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July 18, 2025

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Swedish defense group Saab reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings and raised its 2025 sales guidance, as rising global defense budgets continue to fuel demand for its combat systems and aircraft.

Shares rose over 12% after the company posted operating income of 1.98 billion Swedish kronor ($204 million), comfortably ahead of analyst expectations of 1.71 billion kronor.

Revenue for the quarter surged 30% year-on-year to 19.79 billion kronor, driven largely by its high-margin Dynamics business, which includes ground combat weapons and missile systems.

The unit delivered a 73% rise in sales and an operating margin of 20.9%. Net profit rose to 1.53 billion kronor, beating forecasts and up from 1 billion kronor a year earlier.

Saab now expects organic sales growth in 2025 to reach between 16% and 20%, up from its earlier forecast of 12% to 16%.

The company also reaffirmed expectations that operating income will grow faster than sales.

Russian invasion of Ukraine, middle east conflict drive industry boom

Saab’s upbeat outlook reflects a broader surge in global military spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

NATO allies have pledged to boost defense spending to 5% of GDP, while individual countries are restocking arsenals depleted by aid to Ukraine.

In Sweden, the government has committed to invest an additional 300 billion kronor in defense to meet NATO requirements.

CEO Micael Johansson noted that while demand is high, transitioning from planning to procurement takes time.

“We are continuing to invest in capacity increases and are proactively working in close cooperation with our suppliers to secure future deliveries,” he said.

Johansson also pointed to heightened conflict in the Middle East and Eastern Europe as further justification for long-term defense investments, emphasizing that unity and deterrence remain key goals for Europe.

AI and digital transformation central to future strategy

Saab is also expanding its investments in artificial intelligence and digital technologies.

It recently completed a test mission of its Gripen fighter jet with integrated AI and announced plans to deepen its participation in Sweden’s AI Factory consortium.

The project, involving firms such as AstraZeneca, Ericsson, and SEB, and using Nvidia technology, aims to build the infrastructure for advanced AI innovation in defense and other sectors.

The Gripen continues to attract interest globally, with Peru and the Philippines assessing the aircraft following sales to Thailand and Colombia.

Saab said demand remains strong across its portfolio, particularly for its surveillance systems and training and simulation solutions.

In the second quarter, new orders totaled 28.4 billion kronor, above analyst expectations and bringing the company’s total backlog to nearly 198 billion kronor, up from 183 billion a year earlier.

Analyst confidence rises after earnings beat

Analysts responded positively to the results.

SEB noted that adjusted EBIT came in 11% above expectations and estimated consensus earnings revisions of 2% to 4% for the full year.

Kepler Cheuvreux said Saab’s dynamics division was once again the standout performer and expects earnings adjustments in the low to mid-single digits.

Despite a year-on-year decline in order intake, the figure still landed 5% above analyst consensus.

Saab reaffirmed its forecast of positive operational cash flow for the year.

The company emphasized it would continue prioritizing R&D and digital transformation to sustain its competitive edge amid rapidly changing defense needs.

The post Saab shares climb over 12% as defense firm lifts 2025 sales forecast after strong Q2 appeared first on Invezz

The global transition to a green economy has been a boon for the cleantech market — it’s helping investment in renewable energy and clean technology continue to grow, allowing the sector to keep building momentum.

Though cleantech’s long-term outlook is stable, the industry is facing challenges in Western markets as US policy shifts have sparked climate finance concerns. With US leadership on climate finance appearing to recede, there’s an opportunity for the Canadian market to take a leading role.

As we enter the second half of 2025, here’s a look at the best-performing Canadian cleantech stocks on the TSX and TSXV year-to-date; CSE companies were considered, but none made the list at this time.

Data for this article was gathered on July 14, 2025, using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies with market capitalizations greater than C$50 million were considered.

1. Tantalus Systems (TSX:GRID)

Year-to-date gain: 76.32 percent
Market cap: C$179.48 million
Share price: C$3.35

Tantalus Systems provides technology that gives utilities greater control and insight into their electric grids.

This includes advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), load management systems and grid analytics, all of which contribute to a more efficient and reliable power grid.

One of its key products, TRUConnect AMI, provides real-time data on energy consumption and grid conditions. The TRUFlex Load+DER Management system helps manage energy demand and integrate distributed energy resources like solar power, while TRUGrid Automation optimizes grid operations and improves response to events like power failures.

On July 7, Tantalus announced that it was extending its partnership with EPB in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to deploy 20,000 TRUSense Ethernet Gateways over the next five years, integrating with EPB’s fiber network to enhance grid modernization and operational efficiency.

2. Anaergia (TSX:ANRG)

Year-to-date gain: 44.68 percent
Market cap: C$229.36 million
Share price: C$1.36

Anaergia is a global company that specializes in converting waste, including wastewater and agricultural and municipal solid waste, into renewable energy, clean water and organic fertilizer.

In July 2024, Anaeriga announced the completion of a strategic investment, saying it had closed the third tranche of a C$40.8 million investment deal with Marny Investissement that gave Marny a controlling interest of about 60 percent in Anaergia. The investment supported Anaergia’s strategic pivot to prioritizing capital-efficient growth and streamlined operations, with a greater focus on technology sales and operation and maintenance contracts.

The company has operations in 17 countries spanning North America, Africa, Asia and Europe. So far in 2025, Anaergia has expanded its global reach through partnerships with companies in Italy and Spain, as well as through a partnership agreement to build a biogas facility in South Korea.

3. CVW CleanTech (TSXV:CVW)

Year-to-date gain: 18.82 percent
Market cap: C$148.28 million
Share price: C$1.01

CVW CleanTech is focused on making the Canadian oil sands industry more sustainable.

The company’s Creating Value from Waste (CVW) technology recovers bitumen and valuable minerals like titanium and zircon from oil sands tailings ponds, reducing the environmental impact of oil and gas production.

In 2024, the company transitioned to a royalty-based model, investing in other cleantech companies in exchange for a share of their revenue. Its first royalty investment was in Northstar Clean Technologies (TSXV:ROOF,OTC:ROOOF), a company with technology that processes end-of-life asphalt shingles into components including liquid asphalt, as well as aggregate and fiber for industrial use. The deal was finalized in September.

Now, the company is seeking shareholder approval to change its name to CVW Sustainable Royalties and switch its TSX Venture exchange listing from a technology issuer to an investment issuer, further solidifying its change in focus. However, it is still committed to commercializing its CVW technology.

Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

Consumer prices rose in June as President Donald Trump’s tariffs began to slowly work their way through the U.S. economy.

The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of goods and services costs, increased 0.3% on the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The numbers were right in line with the Dow Jones consensus, though the annual rate is the highest since February.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core inflation picked up 0.2% on the month, with the annual rate moving to 2.9%, with the annual rate in line with estimates. The monthly level was slightly below the outlook for a 0.3% gain.

A worker prices produce at a grocery store in San Francisco, California, US, on Friday, June 7, 2024.David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Prior to June, inflation had been on a generally downward slope for the year, with headline CPI at a 3% annual rate back in January and progressing gradually slower in the subsequent months despite fears that Trump’s trade war would drive prices higher.

While the evidence in June was mixed on how much influence tariffs had over prices, there were signs that the duties are having an impact.

Vehicle prices fell on the month, with prices on new vehicles down 0.3% and used car and trucks tumbling 0.7%. However, tariff-sensitive apparel prices increased 0.4%. Household furnishings, which also are influenced by tariffs, increased 1% for the month.

Shelter prices increased just 0.2% for the month, but the BLS said the category was still the largest contributor to the overall CPI gain. The index rose 3.8% from a year ago. Within the category, a measurement of what homeowners feel they could receive if they rented their properties increased 0.3%. However, lodging away from home slipped 2.9%.

Elsewhere, food prices increased 0.3% for the month, putting the annual gain at 3%, while energy prices reversed a loss in May and rose 0.9%, though they are still down marginally from a year ago. Medical care services were up 0.6% while transportation services edged higher by 0.2%.

With the rise in prices, inflation-adjusted hourly earnings fell 0.1% in June, the BLS said in a separate release. Real earnings increased 1% on an annual basis.

Markets largely took the inflation report in stride. Stock market indexes were mixed while Treasury yields were mostly negative.

Amid the previously muted inflation ratings, Trump has been urging the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, which it has not done since December. The president has insisted that tariffs are not aggravating inflation, and has contended that the Fed’s refusal to ease is raising the costs the U.S. has to pay on its burgeoning debt and deficit problem.

Central bankers, led by Chair Jerome Powell, have refused to budge. They insist that the U.S. economy is in a strong enough position now that the Fed can afford to wait to see the impact tariffs will have on inflation. Trump in turn has called on Powell to resign and is certain to name someone else to the job when the chair’s term expires in May 2026.

Markets expect the Fed to stay on hold when it meets at the end of July and then cut by a quarter percentage point in September.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

What can you get for $9.4 billion?

3G Capital recently purchased footwear giant Skechers for $9.4 billion. 

$9.4 billion could cover your rent for a pretty nice apartment in New York City for more than 40,000 years. 

Yes, it will just be you and the cockroaches by then. 

Or, you could pay the cost of every major disaster in the past four decades – ranging from Chernobyl to Fukushima to Hurricane Sandy. 

But $9.4 billion isn’t a lot when cast against nearly $7 trillion in annual spending by the federal government. 

And it’s really not much money when you consider that the U.S. is about slip into the red to the tune of $37 trillion. 

Which brings us to the Congressional plan to cancel spending. That is, a measure from Republicans and the Trump Administration to rescind spending lawmakers already appropriated in March. The House and Senate are now clawing back money lawmakers shoved out the door for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and foreign aid programs under USAID. The original proposal cut $9.4 billion. But that figure dwindled to $9 billion – after the Senate restored money for ‘PEPFAR,’ a President George W. Bush era program to combat AIDS worldwide. 

In other words, you may have a couple thousand years lopped off from your rent-controlled apartment in New York City. Of course that hinges on what Democratic mayoral nominee Zorhan Mamdani decides to do, should he win election this fall. 

Anyway, back to Congressional spending. Or ‘un-spending.’ 

The House passed the original version of the bill in June, 216-214. Flip one vote and the bill would have failed on a 215-215 tie. Then it was on to the Senate. Republicans had to summon Vice President Vance to Capitol Hill to break a logjam on two procedural votes to send the spending cancellation bill to the floor and actually launch debate. Republicans have a 53-47 advantage in the Senate. But former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted nay – producing a 50-50 tie.

Fox is told some Senate Republicans are tiring of McConnell opposing the GOP – and President Trump – on various issues. That includes the nay votes to start debate on the spending cancellation bill as well as his vote against the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in January.

‘He used to be the Leader. He was always telling us we need to stick together,’ said one GOP senator who requested anonymity. ‘Now he’s off voting however he wants? How time flies.’

Note that McConnell led Senate Republicans as recently as early January.

But McConnell ultimately voted for the legislation when the Senate approved it 51-48 at 2:28 am ET Thursday morning. 

Murkowski and Collins were the only noes. The services of Vice President Vance weren’t needed due to McConnell’s aye vote and the absence of Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. She fell ill and was admitted to George Washington Hospital for exhaustion. 

As for the senior senator from Alaska, one GOP senator characterized it as ‘Murkowski fatigue.’

‘She always asking. She’s always wanting more,’ groused a Senate Republican.

Murkowski secured an agreement on rural hospitals in exchange for her vote in favor of the Big, Beautiful Bill earlier this month. However, Murkowski did not secure more specificity on the DOGE cuts or help with rural, public radio stations in Alaska on the spending cut plan.

‘My vote is guided by the imperative of coming from Alaskans. I have a vote that I am free to cast, with or without the support of the President. My obligation is to my constituents and to the Constitution,’ said Murkowski. ‘I don’t disagree that NPR over the years has tilted more partisan. That can be addressed. But you don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting.’ 

In a statement, Collins blasted the Trump administration for a lack of specificity about the precision of the rescissions request. Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee in charge of the federal purse strings, also criticized the administration a few months ago for a paucity of detail in the President’s budget. 

‘The rescissions package has a big problem – nobody really knows what program reductions are in it.  That isn’t because we haven’t had time to review the bill,’ said Collins in a statement. ‘Instead, the problem is that OMB (the Office of Management and Budget) has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process.’

Collins wasn’t the only Republican senator who worried about how the administration presented the spending cut package to Congress. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.,  fretted about Congress ceding the power of the purse to the administration. But unlike Collins, Wicker supported the package.

‘If we do this again, please give us specific information about where the cuts will come. Let’s not make a habit of this,’ said Wicker. ‘If you come back to us again from the executive branch, give us the specific amounts in the specific programs that will be cut.’

DOGE recommended the cuts. In fact, most of the spending reductions targeted by DOGE don’t go into effect unless Congress acts. But even the $9.4 billion proved challenging to cut. 

‘We should be able to do that in our sleep. But there is looking like there’s enough opposition,’ said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Fox Business.

So to court votes, GOP leaders salvaged $400 million for PEPFAR.

‘There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue,’ said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. ‘You’re still talking about a $9 billion rescissions package – even with that small modification.’

The aim to silence public broadcasting buoyed some Republicans.

‘North Dakota Public Radio – about 26% of their budget is federal funding. To me, that’s more of an indictment than it is a need,’ said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. 

But back to the $9 billion. It’s a fraction of one-tenth of one percent of all federal funding. And DOGE recommended more than a trillion dollars in cuts.

‘What does this say for the party if it can’t even pass this bill, this piddling amount of money?’ yours truly asked Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.

‘I think we’re going to lose a lot of credibility. And we should,’ replied Kennedy.

But the House needed to sync up with the Senate since it changed the bill – stripping the cut for AIDS funding. House conservatives weren’t pleased that the Senate was jamming them again – just two weeks after major renovations to the House version of the Big, Beautiful Bill. But they accepted their fate.

‘It’s disappointing that we’re $37 trillion in debt. This to me was low-hanging fruit,’ said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo. ‘At the end of the day, I’ll take a base hit, right? It’s better than nothing.’

White House Budget Director Russ Vought is expected to send other spending cancellation requests to Congress in the coming months. The aim is to target deeper spending reductions recommended by DOGE. 

But it doesn’t auger well for future rescissions bills if it’s this much of a battle to trim $9 trillion.

What can you get for that much money? For Republicans, it’s not much. 

Republicans were swinging for the fences with spending cuts.

But in the political box score, this is recorded as just a base hit.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS