Stocks

The coronavirus pandemic has led to the normalization of the work-from-home culture and many organizations have found it as a good cost controlling mechanism that doesn’t hamper employee productivity levels. Due to this condition, the gig economy got a major boost. Gig websites give people the opportunity to make additional income while they were working from their homes and some also started finding it more appealing as they could set their own schedules and follow their respective passions.

Based in California, Robinhood Markets Inc. is a financial services company that provides an online investment platform to its users (31 million as of 2021) for trading in various types of listed securities and exchange-traded funds without charging any commission. The platform also lists down several other facilities like high-yield cash management offerings, margin trading, and access to initial public offering (IPO) investments. The company is a FINRA-regulated broker-dealer and is registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Moreover, it is also a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

Based in Ontario, Kirkland Lake Gold is one of the oldest gold mining companies engaged in the acquisition, production, and operation of gold properties. The company carries out its mining operations from three high-quality mines namely the Macassa Mine, Detour Lake Mine, and Fosterville Mine that are located in Canada and Australia respectively.

In the past five years, Kirkland Lake Gold stock has gained more than 500%. However, the stock has taken a beating over the past year and is down by 23.62% since last year and by almost 8% so far this year. That said, it looks like a decent entry at this price point, and the stock looks like it is in recovery mode.

Blackberry is a completely different company now than it was almost a decade ago. From being a mobile phone company in the past decade, the Canada-based giant is now a specialized cybersecurity company that provides services like enterprise-critical event management solutions, endpoint protection, and promotes internet security by employing artificial intelligence and machine learning mechanisms against any cyber threats.

Last year brought a big fall for the global stock markets followed by a recovery towards the year-end. But this recovery was lopsided toward tech stocks as the pandemic came as a boom to the cloud and internet companies. This year is all about the after-effects of the pandemic and the vaccination drive. The economic recovery will begin in 2022 as all sectors, online and offline, return to businesses. This is where the value is. Here are the top 10 stocks that are trading at lower prices but hold the potential to grow when things return to normalcy.

Kroger is an American retail company operating the largest supermarket (in terms of revenue) in the country. Though the stock has lost much of its market share to rivals like Walmart post-2018, it made it through the pandemic relatively unscathed as demand for groceries and home cleaning supplies were on a rise.

The fourth wave of COVID-19 is here. The number of cases in Canada is on the rise and while the situation isn’t as dire as it was in March 2020, there is still cause for concern. If the country does go into another lockdown, investors should be looking at stocks that will be able to survive and even grow during the lockdown.

Lightspeed POS, presently known as Lightspeed Commerce Inc, is a Canadian retail POS company that offers a Software as a Service (Saas) based e-commerce platform primarily to small and medium-sized businesses located in Canada, United States, Germany, and Australia, among others. During the pandemic when online shopping was at its peak, the company’s omnichannel commerce software aiding online payment solutions got a massive boost and as a result the company’s share also blew up. Within the past year, Lightspeed has gained around 200%, and even now, the stock is continuing to outperform the market and has gained about 40% year to date.

Shopify is a Canada-based multinational e-commerce platform operating across 175 countries with a customer base of around 1.75 million merchants. In return for subscription fees ranging from $29 per month for entrepreneurs to $2,000 and up for large companies, this platform enables merchants to sell their offerings across various channels like web and mobile storefronts, pop-up shops, physical retail locations, etc. along with helping them in operational processes like inventory management, order, and payment processing, shipments, and likes.

TC Energy Corporation is a Canada-based North American energy infrastructure company operating across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The company is considered one of the best players in the North American energy infrastructure sector. Its functions are mainly based across three core business lines: Natural Gas Pipelines, Liquids Pipelines, and Energy. Using a network of 93,400 km natural gas pipelines TC Energy transports natural gas from supply basins to local distribution companies, power generation plants, industrial facilities, interconnecting pipelines, LNG export terminals, and other businesses.

According to the government of Canada, “The Canadian space sector has established a world-class reputation in many areas, including in Earth observation, space robotics, space science and exploration, and satellite communications; and continues to innovate into emerging capabilities.” This industry also has a huge role in the country’s nation-building process and as per a 2018 report, it has been generating $5.7 billion in revenues along with contributing $2.5 billion to the Canadian economy.

Facebook is a company that has faced its fair share of challenges through the years but it is moving on like ‘The Little Engine that Could’. Except, Facebook is no longer little and the engine is a monster that can’t be stopped.

Meme stocks run on momentum. As long as there are enough investors egging the stock on, and coming up with new reasons to buy and HODL, the stock is on an uptrend. We saw that happen to GameStop in January and then with AMC in June. Now, it seems like meme hypers have turned their attention to BlackBerry. The stock closed at $8.59 on May 25 before all sorts of news started emerging hyping up the company on social media, especially on the subreddit WallStreetBets. By June 3, BlackBerry stock was up 85% at $15.88.

With vaccinations and a recovery in corporate earnings, it is a very good time to invest in stocks that will benefit from the economy’s reopening. This list doesn’t contain names like Air Canada or Cineplex because we believe that while these stocks can zoom up, even a little bad news or a jolt can cause these stocks to erode investor value. The stocks on this list are ones that will do well in shaky times as well.

Small-cap stocks are generally bought because of their growth potential, and not because they pay out regular dividends. However, there

Contrary to popular opinion, not all stock markets are alike. Different regions and country stock markets often move to the beat of their own drummer based on all sorts of factors, from economic growth to political events and perceptions of risk. It pays overtime to take a global perspective.

The United States has been making a V-shaped recovery since the last quarter of 2020, with rising GDP and consumer spending and declining unemployment. The country’s recovery rate is just behind China, as US GDP increased at an annualized rate of 1.6% in the first quarter of 2021 (ended March). In comparison, the European region witnessed a double-dip recession in the first three months of 2020, as the Euro Zone GDP shrunk by 0.6% over this period.