The Daily Chase: Pressure mounts at Rogers after Monday sell-off; Record-breaking streak for TSX

Pressure is building for Rogers Communications Inc. and its duelling boards of directors to resolve the dispute over who’s actually overseeing the company.

Pressure is building for Rogers Communications Inc. and its duelling boards of directors to resolve the dispute over who’s actually overseeing the company. Bloomberg News obtained a letter sent by Edward Rogers’ lawyers to the company, in which they point to the falling stock price and analyst downgrades (of which there were at least three yesterday) as signs that it’s in the “best interests of RCI that [the dispute] be resolved with all due dispatch.” Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail is reporting that one of Mr. Rogers’ lawyers informed the company that the Ontario Securities Commission has inquired about the standoff.

TSX RECORD-BREAKING WINNING STREAK

The composite index closed higher yesterday for a 14th consecutive session, the longest winning streak in its history. The gains during this stretch have been meager (sub-one per cent in all but a single session), but who’s going to quibble when the TSX is outpacing the S&P 500 with a gain of 22 per cent so far this year? Seems to reinforce Stéfane Marion’s pound-the-table call on Canadian stocks when he was last on with us.

INVESTORS SHAKE OFF FACEBOOK AD SLOWDOWN

Facebook's advertising revenue growth slowed sharply in the third quarter (33 per cent, from 56 per cent in Q2), and Chief Financial Officer David Wehner warned in a release that the company is facing "significant uncertainty" as a result of Apple's iOS changes, as well as other factors. Nonetheless, shares are moving higher in pre-market trading amid a clear profit beat, user growth, and a US$50-billion top-up to the company’s share buyback program. Also garnering some interest: Facebook said it will start breaking out Facebook Reality Labs as its own reporting segment in the ultimate sign of the company's dedication to building a so-called metaverse -- and perhaps to help investors untangle significant costs associated with that ambition.

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