TORONTO — Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week:
Air Canada earnings
Air Canada will hold a conference call to discuss its first-quarter results on Monday. The airline announced on April 8 that it planned to rehire 16,500 laid-off workers via Ottawa's emergency wage subsidy, though the vast majority would remain at home amid the collapse of global travel triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Latest from the oilpatch
Thursday is a big earnings day in the oilpatch, with results expected from Enbridge, Canadian Natural Resources, Inter Pipeline, Pembina Pipeline and more. Results last week from Husky Energy, Cenovus, Imperial Oil and Precision Drilling portrayed an industry in crisis amid plummeting demand and sinking oil prices.
Shopify update
Shopify Inc. will release its first-quarter results and hold a conference call with financial analysts on Wednesday. The Ottawa-based technology company recently began offering interest-free cash advances to help companies that use its e-commerce products cope with the impacts of COVID-19. The initiative is meant to provide fast relief to cash-strapped businesses without having to take on debt.
BCE earnings
BCE Inc. will release its results Thursday. Rival Rogers Communications recently revealed that it felt the first financial bite from the COVID-19 pandemic during the tail end of its first quarter and senior executives said they expect conditions will get worse in months to come.
April jobs numbers
Statistics Canada will release the findings of its labour force survey for April on Friday. More than one million Canadians lost their jobs at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis in March, pushing the national unemployment rate up 2.2 percentage points to 7.8 per cent, the highest it has been since October 2010. Economists are expecting the April numbers to be even worse, with up to three million jobs lost.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2020.
The Canadian Press
