Earnings take centre stage

Earnings take centre stage
The Chase by Marty Cej:

Prince Albert National Park was featured in The Globe and Mail’s Life section this morning, called “Saskatchewan’s playground.” The story reveals many of the park’s pleasures, some of which are found in the township of Waskesiu, named after the lake it sits aside. There are expensive boutiques, the story says, and cafes where one can buy organic, fair-trade espresso; there are photo galleries, a golf course, a liquor store and seven restaurants, none of which were there when I was a kid visiting grandparents and relatives. My own memories of Waskesiu are of adults in plaid shirtsleeves drinking from stubbies; A-frame cottages, CFL games on boxy television sets, shallow water, bright sun, sharp and brittle grass. Those memories are a little fuzzy, though, since bloodletting was also a prominent feature of our visits. You would walk into the water up to your knees and return to the beach a few minutes later with a new pair of shimmering tube socks made up of leeches. After peeling the squirmy things from your legs, you would walk whimpering back through the woods towards the cottage, arriving with a sweater of mosquitoes humming on your skinny little frame only to be told to “get the hell outside and play, dammit.” Oh, Waskesiu, how you’ve changed.

Canadian earnings take centre stage today with heavyweights such as BCE, Cameco, Canadian Natural Resources, Air Canada and WestJet reporting. Great-West Lifeco, Sun Life Financial and Canaccord Financial will hold conference calls with analysts and investors this morning while the likes of GM, Southwest Airlines, AIG, CVS and Fluor report in the U.S. If you are a stock investor, today is one of those days that you get a clear glimpse into multiple sectors through the earnings and commentary from industry leaders.

Already this morning, we have spoken with Tom Albanese, CEO of Rio Tinto, one of the world’s most influential mining executives. If you missed it live, turn to www.BNN.ca for the full interview. At 11:05 a.m. ET, we’ll sit down with Leo de Bever, CEO of AIMCo for his thoughts on the U.S. and European debt crises and the market opportunities available to the multi-billion-dollar fund he oversees

Already this morning, we have spoken with Tom Albanese, CEO of Rio Tinto, one of the world’s most influential mining executives. If you missed it live, turn to Bnn for the full interview. At 11:05 a.m. ET, we’ll sit down with Leo de Bever, CEO of AIMCo for his thoughts on the U.S. and European debt crises and the market opportunities available to the multi-billion-dollar fund he oversees.

Want to talk gold? Mark Bristow, CEO of Randgold, joins us at 9:15 a.m. ET and Peter Marrone, CEO of Yamana is on at 2:15. Interested in airline stocks? Greg Saretsky is the CEO of WestJet and will talk with us near 4:00. How about demand for uranium amid growing concern over nuclear energy? Tim Gitzel, CEO of Cameco, the world’s biggest uranium company, is on at 3:20. How is Marc Tellier, CEO of Yellow Media, navigating the toughest period in the company’s history? Listen in at 4:00.

And what about the backdrop for today’s earnings? The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday snapped an eight-day losing streak and the S&P 500 a seven-day rout. Growing concern that the U.S. might tip again into recession has some investors betting on more easing from the Fed which in turn has prompted the central banks of Switzerland and Japan to intervene in currency markets to halt the rise of their soaring currencies. We’ll need to a take a careful look at changing expectations for U.S. and global economic growth today as markets brace for U.S. jobs data tomorrow morning.

Other stocks to watch today include Kraft, which said it plans to pin off its North American grocery business to shareholders. That includes KD, folks.