TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will remain the key decision-maker on trade agreements despite Democrats’ sweeping victories in last week’s U.S. midterm elections.
His remarks suggested Canada will continue looking to the White House for a trade deal even as Democrats prepare to challenge Trump’s tariffs.
U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods became an issue in the midterms, with Democrats blaming them for higher prices and pledging to challenge them.
“What is clear is that the people who decide on trade agreements are the executive in the United States over the next two or three years," Carney told reporters in Montreal. “The President, the executive and Americans, not necessarily legislators.”
He was responding to Quebec’s plans to contact U.S. officials, including governors and senators.
The Democratic victories have left Canada with a dilemma: Accept a deal that reduces Trump’s tariffs but leaves some in place, or hold out for free trade as Congress prepares to challenge them.
“In a negotiation, it’s always a good idea to have one negotiator. And that is the government’s responsibility,” Carney said.
Carney said he spoke with Trump over the weekend and could meet him at upcoming summits. The leaders communicate regularly.
“It’s good to sit down, but it’s not absolutely necessary,” Carney said.
Carney said issues remain unresolved with Washington, although Canada has overcome disputes involving French-language protections and Canadian cultural programming that helped derail an agreement in August.
“There are still some tough issues to resolve with the Americans in this negotiation,” Carney said.
Canada suspended trade negotiations in August after what Carney described as unacceptable U.S. demands involving Canadian sovereignty, cultural protections and other issues. Trump imposed 50% tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian goods, prompting Canadian retaliation.
Trump said before the midterms that the countries were “very close” to an agreement, while Carney said Washington had backed away from demands involving Canada’s culture, French-language protections and ability to negotiate other trade agreements.
Carney welcomed Democratic efforts Friday to repeal Trump’s tariffs but did not say whether the election changed Canada’s negotiating strategy. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has made tariffs on Canada a repeal priority, though Trump could veto any legislation.
Carney emerged as a prominent international counterpoint to Trump after warning at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that great powers were weaponizing economic ties. Without naming Trump, he urged middle powers to unite against economic coercion.
Carney accused Stellantis of betraying Canadian workers after the automaker agreed to sell its idled Brampton, Ontario, plant to armored vehicle manufacturer Roshel. Stellantis shifted planned Jeep Compass production to Illinois as Trump pushes automakers to move production to the United States.
Carney said he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week at the APEC summit in Shenzhen. He said Canada’s economic relationship with China carries fewer security risks than the United States’ broader relationship with Beijing.
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks in Montreal, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, where he highlighted the government's investment in culture following last week's federal budget. (Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks in Montreal, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, where he highlighted the government's investment in culture following last week's federal budget. (Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks in Montreal, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, where he highlighted the government's investment in culture following last week's federal budget. (Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are falling Tuesday after a report showed inflation was worse across the country last month than economists expected.
The S&P 500 fell 0.9% and gave back some of its big rally from the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 319 points, or 0.6%, as of 1:29 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% lower.
Pressure from the bond market undercut stocks following the discouraging report on inflation. People had to pay prices for groceries, electricity and other costs of living that were even higher last month than economists expected. That could push the Federal Reserve to hike its main interest rate at its next meeting in December and beyond.
Higher interest rates can help rein in inflation, but they do so by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money and by slowing the overall economy. Higher rates also make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments.
One Fed official even hinted the central bank may increase the federal funds rate by double the typical amount next month because of how high inflation has remained for years.
Speaking in London before the inflation report was released, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller said “a stronger policy move may be needed” if the report showed an important underlying measure of inflation rose by 0.3% from September.
In that case, he said the Fed should consider hiking the federal funds rate by half a percentage point rather than the typical quarter point. Moving by only the usual amount could “put our credibility at risk, a risk I am not eager to take.”
Shortly afterward, Tuesday’s inflation report showed that the underlying measure of inflation Waller was worried about was exactly 0.3%, the threshold he had set. It's the Fed's job to keep inflation under control, along with keeping the job market strong.
That sent yields jumping in the bond market as traders upped their forecasts for coming hikes to rates by the Fed.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 5.01% from 4.88% late Monday. It's a notable move for the bond market, and the yield helps set where rates are for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses.
The 10-year Treasury yield had been dropping since early October, when it topped 5.30% as worries spiked about high inflation, higher interest rates, the U.S. government’s big debt and other concerns.
Tuesday’s jump in yields came even though oil prices fell again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 0.8% to $91.81. President Donald Trump said late Monday that the war in Iran, which sent oil prices much higher, “militarily is effectively over.”
Brent’s price has been falling from more than $112 at the start of the month amid uncertainty about what will happen with the war with Iran.
Jumps in Treasury yields push downward on prices for all kinds of stocks, and they can particularly hurt companies in the real-estate business.
Higher mortgage rates can keep potential customers away from homebuilders, for example, and Lennar fell 4.4% for one of the sharper losses in the S&P 500.
Rival homebuilders also fell, including drops of 3.6% for D.R. Horton and 3.5% for PulteGroup. Builders FirstSource, which sells crown mouldings, cabinets and other products to homebuilders, sank 3.9%.
The single heaviest weight on the S&P 500 was Nvidia, which fell 6.3%. It's been under pressure since its board announced an investigation into its CEO, Jensen Huang, who admitted to a relationship with a woman who, according to The New York Times, U.S. intelligence determined was gathering information for China.
It's also been swinging amid broader worries that have knocked the artificial-intelligence industry around recently. Democratic victories in statehouses across the country last week raised concerns about possible restrictions on construction of AI data centers. That built on top of already longstanding worries that AI stock prices had shot too high and were in a bubble.
Other stocks in the AI industry also slipped. GE Vernova, which is helping to power AI data centers, dropped 7%. Micron Technology, which sells memory for computers, fell 3.6% after flipping between gains and losses earlier in the morning. CoreWeave, a company that rents out access to AI chips to customers over the cloud, fell 2.6%.
Advanced Micro Devices held up better and was mostly unchanged.
The recent shakiness for AI-related stocks had raised questions about whether Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, may delay its initial public offering of stock.
But Anthropic said in a filing with U.S. regulators on Tuesday that it's looking to sell its stock at a price valuing the company at roughly $1.3 trillion. That would make it one of the most valuable companies on Wall Street, worth more than Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, ExxonMobil or Coca-Cola.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 4.4% for one of the world's biggest gains on strength for its two tech giants that have benefited from the AI boom, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
AP Writers Elaine Lai and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Trader Robert Greason works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Specialist Dilip Patel works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Options trader Frank Maiolo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Screens display the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Screens display the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rates and the Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer talks on a phone near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
