The Q2 earnings season is upon us and analysts are anticipating another anemic quarter for corporate profits, says Prab Sagoo, associate director at Nasdaq Advisory Services, in his weekly market commentary.

Sagoo also notes this will be busy week for economic news, with releases from the Bank of Canada, Bank of England and from China.

More highlights

  • Canadian markets continued to bounce following the Brexit sell-off, outperforming the S&P500 and finished last week withyear-to-date gains just shy of 10%. Markets were very much bolstered by solid U.S. job gains in June—but volumes were lighter with the U.S. closed last Monday.
  • Small caps jumped 4.6% vs a 1.2% gain in the TSX 60. Year-to-date, the TSX Small Cap Index is up by a remarkable 32%.
  • In the second half of June, during Brexit,shorts against Canadian stocks increased. However, while shorts were covered against the old ETF, individual gold names saw some concentrated increases.
  • This week is expected to be a busy one: we will have the Bank of Canada announcing its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday (no change expected), though we may get some hint of how they anticipate any Brexit fallout to influence matters at home. Read: Business investment hasn’t been this crummy in 40 years
  • On Thursday, we have the Bank of England’s announcement. There are thoughts we could see a rate cut and additional stimulus measures to provide a buffer to any immediate Brexit-related fallout. Read: U.K. businesses in limbo due to Brexit
  • We also have Chinese economic data due out at the end of the week including GDP.