It will be a relatively light week for Canadian economic announcements, but that doesn’t mean it will be a quiet week for financial markets. Other significant markets worldwide have critical economic announcements that will help formulate global central banks’ next moves. Here is a quick look at the week ahead.

• Statistics Canada (StatsCan) will release Canada’s gross domestic product for July on Friday. Canada’s economy shrank by 0.2% in June over the previous month, with StatsCan estimating no growth (0.0%) in July.
• In the US, critical economic announcements will include Thursday’s release of the third and final reading of economic growth in the second quarter of 2023. Personal spending and the personal consumption expenditure price index, a key inflation gauge for the US Federal Reserve Board, will be released on Friday.
• Economic announcements from around the world will provide some clues on the global economy’s health. China’s industrial profits will be released on Tuesday, European consumer confidence on Thursday and Europe’s inflation rate on Friday.
• There will be several corporate earnings announcements in Canada, notably BlackBerry, Aritzia and MTY Food Group. Notable earnings announcements in the US include Costco Wholesale, Micron Technology and Nike.

We should be mindful of progress in the Canadian and global economies but try to avoid sudden investment decisions based on individual events. The past year and a half have brought about significant periods of volatility in financial markets, but those periods bring opportunities to purchase potentially undervalued securities. Volatility might be unlikely to ease over the next few months based on heightened expectations that global central banks will maintain higher rates for longer. In response, identify opportunities and prepare your portfolio to pounce should the price move to a level you deem undervalued.

Please contact me to discuss how these announcements might impact your portfolio.