In Friday’s session, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% while Toronto was close to unchanged although slightly down.
America Express was down 2.8% after reporting earnings. It’s earnings were strong but it forecast increasing costs for card holder rewards.
Statistics Canada reported that retail sales were down 0.1% versus May and if gasoline and auto sales were excluded then sales were down 1.0%.
While this was a negative report, I note that the year over year change for May was still positive at 1.0%. But we probably needed 2.0% to keep up with inflation. These numbers are seasonally adjusted which is an imprecise exercise. Seasonal adjustments would assume a typical seasonal difference between April and May whereas the weather this year may have been less favorable than average. I would not read anything into this report unless next month’s report confirms a negative trend.
Q2 earnings reports for Canadian companies are just starting to come in but most will arrive in the first half of August.