Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis on the biggest headlines, stock tips, personal finance strategies and more.
U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a chart detailing tariffs at the White House in Washington in April, 2025.Carlos Barria/Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs on Friday, ruling that the President acted illegally in using one of his emergency economic powers to impose duties on trade partners last year. The 6-3 decision is a major rebuke of Mr. Trump on a signature economic policy, but it’s only a partial – and likely temporary – setback for the administration. Trade experts believe Mr. Trump will try to maintain the affected tariffs using other legal tools, Mark Rendell reports.
The Supreme Court decision focuses on duties that were imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. These include “fentanyl tariffs” imposed on Canada, Mexico and China, and the “Liberation Day” or “reciprocal” tariffs placed on the rest of the world. The sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, automobiles and lumber, which are hitting Canadian trade the hardest, aren’t affected by the decision and will remain in place.
The ruling may be more important for other U.S. trade partners, including the European Union, Britain and Japan, which agreed to increase market access and make substantial investments in the U.S. under the threat of escalating IEEPA tariffs, but the Canadian federal government also welcomed the Supreme Court decision.
Carney unveils defence industry strategy aimed at boosting domestic sector
Prime Minister Mark Carney tours the facilities of CAE in Montreal, where he unveiled Canada's new industrial defence policy on Tuesday.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney released a new plan for growing Canada’s domestic defence industry on Tuesday, which includes prioritizing building military equipment at home and adding up to 125,000 jobs over the next decade. The strategy also aims to boost defence exports by 50 per cent and increase the share of defence-related acquisitions awarded to Canadian companies to 70 per cent by 2035. The federal government earmarked $6.6-billion over five years in the fall budget for its Defence Industrial Strategy.
Ottawa is also shaking up its main economic immigration program to facilitate the entry of high-skilled military recruits. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced new categories for selecting immigrants on Wednesday, including a change to bring in “highly skilled foreign military applicants” for roles such as doctors, nurses and pilots. Several defence experts said, however, that the new immigration focus is unlikely to solve long-standing staffing challenges at the Canadian Armed Forces.
Decoder: Here’s everything that’s pushing up food inflation right now
Canada has the highest rate of food inflation in the G7. The annual rate of food inflation climbed by 7.3 per cent in January, according to numbers released this week by Statistics Canada, more than double the pace from six months ago. The biggest driver of annual price increases was the end of the tax holiday from the former Trudeau government that applied to restaurant meals, snack and other food items from mid-December, 2024, to mid-February, 2025.
But several grocery items are soaring in price for other reasons. After years of declining cattle herds, beef prices jumped 18.8 per cent in January from the year before, while low coffee yields pushed java prices up 29.8 per cent. Jason Kirby takes a look in the latest instalment of the Decoder series.
How Canada became poorer than Alabama
Tommy Battle, the five-term Mayor of Huntsville, Ala., at his office in city hall.Charity Rachelle/The Globe and Mail
Is Canada seriously poorer than Alabama? For eons, Canadians have viewed Alabama as a small state that, save for a few pockets, is dirt poor. But, in 2023, the question popped up and spurred panic after Canadian economist Trevor Tombe and the International Monetary Fund ran the numbers and concluded that Canada had, in fact, become poorer than Alabama.
To measure this, they calculated gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. After adjusting for foreign exchange and some cost differences in both countries, the average for Canada’s 10 provinces was estimated at US$55,000 in 2022, the same as Alabama. Shortly after, the IMF found Canada had actually fallen behind the southern state. (Canada has since edged ever-so-slightly higher than Alabama; the numbers are volatile from year to year.)
For an overdue wake-up call, Tim Kiladze travelled to the Deep South to understand how the state is breaking stereotypes and, at times, looking richer than Canada.
The 20 best dividend-paying stocks of the year
CSA-Archive/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Every year, The Globe provides a Dividend All-Stars guide to 200 of the largest stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It includes a plethora of data on each stock along with a star rating. It also weighs the merits of each Canadian dividend stock by focusing on three primary criteria, beginning with its yield, proceeding to its potential as a value investment, and concluding with measures of safety and stability.
The top 20 get a full five out of five stars and form the Dividend All-Stars portfolio. The portfolio handily beat the market since its last update with gains of 41.4 per cent from Feb. 13, 2025, through to Feb. 12, 2026, while the S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced by 29.7 per cent.
The Dividend All-Stars, and our star ratings, provide a good starting point for investors, but it is important to learn more about each company, its industry and the market before seeking your fortune. As Norman Rothery writes, enjoy the adventure – hopefully our system helps you narrow in on dividend payers that are worth adding to your portfolio.
Take our business quiz for this week
d. Sherritt International has been forced to scale back operations at its Moa nickel mine in Cuba in response to the oil blockade imposed by the United States a month ago. The Toronto-based miner, which has operated in Cuba for decades, says it will soon be forced to halt mining operations in the country because of a lack of fuel.
Get the rest of the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz here, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.