TORONTO — Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week:
Business openings and closings
Statistics Canada will release its monthly estimates of business openings and closures for October 2020 on Monday. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Thursday that one in six — or about 181,000 Canadian small business owners — are now seriously contemplating closing as a result of the recession or lockdown measures.
Metro results
Metro Inc. will release its first-quarter fiscal 2021 results. The retailer said in November that it was expediting its push into online food ordering and home delivery as fourth-quarter profits rose by more than 10 per cent compared with a year ago, with its online grocery sales growing 160 per cent.
Railroad earnings
Canada’s largest railroad operators will issue fourth-quarter results this week, with CN Rail reporting on Tuesday and Canadian Pacific on Wednesday. Both companies posted record levels of grain shipments in 2020 as they continued to add high-capacity grain hopper cars.
Rogers results
Rogers Communications Inc. will release its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on Thursday. The phone and internet giant reported in October of last year that third-quarter earnings had posted a healthy recovery from the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the results remained lower than 2019 as its advertisers and consumers continued to grapple with the virus' economic fallout.
November GDP figures
Statistics Canada to release gross domestic product by industry figures for November on Friday. The agency reported in December that real gross domestic product grew 0.4 per cent in October, its sixth consecutive month of growth.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2021.
The Canadian Press
