On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.2% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
While I don’t ever claim any ability to predict short-term moves, this was not a surprise given that the S&P 500 seems over-valued and given the fact that the Trump Campaign is under investigation.
Bank of America was down 5.8%.
Stantec managed a 0.2% gain on this negative day after announcing the sale of a small subsidiary that it had acquired as part of a much larger acquisition earlier this year. As of now there are not many stocks that I am keen to Buy. Stantec is one that come to mind for me. Also Canadian Western bank as it drifts lower.
Melcor has been holding up well even as oil prices drop. Statistics Canada reported investments in new home construction for January. For Alberta, the figure for single family homes was down a modest 6% from January 2016 which in turn had been down 32% from 2015. The good news is that there is at least still some single home building going on. Home building (and therefore the sale of building lots) is clearly a very cyclic industry. Melcor is well positioned to weather the storm but its share price could certainly fall again before it rises. I don’t have any plans to reduce my position.
Wednesday’s excitement will be the Canadian Federal Budget.