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The holiday season is right around the corner, and as the Canadian consumer looks to open up their wallet in one of the biggest seasons for retail, the so-called Santa Claus rally may have one just bump to give the stock market before the page turns on a new year. Indeed, it’s been a great year to be a stock investor. And while the year’s gains seem less likely to be topped come the new year, I think there are intriguing options out there that may not be nearly as bid up as the market, specifically the S&P 500, which I view as getting expensive, especially compared to the TSX Index. Indeed, just because the markets as a whole are expensive does not mean that there aren’t undervalued names lurking under the radar. Indeed, some of the best value bets may actually be large-cap names hiding in plain sight. And in this piece, we’ll check out two such names that are not at all overheated and are potentially extremely undervalued. So, if you’re searching for relative value in a hot market, the following names may be worth stashing on your December shopping list! Quebecor First, we have a Quebec-based telecom firm, ( ), which is also now the proud owner of discount wireless carrier Freedom Mobile. Indeed, Freedom Mobile may be best known as a carrier that offers competitive prices. However, it still has a way to go on the network quality front if it’s to really disrupt the Big Three telecom titans as they duke it out for the national wireless crown. In short, Quebecor is an underdog but one that I think is worth betting on as the firm looks to take on national behemoths that are magnitudes larger than its size (Quebecor is a mere $7.48 billion company). As Freedom continues investing in its 5G network, I think that more Canadians may gravitate towards the offering in a bid to save a few bucks per month. Indeed, inflation may have been tamed, but the for solid value propositions has not faded—not in the slightest. With a ridiculously low 10.3 times trailing price to earnings (P/E) and a nice 4.04% dividend yield, I’d look at the stock closely after its latest November correction, one that I think is overdone. Coca-Cola Speaking of corrections, ( ) stock is still just nearly 13% from its all-time high. Indeed, there’s a pretty strong level of support in the $62-63 range, making the recent dip seem like an opportunistic entry point. The stock boasts a nice 3.04% dividend yield and goes for 26.5 times trailing P/E. Indeed, that’s a modest dividend for a rather expensive price. While Coca-Cola’s controversial artificial intelligence (AI) advertisements may not hit the spot for many (I must say that I was not a big fan of the holiday ad), I see many areas where the firm can grow and move on from its recent pullback. Perhaps new products and targeted ads may be able to bring back some of the fizz to KO shares. Either way, you’re getting a legendary consumer staple that’s worth venturing south of the border for while it’s still down. As long as Coke pulls back on the AI ads, I think its marketing campaign can hit the ground running again.CLEVELAND (AP) — The NFL has closed an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who is ending the season on injured reserve for the second year in a row. The league has been reviewing the case for months , trying to determine whether Watson should be punished. “The matter is closed,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said Friday in an email to The Associated Press. “There was insufficient evidence to support a finding of a violation of the personal conduct policy.” Watson, who served an 11-game suspension in 2022, was accused of assault in Texas by a woman in September. She was seeking more than $1 million in damages before the sides reached a confidential settlement. Watson strongly denied the allegations through his attorney, Rusty Hardin. The 29-year-old Watson suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture in October. He's been rehabbing the injury in hopes of returning next season. The Browns still owe Watson $46 million in each of the next two seasons after they traded three first-round picks to Houston and signed him to a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract that has backfired. Watson has only played in 19 games over three seasons due to the suspension and injuries. He was acquired by the Browns, who were comfortable with his character despite Watson being accused of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. While he's in the clear with the league, Watson's future with Cleveland isn't so certain. His massive contract — and its salary-cap ramifications — has put the Browns in a bind in terms of trying to improve their roster. Cleveland has had a disappointing season after making the playoffs a year ago and could move on from Watson, but the cost would be exorbitant if the team just releases him. The Browns signed Jameis Winston for one season to be Watson's backup. Winston has gone 2-3 as a starter since taking over and he's put some life into Cleveland's offense, which didn't score 20 points or gain 300 yards with Watson before his injury. His 2023 season was ended by a broken bone in his shoulder, requiring surgery. Winston has indicated he would come back, and he could be a viable option as a starter even if the Browns draft a young QB. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLMany stocks performed well in 2024, but none better than those powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The technology fueled the bull market this year, with a few dozen stocks powering the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC -1.11% ) to a roughly 27.5% gain (as of Dec. 26). After such a phenomenal run, many popular AI names are expensive, with investors betting that these companies continue to grow at high rates and that their markets only get bigger. A good AI play trading at a reasonable multiple is a rarity these days. However, just a few weeks ago, a new AI stock joined the Nasdaq and could become a Wall Street darling in 2025. Better yet, it doesn't trade at an astronomic valuation. Back in the mix AI infrastructure company Nebius Group ( NBIS -3.46% ) got back in the mix a few months ago when the company rejoined the Nasdaq exchange after a three-year hiatus. The Russian company Yandex previously owned Nebius. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. imposed sanctions on companies linked to Russia. However, earlier this year, Yandex split off its international assets in a $5.4 billion deal. Four AI businesses split off from Yandex and into the Amsterdam-based Nebius company, including cloud, data labeling, edtech, and autonomous vehicles. Nebius essentially offers AI-as-a-service, providing companies and developers building AI models with access to graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters and a cloud platform. AI is expensive to build internally, but is becoming a technology that most businesses can't ignore if they want to stay relative. For instance, ServiceNow used Nebius to increase throughput on their conversational chatbot from 400 evaluation tasks per week to as many as 3,000 tasks a day. Nebius got a huge endorsement when it closed a $700 million private financing that included the large venture capital firm Accel and AI chip king Nvidia . Nebius has a special partnership with Nvidia, and its website says its customers will be the first to access Nvidia's new Blackwell chips. There has already been some excitement about the stock. Nebius came back onto the Nasdaq at $20 in late October, and shares are up over 41% since. Becoming the next AI darling Nebius got another big endorsement from Citron Research's Andrew Left, who said Wall Street has yet to catch on to Nebius' appeal. No analysts cover the stock, which isn't a huge surprise because it only returned to the Nasdaq a few months ago, and it can take analysts a long time to create and publish an initiation report. The company's financials are attractive. In its most recent quarter, Nebius grew revenue by 766% year over year and trimmed its losses by 45%. Nebius also has nearly $2.3 billion of cash and cash equivalents and very little debt. The company is investing $1 billion in GPU clusters in Paris and also doing a major expansion to its data center in Finland. Management expects the company's annualized revenue run rate to increase to the range of $750 million to $1 billion by the end of 2025. Nvidia shares trade at 47 times forward earnings , which isn't exactly unique in AI these days. While Nebius isn't a competitor and leverages Nvidia's chips, the company is expected to turn profitable next year and trades below 8 times forward earnings. Considering the projected growth of revenue and earnings and its growing market, this is a bargain. Left compares Nebius to Coreweave , a similar AI infrastructure company rumored to soon go public at a $35 billion valuation. Nebius has a roughly $6.7 billion market cap right now. The official announcement of Coreweave's IPO and ensuing registration statement could help better define the market for Nebius. Nebius is also likely still tricky for investors due to geopolitical events in recent years and its ties to Russia. However, investments from Accel and Nvidia are an important sign of legitimacy, and it's hard to find a quality name like Nebius trading at valuations this low.

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Walmart's DEI rollback signals a profound shift in the wake of Trump's election victory NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups in business. The changes announced by the world’s biggest retailer on Monday followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees. The retreat from such programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump's threat to impose tariffs could raise prices for consumers, colliding with promise for relief DETROIT (AP) — If Donald Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation. Economists and industry officials say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, booze and other goods. The president-elect floated the tariff idea and an additional 10% tax on goods from China, as a way to force the countries to halt the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S. But his posts Monday threatening tariffs on his first day in office could be a negotiating ploy to get the countries to change behavior. Trump’s latest tariff plan aims at multiple countries. What does it mean for the US? WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has identified what he sees as an all-purpose fix for what ails America: Slap huge new tariffs on foreign goods entering the United States. On Monday, Trump sent shockwaves across the nation’s northern and southern borders, vowing sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada, as well as China, as part of his effort to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs. Trump said he will impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first executive orders. Federal Reserve officials signal cautious path for rate cuts amid still-high inflation WASHINGTON (AP) — With inflation still elevated, Federal Reserve officials expressed caution at their last meeting about cutting interest rates too quickly, adding to uncertainty about their next moves. Even if inflation continued declining to the Fed’s 2% target, officials said, “it would likely be appropriate to move gradually” in lowering rates, according to minutes of the November 6-7 meeting. The minutes don’t specifically provide much guidance about what the Fed will do at its next meeting in December. Wall Street investors see the odds of another quarter-point reduction in the Fed’s key rate at that meeting as nearly even, according to CME Fedwatch. Canadian officials blast Trump's tariff threat and one calls Mexico comparison an insult TORONTO (AP) — Canadian officials are blasting President-elect Donald’s Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs. The leader of Canada's most populous province on Tuesday called Trump’s comparison of Canada to Mexico “the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard.” Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada, Mexico and China as soon as he takes office in January as part of efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico. Canadians say their economy and the U.S. one are deeply intertwined and Americans would feel tariffs, too. Biden proposes Medicare and Medicaid cover costly weight-loss drugs for millions of obese Americans WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of obese Americans would be eligible to have popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy or Zepbound covered by Medicare or Medicaid under a new rule the Biden administration proposed Tuesday morning. The proposal, which would not be finalized until after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, could cost taxpayers as much as $35 billion over the next decade. It would give millions of people access to weekly injectables that have helped people shed pounds so quickly that some people have labeled them miracle drugs. Surveillance tech advances by Biden could aid in Trump's promised crackdown on immigration President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision. It’s almost time for Spotify Wrapped. When can you expect your 2024 recap? NEW YORK (AP) — It’s almost that time of year. Spotify is gearing up to release its annual Spotify Wrapped, a personalized recap of its users' listening habits and year in audio. The streaming service has been sharing these personalized analyses with since 2016. And each year, it’s become a bigger production than the last. Spotify claimed its 2023 Wrapped was the “biggest ever created” in terms of audience reach and the kind of data it provided to users. But information on Wrapped's 2024 release has been kept under ... er, wraps. In previous years, it’s been released after Thanksgiving, between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6. Thanksgiving travel is cranking up. Will the weather cooperate? The Thanksgiving travel rush is picking up, with Tuesday and Wednesday expected to be much busier than the last couple days. A lot of travelers will be watching weather forecasts to see if rain or snow could slow them down. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen more than 2.8 million people on Tuesday and 2.9 million on Wednesday after handling more than 2.5 million people on Monday. So far, relatively few flights have been canceled this week, but there have been thousands of delayed flights every day. That is becoming normal for U.S. airlines. Federal agency raises the size of most single-family loans the government can guarantee to $806,500 The Federal Housing Finance Agency is increasing the size of home loans that the government can guarantee against default as it takes into account rising housing prices. Beginning next year, mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be able to acquire loans of up to $806,500 on single-family homes in most of the country, the agency said Tuesday. The new conforming loan limit is a 5.2% increase from its 2024 level. FHFA oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy home loans from banks and other lenders. FHFA adjusts the loan limits annually to reflect changes in U.S. home values, which have been rising this year despite a national home sales slump.The Ravens looked better defensively last week, but now Roquan Smith's injury is a concern

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CLEVELAND (AP) — The NFL has closed an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who is ending the season on injured reserve for the second year in a row. The league has been reviewing the case for months , trying to determine whether Watson should be punished. “The matter is closed,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said Friday in an email to The Associated Press. “There was insufficient evidence to support a finding of a violation of the personal conduct policy.” Watson, who served an 11-game suspension in 2022, was accused of assault in Texas by a woman in September. She was seeking more than $1 million in damages before the sides reached a confidential settlement. Watson strongly denied the allegations through his attorney, Rusty Hardin. The 29-year-old Watson suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture in October. He's been rehabbing the injury in hopes of returning next season. The Browns still owe Watson $46 million in each of the next two seasons after they traded three first-round picks to Houston and signed him to a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract that has backfired. Watson has only played in 19 games over three seasons due to the suspension and injuries. He was acquired by the Browns, who were comfortable with his character despite Watson being accused of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. While he's in the clear with the league, Watson's future with Cleveland isn't so certain. His massive contract — and its salary-cap ramifications — has put the Browns in a bind in terms of trying to improve their roster. Cleveland has had a disappointing season after making the playoffs a year ago and could move on from Watson, but the cost would be exorbitant if the team just releases him. The Browns signed Jameis Winston for one season to be Watson's backup. Winston has gone 2-3 as a starter since taking over and he's put some life into Cleveland's offense, which didn't score 20 points or gain 300 yards with Watson before his injury. His 2023 season was ended by a broken bone in his shoulder, requiring surgery. Winston has indicated he would come back, and he could be a viable option as a starter even if the Browns draft a young QB. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

The Washington Commanders put kicker Austin Seibert on injured reserve Tuesday, just over 48 hours since he missed an extra point that would have tied the score with 21 seconds left against Dallas. Seibert also missed a field-goal attempt and another extra point in the loss to the Cowboys. He missed the previous two games with a right hip injury but said afterward he was fine and made the decision to play. The Commanders filled that roster spot by signing running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. off their practice squad. Austin Ekeler had a concussion and Brian Robinson Jr. sprained an ankle Sunday. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Report: Chargers expect WR Ladd McConkey, LB Khalil Mack to play vs. RavensAt least eight U.S. telecom firms have been compromised by a Chinese hacking campaign, a White House official said on Wednesday. The hack , which also affected dozens of other countries, is part of the ongoing and sprawling “Salt Typhoon” campaign – a cyber campaign that the U.S. believes is aimed at gaining access to prominent political figures and government officials’ communications. “The Chinese compromised private companies exploiting vulnerabilities in their systems as part of a global Chinese campaign that’s affected dozens of countries around the world,” Anne Neuberger, deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technoloy, said. Neuberger added that officials do not believe any classified communications have been compromised thus far. The hacking campaign is one of the largest intelligence compromises in recent U.S. history. Cyberdefense and intelligence officials have already issued guidance recommending companies increase their security measures. So far, officials have not been able to remove the Chinese government hackers from telecommunications companies. China has denied the allegations, according to CNN. U.S. officials have not publicly named companies impacted by the hack campaign but one official told NBC News that AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies have been hacked. One official said the hackers stole metadata information from people’s cellphones. That information can show when, where and with who a person communicates. It is unclear how many people’s phones have had their metadata stolen but officials indicated it was a large group of people – though not every cellphone in the U.S. Senator Mark Warner, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday that the hacking campaign had reached the deepest parts of the U.S. telecommunications system which could allow hackers to listen to telephone conversation or read text messages. “This is a deeply concerning development for our national security,” Warner wrote on X. FBI officials have recommended people looking to protect their phone communications should use end-to-end encrypted systems like WhatsApp or Signal to text or call. They also recommended implementing multi-factor authentication for social media, email and more.Ravens bye week betting notes: AFC North title within reach; Jackson’s MVP odds slip

Alabama flips RB Jace Clarizio from Michigan State