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Shopify overtakes RBC to become Canada’s most valuable public company

Thanks to an impressive quarter that sent Shopify shares soaring on Wednesday, the e-commerce platform has become Canada’s most valuable company, beating the Royal Bank of Canada to the top spot.

After its earnings call, Shopify surged on an optimistic outlook for the next quarter, as it expects revenue to grow at a mid- to high 20s percentage rate on a year-over-year basis. The numbers were astonishing — an absolute blowout quarter, said Mike Archibald, a portfolio manager at AGF Investments, via Reuters.

The platforms climb also sent the entire Toronto stock market briefly to a new record high, bringing the S&P/TSX composite index up 1.3% on Wednesday from the day before.

Shopify is now the biggest Canadian company
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Shopify previously edged past RBC in 2020, when e-commerce enthusiasm exploded during the pandemic. Unfortunately, that excitement soon evaporated, with Shopify losing the crown after two years. As noted by Bloomberg, that’s given further fuel to the idea of the Canadian market curse, in which rocket-like companies such as Blackberry and Nortel Networks Corp. have ended up dramatically collapsing in value after beating the nation's biggest bank. Maybe this time it’s different with SHOP?

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SpaceX spectrum deal sends would-be rivals lower

Shares of struggling satellite services company EchoStar soared Monday, after the company — which had recently tottered close to bankruptcy — announced the sale of some of its wireless spectrum licenses to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $17 million.

The sale provides a competitive advantage to Musk’s growing Starlink satellite services business, as the licenses it is acquiring from Echostar allows Starlink to operate ground based broadband and cellphone services, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Entities that stood to be hurt by the emergence of a Musk-led SpaceX Starlink service got hit hard on the news. AST SpaceMobile, which has plans to offer a similar satellite-to-consumer cellular service, tumbled.

So did wireless tower providers like Crown Castle and American Tower. Low cost cellular service provider T-Mobile, which had a deal with SpaceX, also slumped, as Luke noted earlier, along with other large wireless telecommunication services providers.

The wireless telecommunications industry grouping within the S&P 500 was down more than 2.5% shortly after noon, making it the worst performing industry within the S&P 500 on Monday.

Entities that stood to be hurt by the emergence of a Musk-led SpaceX Starlink service got hit hard on the news. AST SpaceMobile, which has plans to offer a similar satellite-to-consumer cellular service, tumbled.

So did wireless tower providers like Crown Castle and American Tower. Low cost cellular service provider T-Mobile, which had a deal with SpaceX, also slumped, as Luke noted earlier, along with other large wireless telecommunication services providers.

The wireless telecommunications industry grouping within the S&P 500 was down more than 2.5% shortly after noon, making it the worst performing industry within the S&P 500 on Monday.

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Hims rises, Novo dips after FDA releases “green list” of GLP-1 raw material suppliers

Hims & Hers rose and Novo Nordisk slipped in early trading after the US Food and Drug Administration released a "green list" of foreign GLP-1 ingredient suppliers that it considers in compliance with agency standards.

Some telehealth companies like Hims sell copycat versions of Novo's and Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight-loss drugs through compounding pharmacies, which take the active ingredients from FDA-approved medications and make adjusted, or "personalized,” versions of the drug for patients.

Novo and Lilly have fought against this, arguing that it infringes on their intellectual property. They've sued smaller telehealth providers, pharmacies, and clinics in lieu of any action against them from the FDA. Instead, the FDA gave compounders a list of suppliers it deems safe.

Recent developments in the cases filed by the drugmakers so far as well as the FDA's recent actions suggest telehealth companies may be in a less risky position than investors previously thought. As of Monday morning, prediction markets pegged the likelihood of a suit from Novo against Hims at 34%, down from about 70% earlier this month.

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UNH rises after saying it plans to reiterate outlook

UnitedHealth rose 2% in early trading after it disclosed that it plans to reiterate its full-year earnings outlook when it meets with investors this week.

The company said on July 29 that it was expects to report annual adjusted earnings per share of at least $16. The company had previously pulled full-year guidance and prior to that withdrawal, had told investors it expected to see earnings of $26 to $26.50 per share.

Currently, a analysts polled by FactSet are penciling in $16.23, compared to $17.21 before the guidance came down.

UnitedHealth has had a tumultuous year as he industry has been hit with rising costs of care, and UnitedHealth specifically has been hit with investigations into its Medicare Advantage practices. It recently got a boost after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed that it's built a stake in the company

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