The Daily Chase: Earnings season returns

Here are five things you need to know this morning.

Earnings galore: After a quiet few weeks, earnings season is well underway with major companies reporting results in the U.S. and Canada today. Early in the morning we got numbers from General Electric and General Motors, and the two former industrial powerhouses both seem to have pleased investors with their numbers. PepsiCo and UPS also reported mixed results, with both beating profit expectations but showing signs of slowdown beneath the surface. After the bell, we’ll get numbers from big Canadian names like First Quantum and CN Rail, while in the U.S., the market is anxiously awaiting numbers from Tesla. The former high flying electric car company has lost 43 per cent of its value this year, and expectations are that the company had a rough quarter.

Viking cruises prices US$1.1B IPO: There is perhaps no better sign that the demand for travel has fully recovered from the pandemic than news that a cruise company is seeking to go public. Viking Holdings Ltd., which operates cruises on 92 vessels around the world, is looking to go public in an initial offering in New York. The company filed paperwork with regulators hoping to sell 44 million shares for as much as US$25 each to raise $1.1 billion. The company booked revenue of $4.7 billion last year, filings show. The sector was hit harder than almost any other in 2020, but financial results from established players like Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Carnival show that demand has indeed returned. The IPO is slated to happen on the NYSE in the coming days, but there’s a Canadian connection: the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owns at least a five per cent stake in the company, according to IPO paperwork.

Wildfire season fully underway: The day after Earth Day is a grim marker for the opening of Canada’s wildfire season, but it definitely seems to be off and running. More than 100 blazes are burning across British Columbia already, and over the border in Alberta, there are more than 70 with three officially classified as “out of control.” An evacuation alert for Saprae Creek near the oilsands capital of Fort McMurray has been cancelled, but residents near Cold Lake near the Saskatchewan border have been ordered to leave. More than 65 per cent of Canada was abnormally parched or in drought as of the end of March – a time when snow melt typically kicks in. That’s prompting fears of another rough year for wildfires. Last year was among the worst on record as smoke from the fires blanketed North America, and from the energy industry’s perspective more than 300,000 barrels a day of production was taken offline.