Wednesday was a very strong day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 1.5%. Toronto, however, managed only a 0.3% gain.
Notable gainers included:
Couche-Tard up 7.5% on its strong earnings report.
Restaurant Brands – up 3.9%.
Fortis – up 2.6%
Starbucks – up 2.7%
After the close, Costco reported August same-store sales growth of 14.5% (excluding volatile fuel prices and the impact of foreign exchange. For the quarter just ended the same-store sales gain was 14.1% and e-commerce was up 91%. These figures are versus the same time period one year ago. It’s not clear to what extent the gains are due to people eating at home rather than in restaurants and to what extent it is due to Costco taking market share from other retailers. Inflationary price increases would also explain some of the gain. These results are obviously good in terms of Costco’s share price.