On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.15% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Couche-Tard was down 6.5% (see the post just below this one for details).
AutoCanada was down 2.0%.
Oil (at least the West Texas variety) was up 2.2% to U.S. $63.42. That’s about $83 Canadian dollars which is not a low price. Of course the price for Canadian heavy oil is far lower due to lack of pipelines, transport costs and also the heavier nature of the oil.
In any case, today’s oil prices have not been enough to ignite much enthusiasm for stocks associated with Alberta. Canadian Western Bank had been doing well but is down about 13% from its recent highs. Melcor remains moribund despite a strong Q4. Ditto for AutoCanada. Stantec is headquartered in Edmonton and still gets an important chunk of revenue from Alberta but it’s far less dependent on Alberta or even Canada than it used to be. Yet it also seems to be affected by this pox on Alberta stocks. In addition there is a certain amount of gloom over most Canadian stocks due to concerns about NAFTA. Some of these stocks certainly seem under-valued and some may achieve very strong earnings growth in 2018. I think patience will be rewarded in such cases.