It has been a turbulent week on Bay Street and Wall Street.
Canada’s commodity-heavy main stock index tumbled this week, weighed down by a near 5% drop in crude prices on demand concerns, while bullion prices slipped to a four-week low further hurting sentiment.
The TSX was dragged down as global growth fears and concerns around intense US Fed tightening impacted on sentiment. The loonie dove to a six-week low.
Canada’s main stock index gained ground on Wednesday, a day after the benchmark index hit a near-three-month low, aided by a rebound in oil prices and upbeat earnings from domestic companies. Utilities and telecom moved lower.
As investors south of the 49th parallel wait to see if earnings from big tech companies this week will provide support to a market worried about high inflation and slowing global growth. After growing fears of a global economic slowdown and more aggressive Federal Reserve had pummeled technology and growth stocks in the previous session that sent the NASDAQ to its lowest close since December 2020, US stocks closed higher on Wednesday on strong earnings updates.
Stockhouse’s Bullboards have been alive debating some of the biggest names and movers over the past week. It’s important for an investor to spend some time outside of their own head and gauge where their peers are at, and as always, these users have been taking advantage of the chance to connect.
The world’s biggest cannabis producer,
Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED, Forum) undertaking
a series of initiatives to reduce costs and drive efficiency in order to accelerate its path to profitability.
Under its FY23 strategic review, the company is:
- Reducing cost of goods sold in its Canadian cannabis business by lowering per-gram cultivation costs through increased cultivation-related efficiencies and facility improvements
- Implementing a flexible manufacturing platform inclusive of contract manufacturing for certain product formats
- Rightsizing indirect costs and generating efficiencies across the company's supply chain and procurement
- Aligning selling, general, and administrative costs with short-term business expectations by reducing third-party professional fees and office costs, further streamlining the organization to drive process-related efficiencies.
Canopy Growth’s CEO, David Klein said that to realize profitability and power growth, the team is taking critical actions to further evolve Canopy Growth into an agile organization with a clear focus on the areas where it has the greatest potential of success.
“These necessary changes are being implemented to ensure the size and scale of our operations reflect current market realities and will support the long-term sustainability of our company.”
Reliq Health Technologies Inc. (TSX-V:RHT, Forum) specializes in developing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for remote patient monitoring, telemedicine, and care collaboration. Reliq’s powerful iUGO Care platform supports care coordination and community-based virtual healthcare. iUGO Care provides real-time access to remote patient monitoring data, allowing for timely interventions by the care team to prevent costly hospital readmissions and ER visits.
The company recently has signed contracts with three individual physician practices in Texas and California and a health network in Nevada.
Together these providers are expected to add more than
8,000 new patients to Reliq’s iUGO Care platform this year.
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The company’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Crossley explained that the market demand for Reliq’s Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), Chronic Care Management (CCM), Behavioural Health Integration (BHI) and additional specialized virtual care solutions is rapidly increasing as physicians and payors recognize the benefits of proactively managing at-risk patients in the home to prevent complications.
“Both the scope of the virtual care programs funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the level of reimbursement have increased dramatically over the last several years. Our physician clients can now collect over $400 per patient per month in new, high-profit revenue by deploying Reliq’s iUGO Care platform. Preventative care enabled by iUGO Care can help payors reduce the average cost of care per patient by over 80% by enabling early interventions by the patient’s primary care physician, preventing costly and disruptive hospitalizations and ER visits. Patients using iUGO Care benefit from improved health outcomes and better quality of life, as well as increased patient-reported satisfaction with care.”
She added that the contracts are expected to generate an average revenue of more than $60 per patient per month at 75% gross margin and onboarding of both new clients and new patients continues to accelerate this quarter.
Finally, in its work to advance plasma processes and sustainable solutions to reduce greenhouse gases, three of
PyroGenesis Canada Inc.’s
(TSX-V.PYR, Forum)Drosrite systems have passed site acceptance testing.
The systems are now operating at Ma’aden Aluminum, a joint venture with Alcoa, and one of the world’s largest aluminum producers with 2021 revenue of over $7 billion (USD).
The milestone involves an initial order for seven systems, with the remaining four manufactured and awaiting final shipment.
PyroGenesis’ Drosrite system recovers waste from the aluminum smelting process, which can be converted into high-margin products, such as aluminum sulphate and ammonium sulphate.
PyroGenesis’ CEO P. Peter Pascali pointed to the fact that the company has a salt-free dross recovery system in use for the first time at a primary aluminum producer further validates this Drosrite technology and opens the door for further expansion.
“In fact, we are gaining significant attention within the industry, and we are receiving additional inquiries from other primary aluminum producers in the Gulf region as a result of this achievement.”
This brings us to our most recent Stockhouse poll:
Tech companies are facing ever deepening losses as investors fear that fast-growing companies are running out of steam, do you agree? Are you a part of this recent “tech sell off”? Let us know where you stand by clicking the image below to cast your vote.
(Click image to vote.)
As for last week’s survey ….
As always, our Investor Pulse Poll is located on the Stockhouse
homepage and the new poll should be going up shortly. Go to the homepage to register your vote. Readers interested in previous editions of Buzz on the Bullboards can find these
here.
FULL DISCLOSURE: PyroGenesis Canada Inc. is a client of Stockhouse Publishing.