BUSINESS

While the number of Canadians taking trips to the U.S. saw a small uptick from 2025 and during the summer months in particular, the numbers still sit at historic lows after the abrupt dropoff that came after President Donald Trump began his second term in the White House with antagonistic statements about the northern neighbor.

The latest monthly numbers published by the Canadian government’s statistics agency show a 29% drop in the number of Canadians returning home from the U.S. in September 2026. When broken down further, there was a 31% decrease for those making the trip by car and a 19% decrease for flights.

As a result, both Canadian and U.S. airlines have made major adjustments to their schedules in order to run fewer flights and cut any unprofitable routes.

WestJet to permanently cut flight to Kauai in 2027

Canadian national airline Air Canada phased out flights to Minneapolis and Detroit from Montreal and Indianapolis from Toronto this October and recently confirmed that it will not bring back its seasonal flight to Charleston International Airport (CHS) from Toronto in 2027.

Calgary-based WestJet, Air Canada’s main competitor and the second-biggest airline in the country, is now the latest carrier to exit a market by confirming to aviation outlet Simple Flying that it will not be bringing back its route between Vancouver International (YVR) and Lihue Airport (LIH) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Related: Air Canada cancels all flights to U.S. state due to low demand

The route to the sunny destination known locally as “The Garden Island” of Hawaii was initially launched in December 2009 and returned every season during the sun-seeking months. This year, the flight ran for the last time on April 12, 2026.

As Vancouver was WestJet’s only service to Kauai (it briefly added a second route from Calgary in 2021 but did not bringing it back in more recent years), the cancelation of the route means that the carrier is exiting this market entirely.

The airline will continue to serve Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) in Honolulu, Kahului Airport (OGG) in Maui, and Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport (KOA) on the Big Island of Hawaii.

WestJet first started flying to Hawaii in 2009.Matt Champlin / Getty Images

Why WestJet is also axing these U.S. flights

Other than confirming that the route will not be coming back in 2027, WestJet has not elaborated on the reasons for this decision.

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“We saw a notable decline in transborder travel demand throughout 2025,” Julia Kaiser, WestJet’s media relations adviser, had previously said of past cuts to U.S. routes. “As a result, we made timely decisions to modify our network to stay aligned with where Canadians want to go.”

Other routes that WestJet axed in 2026 include flights to Nashville and Boston from Vancouver as well as a route to Nashville from Winnipeg while adding new international destinations such as Merida in Mexico, São Paulo in Brazil and the small Central American country of Belize.

Simple Flying is reporting that John Wayne Airport (SNA) in California’s Orange County, to which the carrier also flies seasonally from Calgary, could be the next market exit for the airline although WestJet has not confirmed this report.

Related: Air France exits entire market again

Intel (INTC) shares plunged more than 20% in extended trading on Thursday, Oct. 29, after the chipmaker issued a disappointing fourth-quarter forecast and warned that a slowdown in the PC market could continue into 2027.

The selloff came despite better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, as strong demand for data center processors helped offset weakness in Intel’s PC business.

Investors were also concerned about the company’s spending plans. Intel expects capital expenditures to rise sharply next year and warned that it would not generate positive cash flow in 2027.

Intel has spent years trying to catch up with rivals after falling behind in advanced chipmaking.

The company remains the only U.S.-based manufacturer of leading-edge logic chips, making its recovery important to Washington’s push to bring more semiconductor production back to the U.S.

The Trump administration took a 10% stake in Intel last year. Nvidia (NVDA) and SoftBank also poured billions of dollars into the struggling chipmaker.

Those investments have helped fuel optimism about Intel’s recovery. Its shares had surged roughly 150% this year before Thursday’s earnings report, although the stock had fallen about 20% over the last month amid broader concerns about AI infrastructure spending.

Intel beats Q3 estimates but PC weakness clouds outlook

Intel reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of 52 cents per share, above analysts’ expectations of 40 cents, according to LSEG data pulled by CNBC.

Revenue rose 21% year over year to $16.51 billion, slightly beating Wall Street’s estimate of $16.5 billion.

But the company’s two major businesses told different stories.

Revenue in its client computing and physical AI group fell 5% from a year earlier to $8.1 billion, missing estimates as higher memory prices weighed on PC demand.

Meanwhile, data center and AI revenue jumped 78% to $7.3 billion, reflecting growing demand for server processors.

Related: Analyst revamps SK Hynix stock price target after blockbuster earnings

The weakness in PCs is expected to continue.

For the fourth quarter, Intel forecast adjusted earnings of 25 cents per share on revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion, well below analysts’ expectations of 43 cents per share and $17.1 billion in revenue.

The disappointing forecast reflects broader challenges in the PC industry, where rising costs for memory and other components have pressured manufacturers.

Intel said the pace of the PC market correction has accelerated over the past two months, with manufacturers aggressively managing inventories.

“We see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year,” Intel finance chief David Zinsner said in the earnings release.

“We will continue making disciplined investments in capacity and working capital to increase supply and support future growth.”

Management said the next several quarters would remain challenging and that it was “not optimistic” about memory conditions in 2027.

Adding to those pressures, Intel is dealing with the fallout from an explosion at its manufacturing facility in Israel earlier this month that killed two workers and seriously injured another. The incident forced an extended shutdown, disrupting production and shipments of 10-nanometer chips.

Intel expects the disruption to reduce revenue by about $600 million over two quarters, including roughly $300 million in the fourth quarter.

Intel shares had surged roughly 150% this year before Oct. 29’s earnings report.CHENG YU-CHEN / Getty Images

Intel sees 2027 as growth year as AI boosts server demand

While the PC business remains under pressure, Intel sees a more promising outlook for its data center operations.

Management described 2027 as a “growth year” during the earnings call, although it expects the first half to remain “a bit constrained.”

Executives said they were “very optimistic” about the data center business as customer demand signals continue to strengthen, especially with the growing use of agentic AI.

Also read: Meta stock falls despite Wall Street analysts raising price targets

Unlike traditional AI workloads that rely heavily on graphics processing units from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), agentic AI also requires CPUs to coordinate tasks, manage data and run applications.

That trend could provide a longer-term boost to Intel’s Xeon server processors.

“Despite near-term headwinds affecting the broader PC industry, we continue to see robust demand for CPUs and, more broadly, for all our computing platforms in the long term,” Tan said in a statement.

But strong demand does not mean Intel has enough supply.

Tan said he was “disappointed that we were not able to meet strong customer demand in this quarter.”

“Our Q3 results demonstrate improving execution, meaningful progress expanding supply and continued advancement of our process technology,” Tan said.

“Despite near-term headwinds across the PC industry, demand for our CPUs remains robust, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term growth opportunities for our business. Our immediate priority is to unlock additional supply.”

Intel plans to increase manufacturing investment to address the supply shortage.

The company reaffirmed its 2026 capital expenditure outlook of $20 billion but said spending would rise “up strongly” in 2027.

Management described next year as an “investment year” and warned that Intel would not generate positive cash flow.

The company nevertheless expects to pay down debt in 2027 and remains “confident” in its long-term profitability.

Zinsner said Intel would remain cautious about spending despite the need for additional capacity.

“We will remain disciplined as we invest, and we will not spend $1 of capital unless we have confidence in the health of our products and process technologies, and clear evidence of customer demand,” he said on the call.

Related: Cathie Wood buys $9.1 million of tumbling tech stock

Mark Cuban has seen a tech mania up close before, and he thinks he is watching another one. The billionaire investor now says the artificial intelligence boom has the makings of a bubble, and he wants investors to keep some powder dry.

His warning lands at a shaky moment for AI stocks. Tech shares slid on October 22 as fears grew that the AI investment boom may have peaked. Shares of the biggest AI names have swung sharply this month. For anyone riding the rally, Cuban’s message is simple, even if acting on it is not.

Cuban says AI data centres could become “pickleball courts”

Cuban first raised eyebrows in July with a joke that stuck. Speaking on the “All-In” podcast, he said AI would likely get cheaper and more power-efficient, and that many of today’s data centres could one day be turned into “pickleball courts,” as reported by 247 Wall St. He compared it to the fibre boom, when networks got so fast there “wasn’t a bandwidth problem anymore.”

Also read: Michael Burry doubles down on his stock market bet

He came back to that idea in a recent interview on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast with Steven Bartlett. Cuban said the pickleball line was a metaphor for infrastructure that could lose its usefulness as the technology becomes more efficient. His advice for investors watching AI stocks climb was blunt: “Just be patient.” 

That patience comes with a plan. Cuban said people can put some money into the market but should also “have some cash” ready for when conditions turn, and he admitted he is holding back on some of his own investments while he waits to see what happens. In other words, he is not calling for anyone to sell everything, just to avoid going all in.

Cuban has been sounding this note for months. In July, he warned that committing tens of billions to facilities built to run for a decade or two amounts to “planning for perfection.” He also said the people most exposed were venture capital and private equity firms that had gone all in on AI.

Why Cuban thinks the market has gotten ahead of itself

Cuban knows how these stories can end. He sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999, about eight months before the Nasdaq peaked, according to CNBC. He told host Steven Bartlett that today’s market reminds him of that era, though he sees some key differences.

His biggest complaint is how stocks are being traded. Cuban argued that investors buy and sell based on anticipated news and on what someone else might pay, not on what the underlying business is worth. That kind of trading can send shares soaring or sinking after fairly small developments.

“We’re in a bubble,” Cuban said, while adding that he has no idea what will make it burst. That honesty matters. Plenty of investors have spotted bubbles early and still lost money waiting for a crash that took years to arrive.

He has pointed to specific weak spots, too. In July, Cuban said Nvidia’s role in funding customers’ chip purchases was “so analogous to the dot-com burst,” warning that one breakthrough by a rival chipmaker or one misstep “and it all could crumble.”

Mark Cuban has seen a tech mania up close before, and he thinks he is watching another one.The Dallas Morning News/Hearst Newspapers / Getty Images

Debt is piling up behind the AI build-out

Cuban’s worries go beyond stock prices. Big Tech is pouring money into data centres and leaning harder on debt markets to pay for it. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Oracle issued about $194 billion of bonds in 2026 through July 7, up from roughly $108 billion in all of 2025, according to Reuters. Goldman Sachs expects the five biggest hyperscalers, including Microsoft, to issue roughly $400 billion in bonds in 2027.

That borrowing is starting to worry Wall Street. The median spread on hyperscaler bonds maturing in more than 20 years has already widened, raising the cost of future debt and adding a new layer of risk to the AI build-out.

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Investors have already had a taste of that stress. AI and semiconductor stocks were on course to shed more than $1 trillion in combined value in one week in mid-October as rate-hike fears and worries about AI financing hit sentiment, according to TheStreet.

Still, Cuban is not anti-AI. He calls himself a fan of the technology and pointed to Amazon, which survived the dot-com crash and went on to become enormously valuable. The hard part, he said, is knowing which AI companies will end up as winners.

What everyday investors can take from it

Most households cannot sit on a billionaire’s cash pile, but the idea behind Cuban’s advice still works on a smaller scale. A more practical first step is deciding how much money you need for emergencies and near-term bills, since moving too much of a portfolio into cash while waiting for a downturn can mean missing out on gains. Having that money set aside can keep you from leaning on high-interest debt or selling investments when prices are down.

Plenty of Americans are still short on that cushion. Only 63% of adults said they would cover a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent in 2025, unchanged from the year before, according to the Federal Reserve.

Beyond that, it may be worth checking how much of a 401(k) rides on the same few tech giants, since several funds can hold many of the same stocks. Cuban expects the AI story to produce big winners, just as the dot-com era did. His warning is that nobody, including him, knows exactly which ones, so it pays to stay patient, keep some flexibility and avoid betting the whole nest egg on one corner of the market.

Related: Jim Cramer doubles down on his stock market stand

Addressing the widespread anxiety American workers feel over whether their retirement savings and investment strategies are truly sufficient, bestselling author Dave Ramsey offers a straightforward answer on whether a 401(k) alone can carry people financially through their post-career years.

“It might be if you have access to a Roth 401(k), solid investment options and are able to invest 15% of your income,” Ramsey wrote. “It might not be if one or more of those above points aren’t true in your case. You may need to look at options outside your workplace retirement plan, like a Roth IRA.”

But Ramsey recommends holding off on retirement savings until one is completely debt-free and has a fully funded emergency reserve. He also advises individuals to pause all investing until every lingering consumer debt is wiped out.

Dat Ngo, CPA at Vetted Prop Firms, explains his perspective on Ramsey’s recommended approach.

“Ramsey’s sequencing works for most people because it accounts for behavior, not just math, and a plan someone will actually follow beats a theoretically optimal one every time,” Ngo told me.

“The one adjustment I’d flag is the employer match: if a workplace plan offers one, it’s often worth capturing that match even while paying down high-interest debt, since it’s close to free money. Once the emergency fund is solid, the Roth IRA’s tax-free growth makes it a logical next step for long-term savers.”

Based on Ramsey’s National Study of Millionaires — research he says is the most extensive survey of its kind — roughly 80% of millionaires credited their 401(k) as the primary engine behind their financial success.

“Those millionaires are the kind of people who live next door to you (teachers, managers, accountants) — they just used their workplace retirement plans,” Ramsey wrote.

“It’s not the most exciting way to invest,” he added. “But it is exciting to become a millionaire.”

Ramsey favors investing 15% of income in 401(k)

As mentioned above, Ramsey recommends investing 15% of one’s gross income in a taxed-advantaged retirement account, often a 401(k) plan through one’s employer.

In my years of reporting on finances, I have found that a 401(k) offers retirement savers an easy, consistent and frictionless entry point into investing, allowing them to automate their contributions straight from each paycheck with a true set-it-and-forget-it approach.

Beyond that effortless automation, 401(k) plans provide a key advantage that makes them a standout wealth-building vehicle: 401(k) plans have higher contribution limits than Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).

In 2026, employees can contribute up to $24,500 to a 401(k), according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Savers aged 50 and older are permitted an additional $8,000 catch-up contribution, while those between ages 60 and 63 qualify for an expanded catch-up allowance of $11,250.

“The limit on annual contributions to an IRA is increased to $7,500 (in 2026) from $7,000 (in 2025),” wrote the IRS.

Savers age 50 and older get a small boost: The IRA catch-up limit has climbed to $1,100 from the previous $1,000 mark, reflecting the latest cost-of-living adjustment.

Bestselling personal finance author Dave Ramsey offers a straightforward answer on whether a 401(k) alone is sufficient for retirement, breaking down the key factors savers need to consider when investing in their workplace plans.Shutterstock

Fidelity explains tepid participation in Roth 401(k) plans

While the IRS keeps expanding how much workers can stash away, having higher contribution limits doesn’t mean employees know how to optimize them.

Ramsey strongly advocates prioritizing Roth 401(k)s over traditional accounts, but workplace plan data from Fidelity Investments reveals a major disconnect between plan availability and actual saver adoption.

Over 96.5% of the workplace retirement plans managed by Fidelity now feature a Roth 401(k), yet merely 18% of eligible employees actively put money into one, according to Fidelity. Although users represent every demographic and earnings level, the feature proves most popular among savers between the ages of 29 and 44.

The sluggish Roth 401(k) adoption rate can mostly be attributed to limited awareness and a long-standing habit of prioritizing traditional, pre-tax accounts.

“Many people just don’t understand the option so they haven’t chosen it,” said Ellen O’Connell, a vice president and financial consultant at Fidelity. “Some don’t know if their company offers it, some just assume they aren’t eligible, and some are just used to getting that lowered income tax now.”

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as individualized tax or investment advice.

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