Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk.
The North American trade war is sharpening its edges. President Trump announced fresh tariffs on Canadian cheese and furniture, alongside outright bans on many Canadian alcohol imports taking effect September twenty-ninth. Canada had already hit back with retaliatory measures, and this latest escalation raises the stakes for cross-border supply chains and consumer prices on both sides.
Compounding the pressure on global markets, Brent crude is pushing toward one hundred dollars a barrel as tit-for-tat strikes between the United States and Iran rattle energy traders. Supply disruption fears out of the Middle East are driving the move, and with oil this close to that psychological threshold, the inflation implications for central banks are impossible to ignore.
Meanwhile in the AI power space, Constellation Energy's landmark deal with Meta to supply nuclear output from its Clinton plant comes with a notable catch — payments don't begin until June twenty twenty-seven. The twenty-year agreement covers over one thousand megawatts of clean energy, but the delayed start raises real questions about near-term revenue contribution and how investors should price that timeline.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
