The Daily Chase: Air Canada and Sleep Country reports earnings

Here are five things you need to know for Aug. 11, 2023.

Risk is off: Markets are a little downbeat this morning after the rally fizzled yesterday afternoon. Today we blame weak lending data out of China. Another data point confirming a slowdown. The PBOC does make an interest rate decision next week and while consensus isn’t expecting much, we could get a stimulus surprise. We also got a read of producer price inflation in the U.S. and it ticked back up, just like CPI.  Market odds of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve actually keep coming down for September but have been trending up for the November meeting.

Take to the skies: Air Canada could catch a bid today after trouncing profit expectations and generating nearly $1 billion in free cash flow. Analysts seem impressed with the results especially the fact that the company nudged up the bottom end of its profit forecast. There had been some concern that travel demand was waning but Air Canada says that based on current booking patterns they see prevailing strength in travel demand for the rest of the year.

Go to the mattresses: Sleep Country saw a big drop in same-store sales (-10.9 per cent) as total sales also fell. EPS dropped nearly 40 per cent and came in below expectations. The CEO offered a cautious tone in the press release. “We continue to see softness in the second quarter following a slowdown in consumer spending on large discretionary goods...” said Steward Schaefer, CEO of Sleep Country. He was, however, “cautiously optimistic” that the shift in spending is temporary. The CEO will be on with me at 10:30 a.m. EDT.