American Express is updated and rated Buy at $79.70. It has suffered a blow due the upcoming loss of its co-branded Costco card. Sometimes it pays to buy good companies when they suffer a problem. On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.6%. Toll Brothers was up 2.0% to $39.90. It was last over $40 back in the hey day of the housing boom in 2005 when it briefly had a needle spike to over $55. Canadian Tire rose 1.7% to $132.88 and is basically at its all-time high. It’s done spectacularly well since a fear of Target pushed it down to $52 in August of 2011. At this time I am leery of the impact that the lower Canadian dollar will have on its product costs. I am not a buyer at this point but continue to hold some in a taxable account partly because I don’t like to trigger taxable capital gains.
A weak U.S. jobs report released on holiday Friday has the market spooked and the futures are down almost 1%. I find it a bit hard to believe that the U.S. can count its jobs gain to the accuracy of a 100,000 let alone 1000 as the market seems to believe. A one month figure is hardly a trend or a reliable sign of weakness. The U.S. unemployment ate was still reported at 5.5% which is down from close to 10% in 2009.
There are always things to worry about in the markets. Another worry is Greece which could default on some of its debts. If we sold shares or declined to buy due to each of the many worries about the world economy we would never own any stocks. That would be a poor plan.