Constellation Software, a Hidden Canadian AI Stock, and a Nuclear Energy Play
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What recent Canadian inflation data was discussed?
Investing is simple, but don't confuse that with thinking it's easy. A stock is not just a ticker. At the end of the day, you have to remember that it's a business.
Just my reminder to people who own cyclicals, don't be surprised when there's a cycle.
If there's uncertainty in the markets, there's going to be some great opportunities for investors.
This has to be one of the biggest quarters I've seen from this company in quite some time.
Welcome back to the Canadian Investor Podcast. I'm back with Dan Kent. Today on the podcast, we're going to cover a pretty wide mix of macro Canadian earnings and AI-related investment themes here. We'll start with the latest Canadian inflation print. Headline CPI came in at 2.8% year over year, which was surprisingly contained given that we're now past the carbon tax effects for energy. Energy and gasoline were still big drivers, but services, inflation and core measures continued to trend lower. We'll also touch on the move of higher in bond yields with the U.S. 10-year approaching 4.70% and the Canada 5-year around 3.35%. And that matters for inflation expectation, rate cut expectation, and especially Canadian mortgage renewals.
How are rising bond yields affecting the Canadian economy?
On the company side, we'll go through consolation software, strong quarter, record acquisition spending, and the ongoing question of whether AI is a real threat or just a market overhang for software. We'll also cover Canadian tires, slower growth, but potentially cheap setup. and Applied Materials as another AI picks and shovel company tied to semiconductor and AI spending. And if we have time, because we have a lot on the slate, we'll also touch on Atkins Realist and its nuclear opportunity, as well as Finning, which continues to benefit from mining, oil sands, and heavy equipment demand. So quite a bit on the slate today. Pretty fun mix of topics for this one.
Yeah, I think earnings season's slowing down for the most part. There's still quite a few notable Canadian names, but it should be good to talk about because they're kind of companies from pretty much every corner of the market, I guess you could say. Software, retail, construction, mining, I guess you could say with Finning, so Yeah, it should be a good one.
Yeah, exactly. So let's start with CPI here. So the headline number was definitely lower than I had expected, especially seeing the print that we saw in the US. So headline number was 2.8% year over year, and it was up 0.4% compared to 2020. March, I was definitely a bit surprised by the low headline numbers, even like I said in the introduction, considering that there are no longer carbon tax effects here.
What were the highlights of Constellation Software's latest earnings?
I really thought it would bring up the price because for context, like we had mentioned last month, the carbon tax or the consumer carbon tax was. Removed on April 1st, 2025. And April is the first month on a year-over-year basis where the prices weren't pushed higher because of the carbon tax. So last year prices would have been artificially higher for March because of the carbon tax. And that's no longer the case for April. Gasoline prices were up 28.6% year-over-year. And up 8.9% versus March. Probably not a surprise to anyone who has filled up their car. In the last little bit, I was driving today past the gas station. And it's approaching here in Ottawa close to $2 a litre.
Yeah, I think we were, well, I mean, we're up there as well. And we're typically like in Alberta and we're usually much cheaper, but I think just yesterday it was like a buck 85. Like it's, uh, it's wild. I mean, I'm lucky, very lucky to work from home. I don't really need to fill my tank more than like once a month, but for people driving to work every day, like that has to be a massive expense right now.
What opportunities does Atkins Réalis see in nuclear energy?
Hopefully a short term one.
Yeah, I mean, unless you have an EV and cheap electricity. So that is a saving grace over there. Energy as a whole was up 19.2% year over year. Food was up 3.5% year over year, but declined 0.1% versus March. I'm sure a lot of people will say, well, how did food decline over the month of March?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What recent Canadian inflation data was discussed?
0:01–1:21
2
How are rising bond yields affecting the Canadian economy?
1:21–2:52
3
What were the highlights of Constellation Software's latest earnings?
2:52–4:03
4
What opportunities does Atkins Réalis see in nuclear energy?
4:03–5:06
5
How is Canadian Tire performing in the current retail environment?
5:06–6:13
6
What insights were shared about Applied Materials and its role in AI?
6:13–7:45
7
What are the prospects for Finning International in the energy sector?
7:45–8:40
8
What closing thoughts did the hosts share about market trends?
8:40–42:36
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Canadian Investor
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