, down 0.6%, while other models plunged 48% to just 8,295 units.

Tesla's energy storage business fared much better, deploying 13.7 GWh of storage products in the quarter, a 9.6% year-over-year increase. The company will report its Q3 financial results on October 21.

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🌎 Canada / North America Economy

Tariffs and Weak Demand to Idle Stellantis' Windsor Plant for Three Weeks

Source: CBC

Automaker Stellantis says tariffs and North American consumer demand are driving weeks-long layoffs at its plant in Windsor, Ontario. In a statement Friday, Stellantis Canada said it will idle the plant for three weeks starting later this month. More than 6,400 employees at the facility were already laid off for the past two weeks and are set to return to work Monday.

"Stellantis continues to evaluate and adjust its manufacturing operations in response to evolving market conditions, including consumer demand and the impact of tariffs," a spokesperson said. "Consistent with those efforts, the Windsor Assembly Plant will be down the weeks of Oct. 19 and 26 as well as Nov. 2." The plant builds the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and the Dodge Charger muscle car.

The fresh downtime comes amid deep uncertainty for Windsor workers. Stellantis and the Unifor union are at a standstill in contract talks, largely over the future of the company's assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, which the company wants to sell, citing "market and trade conditions" — a plan Unifor has called "indefensible." Their collective agreement expired on Sept. 20. James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, posted the layoff news on Facebook: "That's more downtime in our system, something we didn't want to hear."

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Toronto's TSX Climbs Nearly 348 Points, Snapping a Week of Losses

Source: BNN Bloomberg

Canada's main stock index rose on Friday, breaking a string of negative moves this week. The S&P/TSX composite index gained 347.89 points to close at 35,502.65.

"If you look at what happened over the past week, for Canadian investors, the week was really about the tension between a still-resilient economy and a tougher interest rate backdrop," said Anish Chopra, managing director with Portfolio Management Corp. Despite Friday's rebound, he said the bigger story this week was that higher global yields weighed on Canadian equities, with financials and rate-sensitive sectors under particular pressure.

On the data front, Statistics Canada said Tuesday that real gross domestic product was essentially unchanged in July, as strength in construction and utilities was offset by declines elsewhere. On trade, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Thursday that outstanding issues with Canada are "quite difficult to resolve," and Washington escalated the trade war again this week by imposing import bans on several Canadian goods, including most alcohol, dairy byproducts and motorcycles. Prime Minister Mark Carney also announced Thursday that the Pacific Link pipeline is the first project designated in the national interest under the Building Canada Act. Statistics Canada will release its September jobs report next Friday.

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Poll: 19 Months Into the Trade War, the 'Buy Canadian' Mood Endures

Source: Global News

Nineteen months after U.S. President Donald Trump launched his trade war against Canada, Canadians are just as keen to avoid American products and buy Canadian, new polling shows. A report from Abacus Data released Thursday said the share of Canadians who intend to avoid American products is "unchanged."

Trump first announced tariffs against Canada in February 2025. At the time, Abacus found 78% of respondents said they would boycott American products; nineteen months later, the figure is virtually unchanged at 77%. Many have put those intentions into action: in February 2025, just over half (53%) said they had bought more Canadian goods, a figure that now stands at 61%.

The biggest swing came on travel, with Canadians who said they would not make any U.S. travel plans rising from 32% in February 2025 to 52% in 2026. Smaller behaviour changes are also growing: avoiding American gas stations (33% to 39%), avoiding U.S. retailers such as Walmart (20% to 26%), reducing purchases on Amazon (21% to 26%) and cancelling American streaming services (14% to 20%). Challenges remain, though — 61% of Canadians say buying Canadian-made goods would cost more money, up from 60% in February 2025.

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🏦 Macro & Central Banks

U.S. September Payrolls Rise Just 29,000 as Unemployment Hits 4.2%

Source: CNBC

U.S. hiring unexpectedly weakened in September. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by just 29,000 for the month, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected an increase of 84,000 and a steady jobless rate. The August jobs count was revised lower to a gain of 133,000.

Treasury yields initially fell on the report but moved back into positive territory over the session. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose almost 5 basis points to 5.281%, after reaching its highest level since 2002 earlier this week. The 30-year yield added 2 basis points at 5.629%, and the 2-year yield, the most sensitive to Fed moves, rose 5 basis points to 4.839%.

"I think that's the right move because I don't think this report necessarily changes the story for the Fed," said Timothy Chubb, chief investment officer at Girard Advisory Services. "I still think the trajectory from here is higher for longer." Traders now see a 77% chance the Federal Reserve will hold rates steady in October, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, though they still see a high likelihood of a hike in December. Lindsay Rosner of Goldman Sachs Asset Management said the soft print "argues against the idea that the labor market is retightening," adding that "one follow-up hike in December remains our base case."

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Bank of Canada's Rogers Says the Policy Rate Is Too Blunt to Fix Housing Affordability

Source: The Hub

Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers said in a speech in Victoria, B.C., on Thursday that the central bank's policy rate is too blunt an instrument to fix housing affordability, even as the bank holds its benchmark at 2.25% and weighs when hikes might resume. Economists say a soft economy weighed down by trade uncertainty and slowing immigration will cap any tightening at about half a percentage point.

Rogers noted that residential investment made up 4.3% of Canada's GDP in 2000 while business investment in machinery, equipment and innovation was 8.3% — a relationship that has since reversed. She described a bind for policymakers: as rent or mortgage payments absorb more household income, families have less to spend elsewhere, dragging on growth, while falling prices would ease buyers' burden but erode household wealth, dampen spending and slow both sales and new construction. "This is the heart of the housing affordability dilemma and why it's so hard to fix," Rogers said. "Housing and housing prices have become about far more than just the cost of shelter. They are now deeply intertwined with household wealth, the stability of our financial system and the strength of our economy."

Capital Economics expects only modest tightening: a sluggish economy held back by trade friction and slower population growth will keep inflation in check, it argues, forecasting two quarter-point increases starting next year that would leave the policy rate at 2.75%. Markets are betting on far more — roughly 1.25 percentage points of increases by the end of 2027. The report also noted that household debt stands at 103% of GDP, the highest in the G7, with 3.1 million mortgages set to renew by the end of 2027.

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🛢️ Commodities & FX

G7 Agrees to Release Up to 100 Million Barrels of Diesel and Crude

Source: NBC News

Group of Seven member countries agreed Friday to release tens of millions of barrels of diesel fuel and crude oil, the latest move by the world's industrial economies to cap soaring fuel prices. After a G7 videoconference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President Donald Trump said, "Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil." "The process will begin immediately," Trump posted on Truth Social.

Gas prices have soared since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and diesel in particular saw a renewed surge this summer after the Russia-Ukraine war escalated in July. Since late February, the average price of U.S. diesel has jumped 70% to $6.37 per gallon. The G7 said the release will be as much as 100 million barrels over four months, noting there would be a "substantial diesel release within the first 20 days." Leaders also said they would coordinate refinery maintenance schedules "to prevent simultaneous capacity shutdowns and temporarily increase utilization rates where feasible."

Oil analyst Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said the release could help smooth over recent supply disruptions: "A release of 100 million barrels of diesel fuel over four months would essentially replace Russian exports which have been banned as Ukrainian drone strikes have severely reduced Russian refining capacity." At the pump, he said, "a release of this magnitude could temporarily reduce diesel prices by 25 cents per gallon but does little to increase refinery capacity to produce more." In March, members of the International Energy Agency approved a release of 400 million barrels of crude oil. As of Friday, Brent crude ended effectively flat at $102.25 a barrel and remains up more than 60% since the start of the year.

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💰 Personal Finance & Consumer

Treasury and IRS Move to Close an ETF Strategy the Wealthy Use to Defer Capital Gains

Source: CNBC

One of the selling points of ETFs is that they can be highly tax-efficient, but wealthy investors may have to rethink certain tax-deferral strategies after recent communications from the IRS and U.S. Treasury. At issue are certain uses of Section 351 exchanges, in which wealthy individuals, through an intermediary, create new ETFs with a basket of highly appreciated stocks in order to defer capital gains taxes.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an X post this week that the guidance "makes clear Treasury is serious about cracking down on transactions designed to dodge taxes or exploit our federal tax code." Of a companion IRS revenue ruling on Section 351 ETF conversions designed to avoid tax, he added, "Our message on these conversions is clear: they don't work under existing law." The combined effort covers practices tax authorities find troubling, including when an ETF is "merely a conduit" for transferring securities in an attempt to avoid taxes.

Section 351 generally lets investors transfer property to a corporation in exchange for its stock without recognizing a capital gain, under certain conditions — for example, no single asset can exceed 25% of the portfolio's value, and the top five holdings cannot exceed 50%. A Bloomberg analysis last July found that $22 billion in ETFs had been created for this purpose, deferring as much as $6.5 billion in capital gains, with the activity accelerating significantly since 2024. It can cost $200,000 to $300,000 to create an ETF, and some firms suggest investors should have at least $25 million of appreciated stocks; John Pantekidis of TwinFocus sets the bar higher, saying it doesn't make sense for anyone with less than $100 million of stocks.

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