The federal government said it will pick up the tab to cover the costs of vaccinating Canadians from the coronavirus. The total amount is estimated to run more than $1 billion so far. However, demands from the provincial premiers for a boost to health transfers have been denied. They were looking for an additional $28 billion, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said these discussions were premature as the pandemic remains his immediate priority. The first 30,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine will arrive next week. Meanwhile, Ontario is expected to reveal more details about its vaccine rollout today.
LULULEMON ONLINE SALES SOAR
We’ll be keeping an eye on shares of Lululemon after the yoga retailer topped analyst’s expectations in the third quarter, with sales coming in over a billion dollars. A big part of that was due to its boom in e-commerce. The Vancouver-based retailer's online sales grew by 94 per cent compared to last year, accounting for 43 per cent of its total sales.
MASTERCARD, VISA HALT BUSINESS WITH PORNHUB
Mastercard will no longer allow its cards to be used on Pornhub following a review of the website that uncovered unlawful content. Visa is still in conducting its own investigation into the matter, but has suspended use of its cards on the site until it has completed this process. The two credit card giants started their investigations after a New York Times piece last week accused the porn site of hosting videos that depict child abuse and nonconsensual sexual behaviour. Online payment service PayPal cut ties with Pornhub last year. Pornhub is owned by Mindgeek, a private company run from Montreal.
DISNEY PLANS NEW PROGRAMMING, PRICE HIKE AS SUBSCRIBER GROWTH SOARS
Shares of Disney are up more than five per cent in pre-market trading after the company announced ambitious plans for its streaming platform Disney+. The company is planning dozens of new movies and TV shows from Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar in a bid to keep its subscribers growth going. Disney has more than 86.8 million subscribers to date and has said it could reach as many as 350 million subscribers globally by 2024.
OTHER NOTABLE STORIES
-Oil prices are lower after topping US$47 a barrel in New York on Thursday, the highest level since March
-Shares of Airbnb are pulling back a bit in pre-market trading after more than doubling in their trading debut Thursday
-The Food and Drug Administration could grant emergency authorization for the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine as early as Friday in the U.S. after its advisory panel recommended approval of the vaccine
-Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline are delaying advanced trials of their COVID-19 vaccine project
NOTABLE RELEASES/EVENTS
-Notable data: National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Canadian industrial capacity utilization
Advertisement