Bank earnings, GDP numbers coming this week

Business and financial district in a city with pillars — iStockphoto

Poloz speech

Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz will give the University of Alberta Eric J. Hanson Memorial Lecture by video conference on Monday. Canada’s top central banker, who will retire next month, said recently that adding an income-support measure like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit to the government’s tool kit could help the country more quickly respond to sudden shifts in the economy.

Big bank earnings

Scotiabank and National Bank will kick off the results from the big Canadian banks on Tuesday, followed by Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal on Wednesday and TD Bank and CIBC on Thursday. Analysts are expecting an “ugly” quarter as mortgage and loan deferral programs rolled out amid Covid-19 are bound to contribute to drops in revenue and spikes in provisions for credit losses.

Aritzia earnings

Aritzia Inc. will hold a conference call with analysts to discuss its fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday. Statistics Canada reported Friday that Canadian retail sales posted their biggest monthly decline on record in March and warned an even bigger drop is expected for April as closures due to pandemic ran the entire month.

GDP numbers

Statistics Canada will release gross domestic product figures for March and the first quarter of 2020 on Friday. A preliminary estimate by Statistics Canada last month pointed to a 9% drop in GDP for March.

Canopy update

Canopy Growth Corp. is set to hold a conference call on Friday to discuss its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. The cannabis company recently parted ways with chief operating officer Andre Fernandez and chief commercial officer Dave Bigioni, following layoffs of roughly 800 staff as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.