On Tuesday the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was up 0.2%.
The S&P 500 briefly went above 1900 for the first time.
The only particularly noticeable move for our stock picks was Liquor Stores N.A. which was down 3.5% to $11.47. This company released “earnings” actually a loss in Q1. Perhaps I never should have looked at this company. It retails the same products that its hundreds of competitors do. I had thought there was value in its scale and ability to buy up smaller competitors. But right now it’s not clear that this is the case. And it increasingly appears that management is not strong.
I would not be at all surprised if they cut the dividend which is too high. On a positive note they were able to increase their borrowing limit this quarter. I don’t particularly want to see more debt but it is encouraging that the lenders allowed it.
TD Waterhouse seems to be coming put with a lot of IPOs and secondary stock options. It may be that companies are eager to issue shares at the higher prices. This could be a signal that we should be more cautious.
Element Financial came out after the close today with what appear to be good earnings and strong growth.
As expected, the Enbridge pref shares did fall today as they went ex-dividend. They closed at $25.10 versus $25.35 yesterday. However it would have been easy to miss the decline. Yahoo shoes the shares down only 1 cent because they adjusted yesterday’s close for the dividend of 24 cents. It seems one has to be careful in looking at past prices because sometimes they are adjusted.