Live news: Loblaw shares spike to all-time high twice in one week

financialpost.com:

Loblaw Cos. Ltd. set an all-time high for the second time this week as Canada’s biggest grocer rallied on a fourth-quarter earnings beat and expansion plans.

Shares ended the session up 3.5 per cent to close at $142.92 Thursday, the highest price for the stock since Loblaw began trading on the public markets in January 1983. The grocer earned an adjusted $2 per share in its fourth quarter, surpassing analyst estimates by 10 cents.

Earnings were bolstered by sales growth in pharmacy and health-care services as well as e-commerce. Loblaw topped its previous record set on Tuesday when the grocer announced it would be putting $2 billion toward adding 40 new stores to its network and renovating more than 700 others.

Loblaw will continue to outperform its peers like Empire Company Ltd. and Metro Inc. given its broader exposure to discount brands and pharmacy retail locations, according to Michael Van Aelst, an analyst at Toronto-Dominion Bank. Loblaw has a “superior 2024 earnings outlook” compared to Metro and Empire, he said.

Loblaw shares have advanced 11 per cent year-to-date, nearly doubling Metro’s growth of 6.3 per cent and Empire’s three per cent decline.

Markets took a breather on Friday as investors assessed the outlook for equities after benchmarks from the United States to Europe and Japan hit all-time highs in the wake of Nvidia Corp.’s blockbuster earnings.

U.S. futures were little changed after gains overnight pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, along with MSCI’s all-county index, to new records. Nvidia is on track to scale $2 trillion in market value for the first time ever after shares climbed as much as 2.7 per cent in premarket trading, adding to Thursday’s meteoric rise.

Nvidia’s US$277-billion one-day boost