Five Canadian business stories to watch this week

Shopify
Shopify

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.

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.

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 the federal government’s emergency wage subsidy, though the vast majority would remain at home amid the collapse of global travel triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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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.

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.

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