Wednesday was a negative day for markets which was blamed on the U.S. FED suggesting that the government needs to act to stimulate the economy while the market fears this will not happen anytime soon. The ongoing pandemic as we roll into the Fall of the year also contributed to a negative sentiment.
Among the relatively few stocks that rose were Canadian Tire – up 3.3%, and Couche-Tard up 1.5%.
The speech-from-throne included news that the emergency wage subsidy for businesses will continue through to the start of next summer. One company that should benefit is AutoCanda. They indicated that they had a benefit of $26 million form that program in Q2. There may be certain scenarios where a labour-intensive company’s revenues are down just enough to qualify for the wage subsidy and it could turn out to be more profitable than normal operations.
I will shortly be adding Alcanna to the list probably rated Speculative Buy. I would warn that it has a very poor recent history. But it is under newer management and it is benefiting quite a bit from the pandemic. Same-store liquor sales were up 13.4% in Q2. It now looks poised to continue to be profitable. The details will be in the report that I will post when it is completed. But I wanted to mention this now since I may buy some shares tomorrow (Thursday).