Market movers: Stocks that saw action on Tuesday – and why

A survey of North American equities heading in both directions
Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD-T) closed 1.6 per cent higher after saying it’s pushing on with its effort to take over Japanese rival Seven & i Holdings Co., seemingly undeterred by a competing offer from a member of Seven’s founding Ito family.
“We will be persistent and continue our friendly approach to creating what we see as the most compelling outcome for all shareholders, employees and key constituencies of both companies,” Couche-Tard chief executive Alex Miller told analysts Tuesday on a call to discuss the company’s second quarter results.
“We continue to see a strong opportunity to grow together,” Mr. Miller said. “We also remain confident in our ability to finance and complete this combination.”
Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle K chain, is now offering about US$47-billion to acquire Seven & i and its global network of 7-Eleven stores. It sees a merger as a way to improve its fresh food offering and become a stronger retailer in what remains a fragmented industry, particularly in the United States.
Seven’s founding Ito family, which holds a roughly 8-per-cent stake in the Japanese retailer, appears unwilling to sell, however. It is now seeking to counter Couche-Tard’s approach with a management buyout proposal that Bloomberg reports is worth around 9-trillion yen (US$58.6-billion at current exchange rates).
A special committee of Seven & i directors is reviewing the options, including Couche-Tard’s offer as well as a non-binding and confidential proposal received from Junro Ito, a Seven & i vice-president and director. Mr. Ito’s father, the late Masatoshi Ito, built the retail empire that owns 7-Eleven.
On Monday, the company reported its earnings attributable to shareholders was US$708.8-million in its second quarter, down 13.5 per cent from US$819.2-million a year earlier. Total revenues were US$17.4-billion, up six per cent from US$16.4-billion.
Earnings per diluted share were 75 US cents, down from 85 US cents during the same quarter last year.
The company says its adjusted net earnings were reduced primarily due to a lower road transportation fuel gross margin in the U.S. as well as softer consumer traffic and demand and other factors.
In a research note, Stifel analyst Martin Landry said: “Couche-Tard reported slightly lower than expected Q2FY25 with adjusted EPS of $0.74, down 10 per cent year-over-year, and slightly lower than our expectation of $0.77 and consensus of $0.76. Merchandise same-store-sales growth continues to be under pressure globally with declines in all three regions, impacted by a soft consumer spending environment. Notwithstanding this decline, ATD appears to be gaining share, especially against 7- Eleven. Merchandise gross margin in the U.S. remained depressed, down 100 basis points year-over-year, and lower than our expectations on elevated promotional activity. Gasoline margins came-in at $0.46/gal, in-line with our expectations of $0.47/gal. While Q2FY25 results don’t look inspiring, we expect the company to return to earnings growth next quarter and sustainably for the next six quarters. Questions remain on the health of consumer spending, but we are starting to cycle weak periods which could lead to positive trends. We expect investors to react negatively to these results [Tuesday].”
– Nicolas Van Praet
Shares of Dye & Durham Ltd. (DND-T) jumped over 11 per cent on news its chief executive officer Matt Proud, the driving force behind the company’s rapid acquisition-fueled growth – and lightning rod for discontented investors who have mounted a series of governance challenges in the past year – is stepping down.
The Toronto-based legal software company said it would begin a CEO succession process that would see Mr. Proud stay on for another three months as it begins a search for his replacement.
Whether he stays on that long is in question, as the company heads to a contested annual meeting on Dec. 17 at which activist investor Engine Capital LP has proposed a six-person slate to run against the company’s nominees for seven positions.
If Engine prevails, the new board is expected to bring in sweeping changes to senior management.
– Sean Silcoff
Wells Fargo (WFC-N) was up 0.6 per cent on news it is in the last stages of a process to pass regulatory tests to lift a US$1.95-trillion asset cap next year after fixing problems from its fake accounts scandal.
The punishment could be removed as early as the first half of 2025, a source told Reuters.
The Federal Reserve imposed the asset cap in 2018 and ordered Wells Fargo to fix failings in its governance and risk management after years of consumer abuses.
The asset cap is seen as one of the toughest punishments that U.S. regulators can put in place, and its removal requires a vote by the Fed’s board of governors.
While the sources said Wells Fargo had done all the work required to lift the cap, governors could still keep the punishment in place if they have concerns or are not fully satisfied with the fixes.
Lifting the restrictions would be a major step forward for the bank’s cleanup efforts. Since the scandal emerged in 2016, it has been fined billions of dollars and slapped with a raft of regulatory punishments, some of which are still in place.
As part of the compliance process, the bank sent a third-party review to the Fed to demonstrate it had overhauled its risk management and controls, Bloomberg News reported in September.
Shares of Eli Lilly (LLY-N) and Danish weight-loss drug maker Novo Nordisk (NVO-N) rose on Tuesday as U.S. President Joe Biden proposed expanding coverage of anti-obesity drugs for millions on Medicare and Medicaid.
“This is an important step forward for patients,” Novo Nordisk said in a statement commenting on the proposal, adding that the coverage could become effective in 2026.
Current rules for the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs cover the use of drugs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy for certain conditions like diabetes, but not for obesity as a condition on its own.
The White House said in a statement the proposal could lower out-of-pocket costs for weight-loss drugs by up to 95 per cent, expanding access to millions of Americans.
Separately, a would-be challenger in the fast-growing obesity therapy market, Amgen (AMGN-Q), said its experimental drug MariTide led to an average weight loss of up to 20 per cent in a mid-stage trial with overweight or obese participants.
Amgen’s shares were down, however, as the data fell short of investor expectations.
Canadian cannabis firm Canopy Growth (WEED-T) slipped 4.5 per cent on Tuesday after it named Luc Mongeau as its next chief executive officer, effective Jan. 6.
Mr. Mongeau will succeed David Klein who had announced his retirement in August.
Mr. Klein will continue in his role as CEO and a director on the board until Mr. Mongeau takes after and will then step down as a board member and shift to a special advisor role until Aug. 31.
Mr. Mongeau has been a member of Canopy’s board since February and played a key role in shaping strategy, the company said.
Canopy had raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern last year as it struggled to turn profitable. It later sold its sports nutrition products unit, Biosteel, after seeking bankruptcy protection for it
Groupe Dynamite Inc. (GRGD-T) was down 1.5 per cent after announcing it has closed its initial public offering.
The Montreal-based firm behind the Garage and Dynamite retailers says the offering wound up oversubscribed.
As part of the offering, shareholders controlled by CEO Andrew Lutfy sold more than 14.3 million subordinate voting shares for $21 each, giving them aggregate gross proceeds of about $300 million.
The company’s shares closed at $20.32 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday.
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A syndicate of underwriters led by Goldman Sachs Canada, BMO Nesbitt Burns, RBC Dominion Securities and TD Securities were granted an overallotment option allowing them to purchase another 2.1 million in shares.
If the option is exercised, it will result in another $45-million in gross proceeds.
The underwriters have 30 days to decide whether to make use of the option.
Groupe Dynamite says the IPO was the first in Quebec in nearly three years and the first Canada has seen in the last year.
Shares of Intel Corp. (INTC-Q) lost 3.3 per cent after the U.S. Commerce Department said it was finalizing a US$7.86-billion government subsidy, down from US$8.5-billion announced in March after the California-based chips maker won a separate $3 billion award from the Pentagon.
The award will support nearly US$90-billion in manufacturing projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon.
“That means American-designed chips being manufactured and packaged by American workers in the United States by an American company for the first time in a very long time,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.
Intel has already met some initial project milestones and will receive at least US$1-billion of the award before the end of December, a government official told reporters, adding that the grant reduction was not connected to Intel’s broader struggles this year.
Margins have narrowed and the chipmaker has laid off thousands of employees, after years of heavy spending at the once-dominant chipmaker by Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger.
The US$7.86-billion subsidy is the largest of any award under a 2022 law that seeks to boost domestic semiconductor output with US$52.7-billion in funding, including US$39-billion for semiconductor production and US$11-billion for research.
Intel in September won a US$3-billion contract with the Defense Department, after the initial US$8.5-billion in grants had been announced. Funding for the Pentagon contract ended up coming from the US$39-billion that U.S. lawmakers allocated for chip manufacturing subsidies rather than the Pentagon’s budget, which led to a reduction in Intel’s direct grant award, the company and the government official said.
Mr. Gelsinger said Tuesday “strong bipartisan support for restoring American technology and manufacturing leadership is driving historic investments that are critical to the country’s long-term economic growth and national security.”
Rivian (RIVN-Q) closed lower after it said it has received conditional approval for a loan of up to US$6.6-billion from the U.S. Department of Energy to build the electric vehicle maker’s production facility in Georgia.
The announcement comes ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to undo many of the Biden administration’s EV-friendly policies and incentives.
Operation of the Georgia plant, where Rivian plans to build future vehicles such as its smaller, less expensive R2 SUVs and R3 crossovers, will begin in 2028, the California-based startup said in a statement.
Rivian shares are down about 50 per cent this year as the young company has struggled to produce its roomy electric SUVs and pickup trucks while grappling with a part shortage, and has pushed to slash costs.
To conserve cash and hasten the production of R2 – seen critical to Rivian’s success amid a slowdown in EV growth – Rivian paused construction of the Georgia plant earlier this year.
It instead decided to start building R2 in 2026 at its Normal, Illinois plant where it makes its flagship R1S SUVs and R1T pickup trucks.
“This loan would enable Rivian to more aggressively scale our U.S. manufacturing footprint for our competitively priced R2 and R3 vehicles that emphasize both capability and affordability,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in the statement.
Rivian must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the energy department grants the loan, said the company.
As part of the conditions for the loan, Rivian will not actively oppose union organizing efforts at the Georgia plant, a source aware of the matter told Reuters, adding that the loan approval will not guarantee unionization at the facility.
Zoom Communications (ZM-Q) shares tumbled on Tuesday, as its forecast for low single-digit annual revenue growth disappointed investors after a recent rally.
Stiff competition from rival video conferencing services including Microsoft Teams has pressured Zoom, even as it expands its offerings with products such as phone systems and artificial intelligence assistants to boost demand.
Zoom, which rose to prominence during the pandemic, raised its expectations for fiscal year 2025 adjusted profit and revenue on Monday.
The midpoint of the San Jose, California-based company’s new annual revenue expectation of US$4.656-billion to US$4.661-billion was in line with analysts’ average estimate of US$4.66-billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The midpoint of its fourth-quarter revenue forecast was also just about US$1-million above estimates.
“Even at this beat-and-raise cadence, the accelerating growth is potentially peaked or nearing it,” Piper Sandler analysts said.
The company’s yearly revenue growth rate is expected to average at 3.1 per cent for fiscal year 2025, 2026 and 2027 according to data compiled by LSEG. Comparatively, Zoom recorded average annual growth of 21.6 per cent in the three fiscal years preceding 2025.
Zoom, shares of which have risen 19 per cent this month, was set to lose close to US$3-billion in market value if the premarket losses hold. Its market capitalization peaked in October 2020, crossing the US$100-billion mark, but has since slumped to about US$24.52-billion.
In a nod to its efforts to diversify its business away from its core video conferencing platform, the company changed its name from Zoom Video Communications to Zoom Communications.
“Ditching the ‘Video’ part of its name should help the market and prospective customers realize the business is not the same as the one which thrived during the pandemic,” said A.J. Bell analyst Dan Coatsworth.
Mr. Coatsworth also attributed the drop in Zoom’s shares to “profit taking after a very strong run ahead of the figures”.
Best Buy (BBY-N) trimmed its annual profit and sales forecasts on Tuesday, signaling a muted holiday shopping season amid sluggish demand for pricey electronics such as televisions and home theater systems.
Its shares were down as the company also reported a much bigger-than-expected drop in comparable sales in the third quarter.
“We expected lower demand between sales events, but the impact was steeper than expected,” CEO Corie Barry said on a post-earnings call, echoing Target executives’ comments that the response to promotions this year was stronger than earlier.
Third-quarter comparable sales in the U.S. declined 2.8 per cent, compared with analysts’ estimate of a 0.85-per-cent fall.
Despite easing inflationary pressures, customers have remained cautious about spending on big-ticket electronics, apparel, and home furnishings, and have preferred to wait instead for promotional events.
That countered the lift from upgrade of gadgets with generative artificial intelligence technology, such as Apple’s iPhone or Microsoft’s CoPilot+ powered laptops.
Best Buy’s annual outlook cut, just ahead of the Thanksgiving shopping event that encompasses Black Friday and Cyber Monday, adds to rising expectations of an uneven holiday season.
On the other hand, deep-pocketed retailers such as Amazon and Walmart have been more optimistic, with the latter lifting its annual targets and forecasting more demand from upper-income households.
Best Buy now expects annual comparable sales to decline between 2.5-3.5 per cent, compared with its earlier forecast of a decline between 1.5-3 per cent, while it also trimmed the upper end of its adjusted profit per share target.
Third-quarter profit per share of US$1.26 also missed expectations of US$1.29, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The results suggest that the quarter was more challenging than previously anticipated, Truist Securities analyst Scot Ciccarelli said, pointing to Best Buy’s history of driving better-than-guided margins.
Kohl’s (KSS-N) on Tuesday forecast a bigger drop in annual sales than previously expected, a sign the department-store chain is struggling to draw in shoppers as it navigates a CEO change ahead of a deal-heavy holiday shopping season.
Shares of the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based company fell as it also reported worse-than-expected third-quarter results.
The weak forecast underscores an uncertain holiday season for the retail sector, which could lean in favor of competitors such as Walmart and Amazon, as customers turn increasingly bargain-focused.
Kohl’s, whose stock has declined 36 per cent in value this year amid its turnaround efforts, announced the exit of CEO Tom Kingsbury a day earlier. He will be succeeded by Ashley Buchanan, retail veteran and Michaels Companies’ chief, in January.
The company now enters the critical and shorter holiday period, with retailers offering aggressive discounts to entice consumer spending early in the season.
“Our third-quarter results did not meet our expectations, as sales remained soft in our apparel and footwear businesses,” CEO Kingsbury said.
Kohl’s launched a three-day Black Friday early access event between Nov. 8 and 10 and is running Black Friday deals between Nov. 24 and Nov. 29.
Strong beauty sales from the company’s collaboration with beauty retailer Sephora are also starting to fade as Kohl’s finishes rolling out 140 Sephora small-shop openings this year.
“The revenues really struggled as they (the company) finished the (Sephora) rollout. Basically, the low-hanging fruit seems to be gone,” said M science analyst Matthew Jacob.
Kohl’s comparable sales dropped 9.3 per cent for the quarter ended Nov. 2, its eleventh consecutive quarter of decline. Analysts on average had expected a 5.1-per-cent fall, according to data compiled by LSEG.
It earned 20 US cents per share, missing an estimate of 28 US cents.
The company now expects full-year net sales in the range of a 7-per-cent to 8-per-cent decline, compared to its prior forecast of a drop between 4 per cent and 6 per cent.
U.S.-listed shares of Manchester United (MANU-N) declined after it reported a smaller adjusted net loss for the first quarter of 2025, helped by cost cuts and benefits from favourable exchange rates.
Adjusted net loss was 349,000 pounds (US$439,007.10) for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of 8.6 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue for the three months fell 9 per cent to 143.1 million pounds.
Cost and headcount reductions remain on track, the club said.
The club also said a task force created in March to explore options to revitalize the Old Trafford area in Greater Manchester was still continuing its work.
“Once it has delivered its recommendations, we will then take some time to digest them and evaluate all our options in the upcoming year,” CEO Omar Berrada said in a statement.
British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who bought a minority stake in United earlier this year, had committed 237 million pounds of his own money for improvement in infrastructure, though any project would cost considerably more and so the club will explore public-private partners.
The club have long been criticized for the declining state of their infrastructure and sub-par on-field performance under the ownership of the American Glazer family, which has left them struggling since their glory days under former manager Alex Ferguson.
United have made several changes in management and operations under the stewardship of Mr. Ratcliffe, as the new co-owners seek high level of success in return for their huge investment.
Earlier this month, United named Portuguese Ruben Amorim as head coach to replace Erik ten Hag. He is the sixth permanent manager since Mr. Ferguson retired in 2013. The 20-time English champions have failed to win the Premier League title since Mr. Ferguson’s retirement.
With files from staff and wires