We’ve been watching Elf for the past seven family movie nights. I keep telling the kids winter is long gone but the weather isn’t exactly convincing. Neither is the fact that we still have our Christmas lights up.
There are 99 companies on the S&P/TSX Composite Index reporting and 128 on the S&P 500. Below are some of the most notable ones:
Cheat day: McDonald’s Corp. MCD-N is trading around a 10-month low ahead of its earnings report this week. Since the war in Iran began, the stock is down 15 per cent on concerns international sales in the Middle East and elsewhere will be lower. The war has also driven up the price of food, which could mean higher costs for the restaurant chain. Higher gas prices in general may mean consumers choose to dine out less. But challenges for McDonald’s started before the war. In February, the company released a video of its chief executive eating a new burger, which went viral because it looked like he was being forced to eat it. “McDonald’s has been underperforming peers such as Burger King in the wake of viral ‘CEO burger-bites’ videos and the subsequent taste tests of the Whopper vs. the Big Arch burger,” Evercore ISI’s David Palmer wrote in a preview note. Its 2026 outlook may be the key test as to whether McDonald’s feels it can turn things around. The company reports Thursday before the bell.
New kid on the block: The Walt Disney Co. DIS-N will report quarterly results for the first time under new CEO Josh D’Amaro. He will have to navigate big-picture questions about how Disney stays relevant in today’s media landscape and how it will use artificial intelligence. But there are also immediate concerns. International travel to Disney parks was under pressure before the war in Iran started, so investors will be asking: How much worse has it gotten? Has domestic demand held up? How much more are the NFL and other leagues going to charge to carry sporting events, which are the only things people are willing to watch on linear TV? Disney’s forecast could also hinge on its box-office slate with The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Mandalorian & Grogu, Toy Story 5, the live-action Moana remake and Spider-Man: Brand New Day all coming out this year. (Remember when only original movies were made?) “Sentiment is generally muted,” J.P. Morgan senior research analyst David Karnovsky wrote in a preview note to clients, adding the stock has underperformed since the company’s last quarterly release. He thinks that’s a buying opportunity. “At 14x forward EPS, the stock continues to look cheap relative to the long-term outlook.” Disney reports Wednesday morning.
Vibe check: Canadian oil producers have benefited from the surge in energy prices, and this week, investors will see how that showed up operationally. Major producers including Cenovus Energy Inc. CVE-T, Suncor Energy Inc. SU-T and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. CNQ-T all report this week. “Q1 results (which will only reflect one month of conflict-linked oil pricing) will provide an important checkback to operational performance and idiosyncratic risk for investors,” wrote the ATB Cormark Capital Markets energy team led by Patrick O’Rourke. One of the key things to watch, Mr. O’Rourke’s team argues, is whether companies are tempted to increase spending or production to capture higher prices. “Our channel checks with energy service providers indicate that there has been a push to accelerate drilling and completion activity where possible. … This likely pushes production growth to the top end of suggested 2026 guidance, and further enhances the 2027 outlook.” Cenovus, which hit a record high last week, likely benefited from higher oil prices as well as its acquisition of MEG Energy. “Just based on the move in oil this year, MEG has the potential to be fully paid for in one calendar year, which is phenomenal,” Jason Landau, portfolio manager at Waratah Capital Advisors, said on my podcast last week. He said even with the run-up in shares, it is a buy.
Shop till ya drop: Shopify Inc. SHOP-T has not been immune to the tech wreck in 2026, but it didn’t participate in the relief rally we saw in April as investors debated whether the high valuation was justified. Earnings this week could answer that question. Shopify is expected to grow sales 31 per cent, marking the fifth time in the past six quarters that growth has been above 30 per cent. Investors will want to know whether that is sustainable given the recent geopolitical turmoil. They’ll also be looking for colour around Shopify’s AI strategy as it pushes into agentic commerce. “Limited Agentic commerce and monetization updates were considered a reason for the stock’s weakness since last print,” TD Cowen analyst John Shao wrote in a preview note. During the quarter, Shopify launched an AI assistant, Sidekick, as a temporary free trial. The trial ended in April, but analysts will look for details into how many customers signed up for paid access. Investors may also have questions about Shopify’s “tokenmaxxing” culture, Mr. Shao said. Shopify has been urging employees to use AI tools daily, authorizing unlimited token budgets. “We are curious about the near-term margin implications as frontier LLM tokens are expensive.” Shopify reports Tuesday morning.
Open to work: On Friday morning, Canada and the United States will release the number of new jobs added to their respective economies. Consensus expects that 10,000 new jobs were added in Canada for the month of April. There could be some downside because of layoffs from Algoma Steel Inc. ASTL-T and the beginning of the federal government’s early retirement plan. “The [federal plan] is expected to add downside risk to public administration jobs through the summer, partially offset by temporary Census hiring, as Ottawa tries to reduce spending following a decadelong hiring spree,” BMO Capital Markets senior economist Shelly Kaushik wrote. Ahead of that, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and deputy governor Carolyn Rogers will appear in two rounds of parliamentary testimony this week. Expect questions about what higher commodity prices do for the rate outlook and downside risks around the renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The U.S., meanwhile, is expected to show just 62,000 new jobs were added in April. The number has been prone to huge revisions recently and the unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.3 per cent.
In the Money with Amber Kanwar is Canada’s top investing podcast. New episodes out Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe now! www.inthemoneypod.com