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Sector Update: Financial

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-- Financial stocks were lower late Friday afternoon, with the NYSE Financial Index decreasing 0.1% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) shedding 0.5%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index was up 0.1, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) added 0.4%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) rose 0.1% to $80,056, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries lost 2.8 basis points to 4.36%.

In corporate news, Apollo Global Management (APO) and Blackstone (BX) are among the private-credit firms involved in discussions with Broadcom (AVGO) on $35 billion in financing, Bloomberg reported. Apollo shares rose 3.8%, and Blackstone added 1%.

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International

Job Reports Not Enough To Take USD-CAD Out Of Its Range Bound Environment, RBC says

A softer Canadian jobs report today saw the unemployment rate up to 6.9% and resulted in a rates rally and curve steepening, RBC Capital Markets said in its latest CAD Weekly Soundbites note. But, the bank added, when that report is combined with the US labor report, that beat forecasts, it wasn't enough to take USD/CAD out of its range-bound environment.Canadian data also reinforced the Canadian dollar's underperformance versus its G10 commodity and higher-yielding peers over the past month, RBC said.On the Canadian economy, RBC noted the April jobs report showed a 0.2 percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate to 6.9%, with weakness evident in goods sectors, trade and transport/warehousing, though private-paid employment and total hours worked were little changed in the month.Looking ahead, RBC said next week will not feature key Canadian data releases, although there will be a number of second-tier reports including housing market data, wholesale trade on Thursday and manufacturing sales on Friday. "The softening labour market YTD has not translated to the product market, where Q1 GDP is tracking above-potential including the March nowcast," it added.The bank added that investors will also watch inflation data in Norway, New Zealand inflation expectations, U.S. producer prices, second-quarter GDP revisions in the euro area, U.K. first-quarter GDP, U.S. retail sales, and Japanese producer prices. RBC also noted that the Bank of Japan and Riksbank will release minutes from their latest meetings, while Norges Bank's Financial Stability Report is due Tuesday.On rates, RBC said the Bank of Canada's expected hold last week was delivered, although "the balance of changes tilted hawkish." The bank noted GDP growth is tracking in the 1.5%-2% range in the first quarter, which would result in a lessening of excess slack in the economy if realized in the full expenditure breakdown. RBC added improved labour market outcomes are expected as part of slack reduction over the year. "We maintain our long-held view: base case is the BoC on hold in 2026, with hikes in 2027, but the chance of H2 hikes far exceeds the chance of a cut."Meanwhile, RBC noted Government of Canada bonds outperformed their U.S. Treasury counterparts following the weaker jobs report, with the Canada/U.S. 10-year spread tightening 5 basis points to at -89 basis points from last Friday.On technicals, RBC said after yields failed to close above the key double top at 3.62%, the move back below a trendline dating to late February, now at 3.54%, "eases some of the topside risks.""This opens 3.43% and 3.39% next on the downside," RBC added.

$$CXY$CAD$usd
Insider Trading

Flywire Insider Sold Shares Worth $608,174, According to a Recent SEC Filing

Cosmin Pitigoi, Chief Financial Officer, on May 06, 2026, sold 35,000 shares in Flywire (FLYW) for $608,174. Following the Form 4 filing with the SEC, Pitigoi has control over a total of 897,138 voting common shares of the company, with 897,138 shares held directly.SEC Filing:https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1580560/000119312526214686/xslF345X05/ownership.xml

$FLYW
US Markets

Akamai's Mega Computing Deal to Boost Revenue Amid Margin Concerns, UBS Says

Akamai Technologies' (AKAM) new $1.8 billion customer contract for computing services should help accelerate revenue growth, UBS Securities said in a note on Friday, even though the brokerage is skeptical about the deal's impact on margins and profitability.The seven-year contract with an unnamed "leading frontier model company" is the largest customer deal in the cloud services provider's history, Chief Executive Tom Leighton said during an earnings conference call on Thursday, according to a FactSet transcript.Akamai expects to start recognizing revenue against the contract in the fourth quarter, at $20 million to $25 million, Chief Financial Officer Ed McGowan told analysts. The company will spend $800 million to $825 million in capital expenditures over the next 12 months to support the new deal.Bloomberg News identified that customer as Anthropic, citing people familiar with the matter.Shares of Akamai soared about 27% at market close on Friday, and are up nearly 70% year to date."While we appreciate the large deal momentum and (revenue) growth acceleration, we're less confident in corresponding bottom-line growth," UBS analyst Roger Boyd wrote in the note.Akamai late Thursday raised the lower end of its full-year revenue guidance to $4.445 billion from $4.40 billion, leaving the top end of the outlook unchanged at $4.55 billion. The company raised the cloud infrastructure services outlook to at least 50% year-over-year growth at constant currencies. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $4.49 billion in consolidated revenue.Akamai lowered its full-year adjusted operating margin guidance to 26% from a prior outlook that called for 26% to 28%. UBS attributed that to upfront scaling costs and lower-margin new mega deals.The company is willing to accept cloud infrastructure services deals that are below its 30% medium-term margin target, Boyd said. Meanwhile, additional capital spending will push free cash flow close to breakeven or into negative territory in 2026, he said.The brokerage raised its price target on Akamai's stock to $160 from $110 and reiterated its neutral rating.The company said late Thursday its first-quarter adjusted earnings per share declined to $1.61 from $1.70 a year earlier, while revenue increased 6% to $1.07 billion. These were largely in line with consensus estimates on FactSet."Investor enthusiasm around the cloud infrastructure space could outweigh margin concerns (near term)," Boyd said.

$AKAM