Author name: Shawn

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Oil fell over $2.00 to about $68.
Border Service Agency workers are preparing to strike. Are these the same people who were likely all kept working despite almost no one allowed t...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.8% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Couche-Tard was up 2.7%.
There was news today the the Mutual Fund Dealers Association will merge with Investment Dealers regulatory Association. The merger of the regulators will likely...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was closed for the holiday.
VISA was down 2.7%.
Markets appear set to open moderately higher on Tuesday.
The Melcor REIT announced good results for Q2 on July 27 and will increase the distributio...

I see Bausch Health is in the news about lawsuits dating back to 2015 or so. This was about aggressive /misleading accounting under its former name Valeant Pharmaceuticals. That's one I got right as I called it a sell at about $330 in 2015 and it ver...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Melcor was down 1% to $12.62 which is disappointing to see it under $13. Hopefully the Q2 report around August 12 will improve the price.
Restaurant Brands was up 5.2% after reportin...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.4%.
West Fraser Timber rose only 2.4% on its strong earnings. It may be trading mostly on the Dutch auction offer price. Also, lumber prices while still strong are way down from the peak.
RIWI w...

bOn Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was up 0.3%.
AutoCanada was up 7.8%. 
After the close West Fraser Timber released (as expected) very strong Q2 earnings. The focus now will be on the outlook with lower timber prices. Rec...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
TFI International was up another 7.1% to $140.86. This was after releasing earnings. The performance here has been stunning. I've always sung the praises of its management. But this...

Monday's action had the S&P 500 and Toronto each up 0.2%.
Shopify was down 3.9% but that's from recent record highs.
Oil remains strong at $71.90
The Canada five year bond yield is 0.78%. Down from levels around 1.0% earlier this year but now hol...

Markets are set to close the week on a high note.
Aecon Group is up 9% today after releasing earnings.
TFI is up to $129.56 and has been a stellar performer. 
Oil is at $71.84 which is good for Alberta. ...

Markets are set to open higher this Wednesday morning..
With the 5 year Canada bond yield down to 0.775% rate reset shares may continue to slide back somewhat.  The Enbridge one on our list PFA.A might be a good choice especially under $18. The CWB o...

Not too surprisingly, markets on Tuesday recovered a lot of the losses of yesterday.
S&P 500 up 1.5%, Toronto up 1.1%.
After the close, CN Rail posted strong results....

The latest Teranet index of home prices is out and is worth exploring.
In general, home prices are at record highs across Canada.
But Edmonton remains about 3% below the peak reached back in 2007. And Calgary about 3% below the 2014 peak. With low in...

On Monday markets were down quite noticeably - the S&P 500 was down 1.6% and Toronto was down 1.3%. 
RioCan might be worth considering now at $22.06. I would not be in a hurry to deploy cash but would look to nibble if prices on certain stocks ke...

Markets are down due to the virus (especially Delta variant) now spreading fast including in the U.S. Obviously the pullback could deepen but overall there is little indication that a big sell-off is underway. In any case it would be an opportunity f...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.75% and Toronto was down 1.0%
Most stocks were down on the day.
This coming week we will see more Q2 earnings reports come in particularly for U.S. stocks and that may be a driver for some individual companies. S...

An early comment today because I will be flying to Nova Scotia later today. It's a long-delayed trip for me and it's great to see Air Travel start to ramp back up.
This morning Couche-Tard is up 5%. I don't see any news so this is probably based on a...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.6%.
TFI International rose 8.75% after pre-announcing certain good results for Q2. 
Apple was up 2.4%.
All in all, the outlook for stocks remains positive.
 ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.35% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Apple announced it is looking for its suppliers to increase iPhone production by 20%. This stock appears set to keep on rising. 
OPEC has made progress in dealing with the demands ...

The reopening is happening fast now.
I was at West Edmonton Mall Monday around 2:30. Quite busy but I would not say packed. (It's not Christmas after all and it was Monday afternoon). lululemon was packed. The big Sport Chek store was busy (Canadian ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up another 0.35% while Toronto was down 0.1% as oil prices were marginally lower.
Berkshire Hathaway and Questar Energy jointly canceled Berkshire's previously agreed purchase for $1.3 billion of the Dominion pipeline. ...

On Friday, markets were sharply higher erasing most or all of the loss from Thursday. The S&P 500 rose 1.1% and Toronto was up 1.0%.
Most stocks were up on the day.
Oil is continuing to be strong with a price of U.S. $73.63 indicated as of Sunday...

 
RioCan is updated and rate (lower) Buy at $23. It, like so many other investments, has had a huge recovery from the lows last year. It's outlook continues to improve. It may have a couple dollars higher to run based on the improving outlook and esp...

Markets had a relatively rare negative day on Thursday as the S&P 500 fell 0.9% and Toronto fell 1.1%.
Toll Brothers was down 3.85%.
West Texas oil is holding up very well at $73.20.
Costco was up 0.6% after reporting that same-store sales growth...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was basically unchanged with a modest decline of 0.05%.
West Fraser Timber was up 7.1% to $93.00 after announcing that it will buy back up $1 billion in shares in a "modified Dutch auction" proc...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was was down 0.2% while Toronto managed a gain of 0.1%. 
Shopify surged another 5.6%. Wow! and Amazon was up 4.7%. Also wow!
Linamar was down 3.0%. AutoCanada bounced down 4.75%.
Yesterday, I saw commentary that if OPEC co...

On Monday, Toronto was up 0.75%. U.S. markets were closed for the holiday.
Boston Pizza Royalty units were up 5.1% to $14.87. That's a better recovery than I would have expected. But if only a few restaurants end up permanently closing then it could ...

The report on Alimentation Couche-Tard (owner of the Circle-K chain) is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $46.82. It's been a great investment over the years and has excellent management. There is always uncertainty but this should continue to be a g...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.75% while Toronto was up 0.3%.
AutoCanada was up 3.1%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was up 2.8% after releasing earnings.  This is a wonderfully successful company. I will be updating the report on Couche-Tard tomorrow...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $196. (It closed today at $194.67, but my analysis was based on a price from June 30.)  Its sales and earnings grew strongly in the past three quarters. Some of that growth was pandemic-related and i...

Happy Canada Day! Wow, half way through 2021... Toronto markets are of course closed today.
On Wednesday, the Toronto was about unchanged. Couche- Tard was up 3.5% after its earnings release. West Fraser Timber was up 3.2% and AutoCanada was up 3.2% ...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was about flat and Toronto edged up 0.1%.
Was in Costco today. Busy of course. Good to own shares. Similar story at Canadian Tire to a lesser degree.
Couche-Tard reported after the close. Looked like fairly good results at ...

Markets were "mixed" and little-changed on Monday with the S&P 500 up 0.2% and Toronto down 0.4%.
Bigger movers included Linamar down 3.5% and Alcanna down 3.2%.
The next updates planned are for Canadian Tire, Couche-Tard and RioCan.
I see that S...

TD Direct / TD Waterhouse sends me alerts for initial public offerings. This mornings they are trying to sell 5.5% fixed income debentures in Storage Vault Canada.
The fact that these are a "bought deal" rather than a "marketed deal" suggests that TD...

Wine maker / wine seller Andrew Peller is updated at rated (lower) Buy at $9.60. It is in a highly competitive and slow-growing business and so will never be a reliable high return investment. But at the current price it could do well over the next c...

On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 01%. 
FedEx was down 3.6%.
 ...

Markets moved higher once again on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 0.6% and Toronto up 0.25%.
WSP Global was up 2.6%.
With reopening and with Biden's infrastructure plan, there is nothing currently on the horizon to derail stock markets. But then ag...

On Wednesday, markets ended the day modestly lower wit the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Toronto down 0.2%.
I notice that the North America Construction Group Debentures that I have mentioned a few times lately have jumped to $110.55 versus their recent ...

On Tuesday, markets were higher with the S&P 500 up 0.5% and Toronto up 0.2%.
Penny stock RIWI was down 7.7%. The market has lost a lot of faith in this little company.
AutoCanada was up 4.5% and despite volatility has had an amazing recovery. 
A...

Late last week, the markets took a little breather from making investors richer almost daily. On Monday, stock markets got back to work making up even for the weekend with the S&P 500 rising 1.4% and Toronto up 0.8%.
The energy ETF, XEG, was up 4...

Markets gave back some ground on Friday as the S&P 500 was down 1.3% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
AutoCanada bounced up 7.9%.
There is no indication that this is the start of any downdraft. But in any case those who have kept dome funds in cash can...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Andrew Peller was down 8.4%. I will plan to update the analyses soon. From what I see in the Alberta liquor stores a lot of Wine is incredibly cheap. Peller seems like a well...

On Wednesday markets were a bit weak with the S&P 500 down 0.5% and Toronto about unchanged.
Shopify was up once again, gaining 3.6%.
Linamar was down 3.5%.
Canadian Western bank was up 2.3%.
Markets were weaker as the Fed hinted at eventual inte...

On Tuesday. the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
AutoCanada was down 6.8% as it continues to be volatile. From what I hear, car dealers are very busy lately and they should have a great Q2. But it's hard to say if too much optimis...

On Monday the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto edged up 0.1%.
Apple was up 2.5%. Shopify was up 4.5%.
Toll Brothers was down 2.3%.
With the Melcor REIT down at $6.90 this morning I bought a few more shares. It's certainly not a high return entit...

Friday's action saw the S&P 500 up 0.2% and Toronto up 0.4%.
On Friday, I decided to sell most of my Enbridge rate reset preferred shares. They closed Friday at $19.71 to yield 5.2% which is not bad. But if the five year Canada yield happens to s...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
But a number of the stocks I own missed that little party.
Toll Brothers was down 5.0% to $58.78. I'm tempted to add to my position but I already have a large exposure to it.  And it i...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.15%.
TFI International was up 3.7% regaining most of what it lost yesterday. Seems a bit odd, but then again lots of odd things happen in the markets.
The composition of my own po...

On Monday the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was about unchanged.
TFI International was down 4.8%. Perhaps my timing in selling out of that recently was pretty good. (That's with about a week down and infinity go though...) And I sold some sha...

Markets were slightly negative on Thursday with the S&P 500 down 0.4% and Toronto down 0.15%.
Intact Financial was up 3.3%. 
After the close, Costco reported May same-store sales figures which were up 15% after adjusting for volatile gasoline pri...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up a very modest 0.1% while Toronto was about unchanged and has therefore not yet managed to close above the 20,000 level that it reached (and exceeded) within the trading day yesterday. and again today.
Linamar was ...

A subscriber had a question / comment about that North American Construction Group convertibles debenture that I had mentioned yesterday. With his permission, I thought it might be useful to share the question and my response (with some edits here).
...

On May 10, I mentioned that I saw a notice of a new issue of a 5.5% debenture from North American Construction Group and that I put in for some.  It seems the maximum allowed was $25,000 which seemed low. It was apparently heavily over-subscribed and...

Definitely some interesting news today.
The S&P 500 was down a 0.05%, so basically about unchanged.
Toronto however was up 1.2%
The bigger news was that the Toronto Stock Exchange Index poked its head above 20,000 today for the first time ever. I...

The U.S. markets were closed on Monday. The Canadian market started out with a gain and pushed up over 19,900 before finishing the day down 0.6%.
I sold most of my remaining TFI International shares today.  This may not have been wise given the perfo...

Stantec is updated and rated (lower) Buy at Canadian $54.04 or U.S. $ 44.78. It has recovered strongly. Impressively, it managed to increase earnings in the past year through cost cutting and despite somewhat lower revenues due to the pandemic. The o...

Further to my comment yesterday on Friday's market results...
Given its strong earnings report and outlook on Friday morning, It was disappointing to see Canadian Western Bank down 1.6% to $36.60. But strong results were expected and the stock is alr...

On Friday, markets pushed higher once again with the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Toronto gaining 0.4%.
There were no particularly notable gains for the stocks on our list. But C.N. Rail was up 1.4% to $136. The dip to $126 last week appears to have been ...

The report on lululemon is updated and rated Speculative Weak Buy at $330. It's very expensive but it is also a great business. This is a great Canadian success story. It was founded and is still headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. But it is registered ...

On Thursday, markets did what they do most days - they rose a little higher. Toronto was up 0.15% pushing to a new record high and the S&P 500 was up 0.1%. 
C.N. Rail was up 2.7% as worries about its Kansas City Southern deal fade a little.
Linam...

Toronto had a strong day with a 0.9% gain on Wednesday while the S&P 500 edged up 0.2%.
Toll Brothers was up 3.8% on its strong earnings report. I was hoping for more and hope to see it get back to making new highs.
TFI International was up 3.1% ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
AutoCanada was up 3.2%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.4%. Then, after the close, it released what seems to be a blow-out earnings report. Profits and revenues were up sharply but that was ...

TD Waterhouse alerted me to two new issues of provincial bonds this morning. Both look unattractive to me and both sold out quickly.
Ontario sold a 2.15% ten year issue. Nova Scotia sold a nine year issue at 2.0%.  If you want government bonds then b...

On Friday, the S&P 500 edged down 0.1% but Toronto was up 0.4%.
C.N. Rail was down 1.9% as investors worry about the Kansas City Southern potential acquisition which faces a lengthy approval process and which (I understand) would see C.N. pay $1 ...

Markets were higher on Thursday as the S&P 500 rose 1.1% and Toronto rose 0.65%.
Shopify continued to gain, rising 3.2%. Constellation Software was up 3.3%
TFI International was up 2.1%.
Statistics Canada was out with figures on borrowing levels....

Markets were initially down more noticeably on Wednesday but by the close were down only modestly. The S&P 500 was down  0.3% and Toronto was down 0.5%
Shopify was strong with a 3.9% gain. 
I notice that there has been a lot of public offerings  ...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.85% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Shopify was up 3.25% after announcing a partnership with Google.
Alcanna was down 4.8%.
Toll Brothers was down 3.0%.
 ...

TD (and likely the other banks as well) is out this morning with a "reopening" or "reoffering" of a bond with just over 10 years left to maturity. These bonds pay 1.50% which strikes me as far from tempting.
But the investment is not quite as bad as ...

CMHC released April housing start data yesterday. I am always interested in the Alberta single-family home figures given my investment in and analysis of Melcor Developments.
These figures can be volatile and one month does not make a trend. Also the...

Monday's markets saw the S&P 500 down 0.25% while Toronto was up 0.6%. 
AutoCanada was down 5.1%.
After the close, Alcanna reported Q1 highlighting 7.9% in same-store liquor sales and a similar gain in gross margin dollars from liquor sales. The ...

Markets rose sharply on Friday with a 1.5% gain for the S&P 500 and a 1.1% gain for Toronto.
CN Rail was down 3.0% after Kansas City Southern indicated that it favors CN take-over bid versus CP's. The market is concerned that CN is over-paying. W...

On Thursday, markets rebounded somewhat from the recent losses with the S&P 500 up 1.2% while Toronto was up 0.15%.
Going the other way, Shopify was down 3.3% to U.S. $1048. It's made many investors a huge amount of money. But that's a nasty dip ...

U.S. markets were noticeably weak on Wednesday after inflation came in higher than expected. The debate now is whether that inflation number is a temporary blip or is more permanent. The S&P 500 was down 2.1%. Toronto was down 0.9%.
After the big...

Markets were negative on Tuesday. The S&P 500 was down 0.9% and Toronto was down 0.45%.
Toll Brothers was down a hefty 4.9%.  Linamar was down 3.0%.
Shopify was strong with a 3.0% gain in Toronto on this negative day.
Melcor's Q1 report came out ...

Our report on Shopify is updated. I landed on a rating of Speculative (lower) Sell at U.S. 1070 or about Canadian $1300. (When I first posted this today I wrote, Speculative (lower) Buy by mistake. The report itself had the correct rating.)
This comp...

Buying Life Insurance?
As mentioned in the recent edition of our free newsletter: In 20 years online, I have never gotten involved in promoting any product or service. I am often asked to promote various financial products such as foreign exchange tr...

Stocks ended "in the red" on Monday. Earlier in the day markets (other than tech stocks) had been positive. At the close, the S&P 500 was down 1.0% and Toronto as down 0.6%.
Going the other way, Stantec was up 2.0% and Couche-Tard was up 1.8%.
Me...

Friday was another strong day in the markets. Another day when wealth is basically flowing from non-investor consumers to investors. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.9%. Both indexes continue to set new highs.
Toll Brothers was up ano...

Markets were mostly higher on Thursday as the S&P 500 was up 0.8% but Toronto was down 0.1%.
Linamar was up 6.4% after releasing Q1 earnings.
Costco was up 2.75% after reporting massive same-store sales gains of 24% year-over-year.  In March 2020...

On Wednesday, markets were mostly higher as the S&P500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
AutoCanada bounced back up 7.7%.
The Melcor REIT was up 4.5% after its earnings release yesterday.
The next update planned is for Shopify. ...

On Tuesday, markets were down noticeably mid day but recovered for a modest loss. The S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
West Fraser Timber was up 4.9%. 
After the close, the Melcor REIT reported with a solid report for the first qu...

Ceapro is a penny stock that has been on our list for the past four years.
It has a base business producing commodity extracts from Oats that provides cash to fund research into potentially much more promising proprietary products. Arguably, the stoc...

On Monday, markets were mostly higher as the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.55%.
FedEx was up 4.9%.
Toll Brothers was up 3.0% as it continues to make new highs.
Shopify was down 5.2%. 
The Canadian dollar is at 81.3 U.S. cents which is ...

On Friday, markets gave back some ground with the S&P 500 down 0.7% and Toronto down 0.8%.
Shopify was down 4.2%.
AutoCanada was down 5.2%.
The next update will be for penny stock Ceapro. It continues to be a waiting game. Most or all of its pote...

The report for Canadian National Railway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at Canadian $132 or U.S. $107. It's not particularly cheap in relation to earnings but is a very high quality company that can be bought and held for the long term. 
I first ad...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was relatively strong, rising 0.7% to yes, (yawn) yet another new all-time high. Toronto was down 0.5% but remains close to its recent all-time high as well.
FedEx was up 3.0% probably becasue the U.S. economy continues t...

On Tuesday markets were flat overall with the S&P 500 and Toronto both about unchanged.
FedEx was strong with a 4.3% gain.
TFI International was up 2.8% and then after hours it released a strong earnings report. It's high value is predicated to a...

Markets were up modestly on Monday as the S&P 500 rose 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Shopify was up 4.9%. 
American Express was up 4.2%
I sold the remainder of my AutoCanada shares. I don't know if that was wise given its momentum. 
My next updat...

On Friday, markets were strong with the S&P 500 up 1.1% and Toronto up 0.4%.
AutoCanada was up another 8.2% to $49.23.  I am amazed at how this company has recently soared. It appears to be based on growth prospects and current strong sales. The ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.9% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
AutoCanada was up another 5.1%. Wow.
Canadian Western Bank was strong with a 2.55% gain.
lululemon was also strong with a 3.6% gain.
Markets were weak in part becasue President Bid...

Wednesday's session ended with the S&P 500 up 0.9% and Toronto up 0.5%.
AutoCanada was notable with a 4.4% gain.
Heineken was up 4.8% after reporting earnings and its stock has done well in the face of all the restaurant shut-downs. The stock pri...

Markets were moderately negative on Tuesday. The S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.85%.
CN Rail was down 6.3% after getting into a bidding war with CP Rail to buy Kansas City Southern Rail. The sure winners of the bidding war are the K...

Markets were moderately negative on Monday as the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and Toronto fell 0.8%
Shopify was down 5.2% and Constellation Software fell 3.6%
Melcor Developments was down 3.15%.
Melcor of course benefits from higher single-family home star...

Markets pushed higher once again on Friday with the S&P 500 rising another 0.4% and Toronto up 0.15%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.9%.
AutoCanada was up 3.8* to $41.37.  Apparently the lockdown in Ontario is not affecting the this stock and presumably ...

On Thursday, markets once again set new record highs. The S&P 500 was up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
Shopify was up 2.4% despite the news of some of its top executives leaving.
TFI International was up 2.4%.
Stantec was up 3.0%.
There was more ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Shopify was down 5.1% and I believe that was before announcing that 3 of its 7 top executives will be leaving, apparently on friendly terms. 
RIWI was down a further 9%. The marke...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto finished the day about unchanged.
RIWI fell 13% after announcing that it is searching for a new CEO, while the existing CEO and founder will remains chair of the board. The market took this as neg...

On Monday markets were moderately negative with the S&P 500 about unchanged and Toronto down 0.1%.
Stantec was up 3.4%.
Penny stock Ceapro was up 9.7%. This is a volatile stock and so I would not read much into this. It is due to release 2020 Q4 ...

Toll Brothers is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $60.34. Their business is booming but it is a cyclic business. It may very well keep rising but I am a bit cautious due to its cyclic nature. Toll Brothers Inc. Stock Report...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up another 0.8%. But Toronto was about unchanged.
Perhaps it is appropriate that Toronto should lag given that Canada is locking down with the third wave of the virus while the U.S. is opening up based on a much higher ...

Thursday was yet another positive day for stocks. The S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Shopify was up 5.1%.
The Melcor REIT was up 4.9%.
AutoCanada was up 3.3%.
Single family home building permits in Alberta were up 40% in February ve...

Our report on the Enbridge rate reset preferred shares ENB.PF.A is updated and rated Buy at $17.55
I own this in several accounts. I purchased some at $25 when the shares were issued back in 2014 which has been a poor investment. However, with divide...

Markets edged higher once again on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 0.15% and Toronto up 0.1%.
Couche-Tard was strong, rising 3.7%.
West Fraser Timber was very strong with a 5.5% gain.
As mentioned yesterday, I thought the Ontario shut downs might b...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% but Toronto was up 0.4%.
After the close, West Fraser Timber announced that it will early redeem $350 million of 5.75% bonds (notes) due 2027. This debt was issued by Norbord before West Fraser acquired it. T...

Melcor Developments is updated and rated Buy at $12.37. (The report was done at $12.05 which was yesterday's close).
The number of lots sold in Q4 increased 15% versus the prior year. I had expected a decrease because they had fewer lots in inventory...

Monday was another strong day in the markets. The S&P 500 gained 1.4%. Toronto was up only 0.2% but closed above 19,000 for the first time.
AutoCanada was up 13.8% after announcing it was acquiring a large autobody business in Prince George B.C. ...

Markets were, of course, closed on Friday.
Thursday marked the end of the first quarter of the year and was a strong day in the markets.  The S&P 500 was up 1.2% and Toronto rose a hefty 1.55%.
Notable gainers included:  Shopify - up 4.4%, Toll B...

The report on the Melcor Real Estate Investment Trust is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $6.54
Last year with the pandemic, these units fell from the $8.00 level to the $3 level. They then languished at about $4.00 or less for six months. But they h...

Wednesday was the end of the first quarter of 2021. The S&P 500 was up 0.4% but Toronto was about flat.
West Fraser Timber was up 8.2% after its announcement that I mentioned yesterday.
Melcor Developments was up 4.75% to $11.90. 
Dollarama was u...

The reports on the Canadian Western Bank CWB.PR.B and CWB.PR.D are updated. With their recent price increases I don't really like either one.
I would Sell the CWB.PR.B at $22.50. That's 27% higher than it was at our last update on December 13. It's h...

The report on CWB is updated and rated (higher) Speculative Buy at $32.39. This should be a good investment but due to the possibility of higher loan losses, I labeled it speculative. But that's not to say that it is highly speculative. I just call i...

Markets were moderately weak on Tuesday with the S&P 500 down 0.3% and Toronto down 0.1%.
The Melcor REIT has a strong day rising 8.0% to $6.58. And Melcor Developments rose 2.25% to $11.36.
Melcor has resumed its modest share buy-back program fo...

Markets were moderately negative on Monday as the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Toll Brothers continues to bounce up and down adn today was down 4.0%.
RIWI was down 7.3%. 
But Couche-Tard showed some strength with a 3.7% gain.
...

Our report on Alcanna Inc. is updated and rated (lower) Sell at $7.83. It's Q4 profits were somewhat disappointing. It could be held as a speculative especially for exposure to Cannabis retail. It's up 89% since it was added to our list in September ...

Markets were strong on Friday with the S&P 500 up 1.7% and Toronto up 0.5%.
Toll Brothers was up 4.4%. It's been bouncing around and is currently sitting very close to its high.
Visa was up 2.7%.
West Fraser Timber was up 5.4%. Lumber prices have...

Markets started out lower on Thursday but ended the day higher with the S&P 500 up 0.5% and Toronto up 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was strong with a 4.4% gain. RIWI bounced up 8.9% to $2.45 but remains an under-performer.
Alcanna was up 6.1% to $8.38. It...

Markets were higher for much of the day but ended down for the day on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 was down 0.55% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Shopify was down 4.9%.
RIWI was down another 4.3%. to $2.25.
After reviewing Canadian Western Bank's latest res...

Markets were negative on Tuesday with the S&P 500 and Toronto each down 0.8%.
Oil was down about 6.5% to U.S. $57.56 for West Texas Intermediate.
Fears of higher inflation seem to be part of the reason for the moderately negative tone in the mark...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% but Toronto was down 0.2%.
Constellation Software was up 3.3%.
AutoCanada was down 3.8% to $29.41. Possibly the run-up to about $36 was simply "over-done". 
Ceapro was up 6.1% but is a volatile penny stock and s...

Our report on Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $250.
Buffett had it buying back shares all during 2020 and at prices that averaged $225 in December. The outlook and its portfolio of stocks have almost certainly increased since t...

 
On Friday, markets were little changed overall with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Toronto up 0.1%.
FedEx was up 6.1% after a strong earnings report which included a strong outlook. It seems the economy is on the move.
Linamar was up 4.2%.
Canadian ...

Costco is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $329. 
It always looks expensive but is of course a fantastic business that will continue to grow and do well. Costco's share price has retreated from highs around $390 at the end of November. The market was...

Thursday was a negative day in the markets due to worries about inflation and that the FED chair was likely to keep interest rates low even if inflations starts to take off. Longer term interest rates rose today. Since January 1, the yield on the U.S...

Markets moved a bit higher on Wednesday as the FED chair soothingly said that the FED interest rate won't likley rise until 2023. And they will continue to buy bonds which also tends to keep interest rates low.
Stantec was up 2.1%. The Melcor REIT wa...

Markets were down modestly on Tuesday as the S&P 500 declined 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
The Melcor REIT was down 3.5%.
AutoCanada was down 2.9%
Linamar was down 3.78%. 
Starbucks managed a 2.2% gain.
I finally trimmed my Melcor Developments...

On Monday, markets were initially flat but ended the day higher as the S&P 500 rose 0.65% and Toronto rose 0.55%.
Boston Pizza units rose another 3.1%. Toll Brothers was up 2.2%.
Linamar was down 3.7% and AutoCanada was down 3.6%.
The big news to...

Markets were quieter on Friday as the S&P 500 and Toronto each ended the day about unchanged.
The Melcor REIT was up 3.7% and Boston Pizza units were up 2.7%.
Linamar was down 4.5%.
With markets at record high and with my own portfolio having don...

And Thursday was, yes, yet another strong day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 1.0% and Toronto up 0.8%.
Linamar was up 10.8% on its strong earnings and dividend increase.
Other gainers included: The Melcor REIT - up 4.0%, FedEx - up 3.1%, The ...

Melcor Developments will release Q4 earnings next week March 17. Their web site said March 10. Normally they are on their game in terms of that web site and so I am not concerned about the error. And actually waiting another week might be good as as ...

And Wednesday was yet another strong day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.6% and Toronto rose 0.5%.
Notable gainers included: The Melcor REIT - up 8.2%, Melcor Developments - up 3.7%, Toll Brothers - up 4.7% (after its dividend increase annou...

Markets had yet another strong day on Tuesday. The S&P 500 was up 1.4% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
Notable gainers included: Canadian Tire - up 4.7%, AutoCanada  - up 5.05%
Apple - up 4.1%, Shopify - up 5.4% and Alcanna  - up 3.8%.
Going the other w...

Monday was a "mixed" in the markets as the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
AutoCanada was strong with a 4.3% gain. And Linamar was up 3.8%.
Restaurant Brands was up 4.2%
Aecon Group was up 4.0%.
Alcanna was up 4.1%
But Shopify was ...

Markets were strong on Friday as the S&P 500 rose 1.95% and Toronto 1.4%.
The Canadian Energy Exchange-Traded Fund XEG was up 3.4%.
C.N. Rail was up 2.9% and FedEx was up 3.1% (the economy is literally on the move)
Berkshire Hathaway was up 3.1%
...

These units had a wild ride in 2020 as the pandemic lockdowns forced the closure of the BP restaurants (except for take-out / delivery) which led to the monthly cash distribution being completely suspended. With partial reopenings over the Summer, Q3...

My comment from last night failed to upload and is pasted in below.
I was hoping for an increase in the Melcor REIT shares but so far that is not the case. They have an analyst conference call starting at 11:00 am eastern
March 4 comment
Markets were...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.3% (blamed on higher interest rates) and Toronto was down 0.55% (not as bad as the S&P 500 becasue of higher oil prices).
But AutoCanada soared 12% due to its strong earnings report. This has been a hard c...

Our report on Starbucks is updated with a rating of Hold at $106.87. This is clearly a fantastic company. But it is expensive even in relation to near-term projected earnings. In the next few quarters it will show a huge earnings rebound as things op...

Markets were "mixed" on Tuesday as the S&P 500 was down 0.8% while Toronto gained 0.7%.
West Fraser Timber was down 6.5% to $80.22. Lumber prices have declined from recent highs but still remain elevated. Commodity-based stocks are notoriously vo...

Markets were solidly higher on Monday, with the S&P 500 surging 2.5% and Toronto up 1.3%.
Notable gainers included Apple - up 5.4%,  WSP Global - up 8.15%, Berkshire Hathaway - up 3.6%, Linamar - up 4.1%, TFI International - up 3.3%.
As it turned...

Friday was a negative day in the markets as the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.9%. And the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 470 points or 1.5%.
But some of the stocks on our list did very well on Friday.
Aecon Group was up 6.0%...

Thursday was a negative day in the markets with the S&P 500 falling a hefty 2.45% and Toronto down 1.4%.
I don't think anyone should be surprised or particularly alarmed at this given all the recent gains.
For the most part, declines in the stock...

Wednesday was a very strong day in the market driven largely by soothing comments from the FED chair. (There, there, investors, don't worry, I won't raise interest rates for quite a while yet - or words to that effect.)
The S&P 500 was up a hefty...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down most of the day but ultimately finished the day up 0.1%. Toronto was down 0.5%.
West Fraser Timber was down 3.1%. This is a cyclical commodity stock and volatility comes with the territory. 
Shopify was down 5.9% ...

It was a mixed scene on the markets today with the S&P 500 down 0.8% while Toronto was up 0.2% as energy stocks did particularly well. WTI oil is at US $61.69.
Shopify was down 3.8%. They also announced that they will issue shares but I could not...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.6%.
Shopify was up 3.6%. WSP Global was up 2.85% and will release its Q4 results on Wednesday.
AutoCanada bounced up 6.8% and will release its Q4 results on March 3.
Linamar was up 4.0% ...

Thursday was a moderately negative day in the markets as the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.55%.
West Fraser Timber was down 3.0%. That's despite lumber prices being at record highs. Well, this is always going to be a more speculati...

Wednesday offered a little bit of a reminder that stocks don't always go up. The S&P 500 managed to finish the day about unchanged (which was a recovery from a noticeable decline earlier in the day) but Toronto was down 0.6%.
West Fraser Timber w...

Tuesday's session ended with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Toronto up 0.2%.
Oil (WTI) is at U.S. $60 which is the highest in about a year.
Cannabis stocks were surging. Not an area I have followed much.
BHP, which I have not updated for a long time w...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.35%.
The national embarrassment that is Bombardier, which has been circling the drain for years, was down 16% to 61 cents after announcing more bad news. Bombardier shares are valued a...

Tuesday was another fine day in the markets. The S&P 500 was about unchanged. But Toronto added another 0.3% increasing its record high close.
There weren't many or really any big moves in the stocks that we have current ratings on. Toll Brothers...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto pushed another 0.4% higher.
TFI International was up 7.3% after releasing Q4 earnings and hosting a conference call. The analysts must have been pleased with the results. 
Shopify was up another ...

Monday was another positive day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.7% and Toronto was up 1.1% as West Texas Intermediate Oil poked its head above U.S. $58.
Shopify gained another 4.5%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.6%. West Fraser Timer gained 2.0%.
M...

CRH Medical is being taken over at U.S. $4.00 or about $5.10 Canadian. Those holding it could wait for it to be automatically taken from their accounts at U.S. $4.00 sometime during Q2 (provided the deal goes through which seems highly likely). I cho...

Stocks were up every day this week and ended Friday with the S&P 500 up another 0.4% on the day and Toronto was up 0.5%.
West Texas Intermediate oil is over $57 U.S.  
Toll Brothers was up 3.1% to $53.62. It's basically at about a 15 year high. I...

Markets pushed higher once again on Thursday as the S&P 500 rose 1.1% and Toronto rose 0.7%.
Visa was up 3.9% and American Express rose 3.7%. 
Shopify rose another 3.3%.
A few days ago, Desrosiers reported heath January auto sales in Canada were ...

Tuesday was another positive day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 1.4% and Toronto rose 1.0% and oil poked its head above U.S. $55 for the first time in about a year.
Apparently markets are optimistic about a stimulus package from Biden.
Stante...

Monday was a solidly positive day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 1.6% and Toronto rose 2.05%. The last four trading days have been a yoyo ride of down, up, down, up.
Top gainers included TFI International which rose 6.45% after announcing ano...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 1.9% and Toronto was down 1.8%.
Notable decliners included: Apple down 3.7%, CN Rail down 2.7%, FedEx down 3.1%, Linamar down 3.3%
The Melcor REIT managed a 2.95% gain, but it is thinly traded.
As of Sunday evening...

The report on Visa Inc. is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $193.25. This is a fantastic company that is very central to commerce and especially online commerce and the digital economy. Unfortunately it does seem expensive. Still, it would likely...

Thursday was another exciting day in the markets. The S&P 500 ended the day up 1.0% and Toronto ended 1.3% higher.
AutoCanada was up 5.1%. American Express rose 4.3%. Constellation Software was up 4.0%.
Toll Brothers was down 1.9% and Melcor Deve...

Markets moved noticeably lower on Wednesday with the S&P 500 falling 2.6% and Toronto down 2.0%.
Notable decliners included: Linamar- down 6.8%, Starbucks - down 6.5%, Shopify - down 5.1%.
C.N. Rail was down 4.7% despite a dividend increase and s...

The report on Dollarama is updated rated (lower) Buy at $50.77. It's a great company. It usually seems expensive and that is the case now. But over time will probably do well. I held none and bought a small amount today and will add to that if the pr...

On Tuesday markets were mostly down somewhat as the S&P 500 fell a modest 0.15% while Toronto was down 0.7%.
TFI International finished the day up 3.0% at $88.66. First thing this morning it was as high as $98.75. At that price it was up fully 50...

Markets were somewhat volatile on Monday but ended the day with the S&P 500 up 0.4% and Toronto up 0.3%.
The big news today was that TFI International soared 32% after it announced a major acquisition. TFI will acquire UPS's freight division for ...

TFI International is up a whopping 24% this morning after announcing it will purchase UPS's less-than-truckload freight business. This a large business and will be purchased for $800 million on a "no-cash, no-debt" basis. I don't know what they mean ...

I am taking a quick look at Aphria becasue a family member of mine owns shares.
I don't know much about the various Cannabis companies but here is what I found out:
Aphria is one of the bigger Cannabis companies  and is going to be the biggest when i...

Markets were down modestly on Friday as the S&P 500 fell o.3% and Toronto fell 0.4%.
Stocks rising included Apple Inc. up 1.6% to  $139.  And Toll Brothers up 1.6% to $50.82.
There was news that West Fraser Timber's all-stock acquisition of Norbo...

Markets were a bit weak on Thursday as the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was down 0.55%.
Apple was up another 3.7%. 
Toll Brothers was up 2.8% to just over $50. West Fraser Timber was up 2.3%. both of these had also risen in recent days...

Biden is in and Trump is out and the stock market went up once again on Wednesday
The S&P 500 rose 1.4% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Toll Brothers was up 5.5%.
Alcanna gained 4.9% presumably related to the share issue by by it's soon to be subsidiary...

Tuesday was another positive day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.8%. Toronto only managed t o edge up 0.1% despite oil rising almost $1.00 to U.S. $53.16.
Toll Brothers gained 3.4%. American Express was up 3.8% perhaps linked to some America...

Having just updated our report on the common shares of Fortis Inc., I also took a look at their preferred shares. Fortis has seven different preferred shares outstanding. Four are rate reset style shares, one is a floating rate and the other two are ...

U.S. stock markets were closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday. Toronto was up 0.2%
We had a very nice gain from Alcanna, up 19.1% after headlines that it would "spin-out" its retail Cannabis stores.  Alcanna is combining its retail Nova...

Our report on Fortis Inc. is updated and rated Buy at $52.13. The 3.9% dividend is reasonably attractive. And that dividend has now been increased 47 years in a row. The stock is attractive for its low risk. I don't own it but would like to add it to...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto as down 0.3%.
AutoCanada bounced down 6.9%. 
Melcor Developments was up 5.5%. 
Couche-Tard was up 4.7% possibly because its deal to buy Carrefour in France looked in doubt and analysts dod not like...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto edged up 0.1%. 
Oil is up to $53.56 U.S. which is good for Alberta although it is offset somewhat by the higher Canadian dollar.
There were no particularly noteworthy moves in the stocks on our...

CRH Medical is updated and rated Speculative Buy at U.S. $2.23 or Canadian $2.83. This is very much a niche business as it provides anesthesia services for colonoscopies at some 66 walk-in clinics. It operates exclusively in the U.S. and mostly in th...

With the S&P 500 up 0.2% and Toronto down 0.3 % it would appear that as fat the markets were concerned, Wednesday was a slow news day. Donal Trump has been impeached again and the market is unfazed.
Couche-Tard was down 10.2% based on its own new...

Alimentation Couche-Tard is down about 10% this morning due to its proposed takeover of France-based Carrefour.
This would be a HUGE acquisition at $20 billion U.S. Consider that Couche-Tard has a market cap of $41 billion Canadian. Indications are t...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto as up 0.3%.
AutoCanada was up 8.9% despite not releasing any news. And in spite of the various Canadian economy lock downs.
Couche-Tard was down 2.2%. That was in spite of or perhaps becau...

On Monday, markets were down modestly with the S&P 500 down 0.7% and Toronto down 0.6%
Melcor was up 3.9% and Stantec was up 3.6%.
I trimmed my position in Canadian Tire and TFI International today in order to move towards a more balanced allocat...

On Sunday night futures are suggesting that the markets will open moderately lower on Monday morning. At some point even a market that is giddy for stimulus can't ignore the risk of whatever might happen between now and inauguration day.
Meanwhile I ...

Stocks continued to set higher record highs on Friday  with the S&P 500 rising 0.55% and Toronto edging up 0.1%.
I'm really starting to wonder if the market is not under-estimating the chance of turmoil in the U.S.  Out of 75 million Trump suppor...

Thursday was another strong day as the markets said never mind the insurrection, think about the stimulus package that the Democrats are likely to offer.
The S&P 500 gained a hefty 1.5% and Toronto gained 1.1%.
Toll Brothers was strong with a 4.7...

Today was not exactly a boring day for news.
Overnight, President Trump shamelessly claimed that the Georgia Senate election was not a fair election. He described the last batches of voted to be counted as "vote dumps" when in reality they were just ...

Markets were higher on Tuesday as the S&P 500 gained 0.7% and Toronto gained 0.9%.
Oil surged 5% to trade over U.S. $50 for the first time in almost a year. This pushed the Canadian dollar to 79 U.S. cents. Oil increased because Saudi Arabia anno...

On Monday, the first day of trading for 2021,  U.S.  markets were down, although not as low as they had been earlier in the day.  The S&P 500 was down 1.5% but Toronto was up 0.5%. Alcanna (Alberta liquor store chain owner) was up 7.1%.  Melcor D...

The first few comments for 2021 will appear here until I get a new page setup for 2021.
January 3, 2021
Our report on TFI International (a large Canadian trucking company with now substantial operations in the U.S) is updated and rated (lower) Buy at...

On Wednesday. the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was virtually unchanged.
Melcor Developments was up 14.5% to $9.79. It's nice to see it showing some life. But even with the volume higher than normal today, it is a thinly traded stock. Only 27...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Stantec was up 2.2%.
Melcor showed a bit of life rising 4.4% and with the Melcor REIT rising 3.6%. ...

On Monday, Toronto markets were closed. But the S&P 500 rose 0.7%. 
Apple was a notable winner, rising 3.6%. And Amazon was up 3.5%. Starbucks was also strong, rising 2.3%.
The usual pattern would be that Toronto will play catch-up tomorrow. But ...

Our report on American Express is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $117.35. Its revenues and particularly its earnings are down due to the pandemic such that it looks somewhat expensive in relation to earnings. But if we assume that it will recover a...

On Monday, the U.S. markets will be fully open while Toronto will be closed. 
Trump has signed the COVID relief bill which should be positive for markets.
I am working on an update for American Express. It should be a decent long term hold. I expect ...

On Christmas Eve, markets were mostly positive as the S&P 500 rose 0.35% and Toronto rose 0.2%.
There were no big movements in the stocks on our list. But Shopify was up 1.7% and Visa Inc. was up 1.7%.
 New York markets and probably most world ma...

Our report on Royal Bank of Canada or RBC trading under symbol RY is updated and rated (higher) Buy.  This is Canada's largest bank and it continues to grow in size year after year. It is has five major divisions all of which are consistently profita...

An otherwise good day in the markets on Wednesday was rather spoiled by bad news from one of the stocks I own and that is on our list.
The S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.9%.
CRH Medical was down 21% to...

CRH Medical is down about 25% this morning after announcing that one of its major contracts representing 20% of its EBITDA is set to not renew as expected at the end of 2021. This is an ugly development. CRH operates in various clinic and relies on c...

Markets were "mixed" on Tuesday with the S&P 500 down 0.2% and Toronto up 0.3%.
Shopify surged 7.3% to a new record high close. Apple was up 2.85% and Constellation Software was up 4.6%. A great day for these digital economy stocks. 
RIWI was dow...

Markets were mostly down on Monday although the Dow Jones ended the day up 0.4%. The S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Canadian Tire was down 3.3%, RioCan was down 2.5% - both of these probably related to the Ontario lockdowns. Lin...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.35% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
AutoCanada slipped 4.8%. Possibly it just ran up too fast, so not a surprise.
FedEx was down 5.7% despite supposedly beating estimates and have a very strong quarter. I will likely ...

My "links" page is a collection of links that I found useful over the years. some of those links I use a lot and some I had not looked at in years. I just went through and made sure all the links worked and deleted some that no longer worked. I added...

Some investors really like dividend reinvestment plans. They allow your dividends to be used to purchase more shares and with no broker fee. And sometimes you even get a discount of around 2% or even 5%!
I can definitely see the attraction when there...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% and Toronto was up 0.5%
The Boston Pizza units were up 6.7% to $10.82 after it announced the 20 cent special  distribution. The 20 cents really just results from the six months of zero distributions as cash bu...

Markets were mostly up moderately on Wednesday as the S&P 500 rose 0.2% and Toronto rose 0.35%.
Shopify surged another 8.3%. And Amazon was up 2.4%.
But many of the stocks on our list were down somewhat.
AutoCanada was down 5.7%. This morning Des...

Air Canada managed to sell its desired $850 million worth or 35 million shares in the over night marketed deal. As I expected the price came in at the lower end being $24.
Also as would be expected this has knocked the share price down in the market....

Our report for Linamar is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $68.65. Its results in 2020 are not indicative of normal because of the pandemic. But even with the pandemic it has done okay. There was a loss in Q2 despite the federal wage subsidy but they...

Air Canada is out with a share offering attempting to raise $850 million in "an overnight marketed deal".
I'm certainly not surprised that they need money. I saw the CEO claim recently that their balance sheet is very strong. I am not going to attemp...

Markets rose on Tuesday apparently due to hopes that a stimulus / COVID relief package would be passed soon in the U.S.
The S&P 500 was up 1.3% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Apple was up 5.0%. Alcanna was up 4.3%.
TFI increased its quarterly dividend ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 finished the day down 0.4% while Toronto declined 0.9%.
Constellation Software was up 2.85%.
RioCan was up 2.5% and has help up surprisingly well after its distribution cut and in the face of the challenges to the physical ...

There is nothing more central to economic activity than banks. Our pay cheques are deposited to bank accounts. The great majority of our spending and bill paying consists of the money in our bank accounts being transferred to the bank accounts of var...

Our report on Canadian Western Bank is updated rated Speculative Buy at $29.00 (it closed today at $29.09)
There are many pluses and minuses to consider about buying shares in CWB at this time:
The biggest minus is that it is already expecting a cont...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.25%
About the biggest gainer on the list I monitor was WSP Global up another 2.0%.
lululemon was notable to the downside with a loss of 6.7% despite a strong earnings report. But it has ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% and Toronto was down 0.45%.
Shopify was down 6.0%.
Toll Brothers was down another 2.9% to $43.99. I read through the conference call transcript today and and most of the call discussed all the ways Toll has...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.3%.
Toll Brothers was down 7.9% to $45.32 despite its strong earnings report. It remains one of my larger positions. If that were not the case I would be very tempted to buy more shares at this p...

Monday's session saw the S&P 500 down 0.2% and Toronto up 0.35%.
Shopify was up 2.9%.
Canadian Western Bank was down 3.5% after analysts suggested its non-interest (mostly staff) expenses were too high. It has added staff to position itself for g...

Markets pushed higher once again on Friday as the S&P 500 rose 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Intact Financial was up 3.7%. 
Canada's energy exchange traded fund XEG was up 5.6%
WSP Global was up another 5.6% as the market digested the news of its...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 finished the day down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Toll Brothers had a strong day, rising 4.3%. 
WSP Global jumped 11.6% after announcing it will acquire the large environmental consulting firm Golder Associates. Golde...

On Wednesday, markets edged upwards once again. The S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.35%.
Linamar was up another 2.5%.
AutoCanada bounced up 3.6%
Couche-Tard was up 2.5%
RIWI was down 8.4% to $2.61. It's speculative but worth considering ...

Markets rose on Tuesday with the S&P 500 up 1.1% and Toronto up 0.6%.
Linamar jumped 5.2% which may have been due to analyst recommendations to buy.  After the close, DesRosiers reported that light vehicle sales in Canada in November were down 10...

Markets gave back a little ground on Monday as the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 1.2% 
Shopify had another strong day gaining 4.1%.
RioCan was down 3.5%. That is not surprising after the recent gains and given the partial lock-downs ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
There were no particularly note worthy movements in the stocks on our list.
As of Sunday evening, indications are that he markets will open modestly down on Monday morning.
We have had a...

Our Tiny R&D penny stock company Ceapro is out with Q3 earnings this morning. At a QUICK look:
Definitely looks good. Seems like we are back to the point where the legacy products are allowing  cash to build and maybe almost justifies the share p...

U.S. markets were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Toronto was up 0.2%.
Alcanna continues to rise and was up 2.45% today.
The Boston Pizza units were up 4%. This may have been driven by Ontario's decision to cap the fees that the like...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% but Toronto was up 0.2% as the price of oil continues to rise.
West Texas Oil, WTI is now just over U.S. $46. That's about $60 Canadian which is actually not a low oil price except in relation to some of th...

This post was sent by email on November 24th:
Anyone trying to log into investorsfriend.com in the past couple of days will have seen a security warning and not been able to get in. My apologies for that. I need a new SSL security certificate and it ...

Markets ended moderately higher on Thursday after starting the day in negative territory. The S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Futures markets on Thursday evening are suggesting that the market will be moderately weaker on Friday. App...

Markets were down somewhat on Wednesday as the S&P 500 was down 1.2% and Toronto ws down 0.3%.
The Boston Pizza Royalties units were up 8.4% to $9.76 and yielding 8.0%. The gain surprises me given the current virus situation but it may be that th...

U.S. Markets were slightly negative on Tuesday as the S&P 500 fell 0.5% but Toronto managed a 0.3% gain.
There were no many stocks on our list rising or falling more than 2% or so. The Melcor REIT was up 5.4% to $4.77. It had spend most of the la...

Markets were strong on Monday on the news that a proposed vaccine has achieved a 94.5% success rate so far in a Phase III clinical trial.  And this one does not require ultra cold storage in distribution. While it would be some months before the vacc...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 1.4% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
AutoCanada was up 10.6% after releasing earnings. This has been a story of good management since the new management took over a couple of years ago. Part of the story is that auto sales ...

In updating the report on Alcanna, I noticed it has a convertible denture that pays 4.7% and is trading right around par value and maturing in 15 months. The symbol is CLIQ.DB
This might be of interest as a fixed income investment. It is also temptin...

Melcor Developments is updated and rated Buy at $7.00 This has admittedly been a poor and frustrating investment for a long time. It's now trading at just 21% of book value and is still profitable although with low profits. For those holding it, I ca...

Alcanna Inc. is updated and rated Speculative Buy at $5.47. This is the formerly named Liquor Stores N.A. It came under new management over two years ago and they have taken a lot of actions to improve things. It reported good earnings on Friday afte...

On Thursday the markets took more notice of the pandemic and the S&P 500 was down 1.0% and Toronto was down 1.1%.
Alcanna was down 4.3%. I like its chances of doing well as lockdowns lead to more home consumption of alcohol as restaurants and bar...

Although it was Remembrance Day in Canada and Veteran's Day in the U.S.; the markets were open today.
The S&P 500 was up 0.8% and Toronto was up 1.0%. 
Linamar surged 16% after releasing earnings.
Some of the "tech" stocks that had declined on Mo...

Our report on Canadian Tire is updated and rated Buy at $165.25.   The Canadian Tire stores came though the pandemic extremely well. Even in Q@ when stores in Ontario were shut down for several weeks sales were up 20% for the quarter. Then in Q3 same...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% (but the DOW was up 0.9%) and Toronto was up 0.85%.
Toll Brothers bounced up 7.3%
Canadian Western Bank was up 3.8%.
Melcor Developments was up 6.6%. It then reported Q3 earnings after the close which were pr...

Monday was a very strong day in the markets after pfiser reported extremely promising preliminary results from its Coronavirus vaccine phase II trial.
The S&P 500 closed up 1.2%, The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 2.95% and Toronto was up 1....

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was down a tiny 0.1%.
Aurora Cannabis was up a huge 56% but still remains down 62% year to date. There was no news from Aurora to explain this gain. There was speculation it was due to the em...

Despite some uncertainty in the election result and despite Trump's antics, markets were strong once again on Thursday.
The S&P 500 was up 1.95% and Toronto was up 1.9%.
Notable gainers included:
Canadian Tire - up 6.65% after releasing strong Q3...

For most of the last four years the market has greatly cheered the Trump Presidency. In the lead up this election it cheered the hoped for a decisive Biden victory. Today as it appeared that we will instead get a squeaker of a Biden win, the market (...

Markets were fearless on election day as the S&P 500 was up 1.8% and Toronto was up 1.8% and Toronto was up 1.5%.
The vast majority of stocks were up. Once again there were no notable declines among the stocks on our list with the exception that ...

On Monday there were images of U.S. store fronts being boarded up out of fear of rioting and associated property damage and/or looting that could occur with the U.S. election.
There is also more and more news about second-wave economic shutdowns happ...

Election day looms. The big question is whether markets are likely to rise as soon as the election is out of the way - in which case deploying some cash on Monday or Tuesday would be wise, or will they decline on Wednesday especially if Trump loses b...

I have never analyzed any convertible debentures and I don't recall ever owning one. In updating the Aecon report I also took a look at its convertible debenture.
Aecon has $184 million worth of convertible debentures that were issued by prospectus i...

Our report on Aecon is updated and rated Weak Sell / Hold at $14.22.  The company reported sharply higher earnings in Q3. But it seems that this was entirely due to government emergency wage subsidies without which earnings would have declined. Perha...

On Thursday, markets recovered a portion of yesterday's losses. The S&P 500 was up 1.2% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
This week stocks are reacting to the pandemic as well as numerous earnings reports and the pending U.S. election.
Oil prices have dec...

The report for FedEx is updated and it is rated Weak Buy / Hold at U.S. $264.  I had rated FedEx a Sell in early February becasue it had reported a string of very weak quarters and was forecasting that to continue in the short term. It had already ta...

On Wednesday it seems that the markets accepted a doze of reality regarding the pandemic and the S&P 500 fell 3.5% while Toronto fell 2.7%.
FedEx was one of the bigger decliners - down 5.25%. I have been working on an update for FedEx. It's lates...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
It appears that the market is taking more notice of the worsening pandemic situation.
Stocks on the rise included Shopify (3.7% after announcing a deal with TicToc that is intended ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 fell 1.9% and Toronto was down 1.4%.
This is really a minor pull back and should come as no surprise given the worsening pandemic and the U.S. election risk.
The biggest decline in the stocks I follow was Toll Brothers, dow...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.15%.
TFI International (formerly Transforce) was up another 3.8% after releasing earnings. 
Toll Brothers bounced up 3.3%.
American Express was down 3.6%. It releases earnings on Friday. Its...

CN Rail is updated but rated only Weak Buy / Hold at $138. It looks somewhat expensive but this has been a tremendous company to own over the long term and it will continue to increase earnings. It suffered an earnings decline with the pandemic but i...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
AutoCanada was up 4.9% and is basically at a 52 week high. Analysts mostly rate it a Buy. It will be interesting to see how their Q3 went.
Toll Brothers was down 2.6%. 
After the close...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Toll Brothers was down 4.3%. 
CN Rail was down 6.1% after reporting Q3 earnings. This gives back a little of its recent strong gains. I plan to update the report on this company a...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while Toronto was unchanged.
CRH Medical bounced up 5.6%. Linamar was up 3.2%.
AutoCanada was down 3.7%.
CN Rail reported earnings after the close which were apparently a little below analyst expectations. Tran...

Markets were lower on Monday due to fears that a U.S. economic stimulus package may be delayed.
The S&P 500 was down 1.6% and Toronto was down 1.0%.
However, AutoCanada was up 7.8%. It has been bouncing up and down without any apparent news to ex...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.4%.
Canadian Tire was strong with a 2.8% gain.
Toll Brothers was down 2.4%.
Stock futures suggest that stocks will rise on Monday du to optimism about economic stimulus talks in ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.15% and Toronto was up 0.3%. 
Ceapro was up 10.9%. But it's a penny stock and tends to be quite volatile.
Canadian Tire was up 2.3%. One aspect of Canadian Tire that looks weak to me is its Party City chain. I ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
CRH Medical was down 4.4%. Possibly this is due to fears that the clinics provides anesthesia services in will  be closed due to lock-downs or that patients will stay away due to ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
AutoCanada was down 4.8% giving back a little of its recent strong gains.
RIWI was up 4.1%.
The Boston Pizza units were down 3.3%. After rising in response to the resumption of mont...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up another 1.6%. Toronto was closed for the holiday.
Most of the recent U.S. market strength is ties to hopes for a giant government stimulus package. There is something pathetic and wrong when the private sector stock ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 gained another 0.9% and Toronto rose 0.2%.
Amazon was up another 3.0%.
AutoCanada was notable with a 5.1% gain to close at $22.18. I am surprised how strong it has been. Apparently the analysts that cover it have mostly bee...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.8% and Toronto was up 0.65%.
Toll Brothers was up 3.8% to $49.23. It's very close to a 52 week high. It got over $50 in February. But it was also over $50 in late 2017. Before that it had an all-time high of some...

Market were up sharply on Wednesday. The S&P 500 was up 1.7% and Toronto was up 1.2%.
Among the bigger gains were:  TFI International - up 4.1% to a new high. Shopify - up 3.0%, Alcanna- up 5.6%. FedEx - up 3.5%, AutoCanada - up 7.9%,  Linamar - ...

On Tuesday, stocks were down after President Trump announced that he would end negotiations (with the Democrats) on a hoped for stimulus package until after the election. 
It's rather sad and ironic  that the private sector and stock markets, the sup...

Monday was a very positive day for stocks as the S&P 500 gained 1.8% and Toronto gained 1.3%.
Among the more notable gains: Boston Pizza Royalties was up 7.1%, TFI International was up 4.7%, AutoCanada was up 3.9%,and  Andrew Peller was up 4.3%.
...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 1.0% and Toronto was down 0.5%. That was a modest decline in the face of news that the President has the corona virus.
Apple was down 3.2%, Amazon was down 3.0%.
The big winner was the Boston Pizza Royalties Income...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Shopify was up 2.9%.
Constellation Software was up 3.5%.
AutoCanada was up 3.7%. September light vehicle sales were released today (amazing that we get them this quick). and showed...

Markets apparently took little notice of last night's presidential debate as the S&P 500 rose 0.8%. Toronto, however was down 0.6%.
Toll Brothers bounced up 3.3%.
I notice Bombardier is down to a pathetic 33 cents. That's basically pricing in the...

Markets were negative on Tuesday with the S&P 500 down 0.5% and Toronto down 0.2%.
Toll Brothers was down 4.5%.
Melcor Developments was down 4.55% to $5.87. Today's dip may have been related to lower oil prices. I continue to find it difficult to...

Markets were strong on Monday as the S&P 500 rose 1.6% and Toronto rose 1.1%.
Some of the more notable gain on our list were: AutoCanada - up 4.2%, Canadian Western Bank up 3.2%, and Linamar - up 3.4%.
As mentioned this morning, our report on Tol...

Markets are noticeably higher this Monday morning.
AutoCanada is up 8% and Canadian Western Bank is up 3%.
The report on Toll Brothers is updated and rated (lower) Buy. It has done very well and its next quarterly report should be very strong. New ho...

Friday's trading session ended with the S&P 500 up 0.3% and Toronto up 0.6%.
Costco reported earnings after the close that were said to exceed expectations for both revenue (where expectations were already high) and earnings. But the shares fell ...

Wednesday was a negative day for markets which was blamed on the U.S. FED suggesting that the government needs to act to stimulate the economy while the market fears this will not happen anytime soon. The ongoing pandemic as we roll into the Fall of ...

Markets were positive on Tuesday with the S&P 500 and Toronto both up 1.0%.
Notable gainers included lululemon, up 6.1%, Toll Brothers up 2.5% and Canadian Tire up 3.3%.
Indications are that the market will open moderately higher this morning.
Ca...

Monday was a negative day for most stocks as the S&P 500 fell 1.2% and Toronto fell 1.3%. During much of the the trading day the decline was closer to about 2% but there was some recovery near the end of the trading day.
AutoCanada was one of the...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 1.1% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Shopify was up 4.0%. 
Apple was down 3.2% to $106.84. That's a significant drop from its peak of $137.98 reached at the start of September when there was a lot of excitement around i...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
RIWI, which has been volatile was up 10.8%.
Toll Brothers was down 1.3% and announced before the close that it had made a small acquisition in Colorado which has has been one of th...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Shopify was down 4.9% to CAN $1166 or U.S. $ 885 as it announced that it will issue about 1.3 million shares in the U.S. at U.S. $900. This will increase the share count by only a...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose another 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Restaurant Brands was up 3.1%.
AutoCanada was down 3.5%. As mentioned, I took advantage of its higher price yesterday to sell about 40% of my shares in this company. I was over-ex...

Markets rose once again on Monday with the S&P 500 up 1.3% and Toronto up 0.85%.
American Express was up 3.8%. Restaurant Brands was up 3.5% and Apple was up 3.0%.
Riwi Corporation was down 12.1% and is worth considering as a speculative pick.
Au...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.05% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
AutoCanada was up 7.4%. It has made a very strong recovery off its lows. At this point, it might be wise to trim the position for those who are over weight it. It has had a history of c...

On Thursday, markets bounced down with the S&P 500 down 1.8% and Toronto down 1.2%. 
Apple was down 3.3%.  Couche-Tard was down 3.7%.
Possibly the market is starting to focus on the U.S. election which certainly appears set to be ugly and divisiv...

Stocks moved higher on Wednesday as the S&P 500 rose 2.0% and Toronto was up 1.7%.
Notable gainers included: Couche-Tard up 5.0%, Metro Inc. up 3.3%,  Apple up 4.0%,  Toll Brothers up 3.7%, Amazon up 3.8%,  AutoCanada up 3.5%, And Andrew Peller u...

Markets were down on Tuesday with the S&P 500 down 2.8%. Toronto was only down 0.7% and that was in spite of a big drop in oil prices.
The recently high flying tech names that I follow were down. Apple - down 6.7%, Shopify - down 4.4%, Amazazon d...

Markets declined on Friday as the S&P 500 fell 0.8% and Toronto fell 1.4%.
Notable decliners included:  lululemon - down 4.4%, Shopify - down 4.5%,  Dollarama - down 3.1% and Constellation Software -down 3.0%.
As of Monday evening, stock futures ...

On Thursday, markets had their first significantly down day in quite some time. The S&P 500 fell 3.5% and Toronto was down 1.5%.
Accordingly, most stocks were down on the day. Some of the biggest declines among the stocks on my list were:
Apple- ...

Wednesday was a very strong day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 1.5%. Toronto, however, managed only a 0.3% gain.
Notable gainers included:
Couche-Tard up 7.5% on its strong earnings report.Restaurant Brands - up 3.9%.Fortis - up 2.6%Starbucks...

Stocks were mostly higher on Tuesday. The S&P 500 was up 0.75% and the Toronto index was up 0.8%.
Shopify was up another 6.7%. lululemon was up 4.2%. Apple was up 4.0%, Toll Brothers was up 4.0%. AutoCanada was up 7.3%.
After the close, Couche-Ta...

Stocks were mostly lower on Monday as the S&P 500 declined 0.2% and Toronto was down 1.15%.
But Apple was up 3.4% as it began trading on a four for one stock split basis. And Shopify was up 2.3%.
AutoCanada closed down 2.85%.
RioCan was down 1.7%...

The report for Stantec is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $42.35. 
Penny stock Ceapro has doubled since it was last updated in June and is now updated and rated Speculative Buy at 80 cents. After a few years of reporting losses it is once again ...

Friday was yet another positive day for U.S. stocks as the S&P 500 rose another 0.7%. Meanwhile, Toronto was down  0.15%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 7.6% after reporting good earnings on Friday morning. It's provision for loan losses was lower ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 managed yet another small gain - rising 0.2%. Meanwhile, Toronto was down 0.35%.
American Express was up 3.2% and RIWI, which is a very small company was up 9.0%. 
My next update will be for Stantec. 
 
 ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up another 1.0%. Toronto was also up 1.0%.
Shopify was up an impressive 5.1%. Canadian Tire was up 3.4%. Constellation Software was up 3.3%.
AutoCanada was down 5.9%
The latest rail car loading report out today shows...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose another 0.4% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Starbucks was up 5.1%. Shopify was up 3.8%.
After the close, Toll Brothers reported strong results. How the stock price reacts will depend on the extent to which strong result...

Monday was another positive day for stocks. In large part due to hopes for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines as Trump accelerates certain approvals.
The S&P 500 was up 1% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Among the gainers: Linamar was up 3.25%, AutoCanada...

On Friday. the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.5%.
Penny stock Ceapro continued to climb, rising 6.7% to 96 cents. 
Toll Brothers rose 3.7% as American home building continued to be surprisingly strong.
Apple soared another 5.1%.
Aut...

Having just updated the Melcor REIT and RioCan REIT it seems appropriate to compare the two.
Looking at yield, the Melcor REIT is at 9.1% and RioCan at 9.3%.  On that basis (in isolation of other facts) RioCan would be the clear choice.  However, the...

The report for RioCan is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $15.56. The yield is attractive at 9.3%. There is some potential for a cut to the distribution due to the impacts of the pandemic. But management maintains they are comfortable with the curre...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Various "tech" stocks continue to soar including Amazon - up , Apple - up 2.2%, Shopify - up 2.6%, and Constellation Software - up 3.5%, 
Ceapro was up another 9.9% after reporting a s...

Markets were mostly moderately lower on Wednesday with the S&P 500 down 0.4% and Toronto down 0.3%.
My next update will be for RioCan. Reading its (very detailed) Q2 report I was very impressed with this entity and its prospects. Sure, it has its...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 closed at a new record high as it rose 0.2%. Toronto was down 0.2%
Penny stock Ceapro was up 21% to a 52 week high  after it announced progress on its research into "an inhalable therapeutic for COVID-19.  However, this is ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.9%.
Toll Brothers was up 6.1% to $42.15 as U.S. home builder sentiment was reported to be very strong.
Going the other way, AutoCanada gave back 7.9%. This comes after its recent sharp inc...

Friday was a relatively quiet day in the markets with the S&P 500 about unchanged and Toronto down 0.1%.
Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund was up 10.3% after reporting (obviously very weak) Q2 results and indicating it will reinstate some level ...

Markets were modestly lower on Thursday as the S&P 500 fell 0.2% and Toronto fell 0.3%.
CRH Medical bounced up 9.2%. 
AutoCanada was up 7.1% and has certainly had an impressive recovery from its lows.
 ...

Greetings from Waterton National Park Alberta.
On Wednesday, markets continued to push higher as the S&P 500 rose 1.4% and Toronto rose 0.5%.
AutoCanada was up a further 8.0% on its Q2 earnings release.
Apple was up another 3.3%.
Checking the lat...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.8% and Toronto was down 0.65%. 
AutoCanada was up 7.3%. That suggests maybe a leak of information since it reported results after the close that appear to be good results given the virus situation.  There has bee...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
FedEx surged 9.0%. Apparently at least partly due to an analyst upgrade. 
Canadian Western Bank was up 5.2% probably linked to higher oil prices.
Toll Brothers was up 3.2%.
Overall, it w...

On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
I am certainly surprised at how strong the markets have been. low interest rates are  a key driver as is expectations for a virus vaccine.
I'm surprised that some of Trump's actions h...

Markets were higher once again on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 0.6% and Toronto up 0.5%.
Canadian Tire was down 6.3% after reporting a loss in Q2 . Its sports stores were closed for much of the quarter and the Canadian Tire stores had limited ope...

Markets were once again higher on Wednesday. The S&P 500 was up 0.6% and Toronto gained 0.8%.
Some of the gainers included lulu lemon - up 3.7%,  Canadian tire up 3.3%,  Linamar up 4.9%.
After the close, Stantec, WSP and Andrew Peller reported ea...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4%. Toronto which was playing catch-up, due to the holiday yesterday was up 1.2%.
Costco was up 3.2% 
I mentioned Ceapro in my last post. I bought some  in a family member's account that I manage. It was down 2.9%...

I got an interesting email from a local business.
"Evolution Golf Sherwood Park will be closed for the month of August due to a shortage of staffing. The hours at the North and South locations will remain unchanged."  (This is an indoor golf simulato...

Canadian markets were closed on Monday but the S&P 500 was up another 0.7%. 
Shopify was up 5.8%. 
The owner of the massive 7-11 chain of stores made a huge U.S. $21 billion deal to buy some 3,900 gas stations from Marathon Petroleum. The headlin...

It's Monday but the Canadian stock markets are closed for the civic holiday while the U.S. markets are open.
On Friday Toronto was down 0.8%. Losers included Canadian Western Bank down 2.8% to $22.80. Shopify bounced down 3.1%. RioCan was down 2.7% a...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Intact Financial was up 2.6%. Constellation Software was up (another) 3.4%. 
Apple and Amazon had better than expected earning reports. 
RIWI was up 12% to $3.59 and has mo...

Wednesday was a strong day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 1.2% and Toronto 1.1%.
Intact Financial was up 3.0% after it released strong Q2 earning.
Shopify surged another 7.0%.
TFI International was up another 3.0%.
Linamar was up 3.4%.
Starbu...

Markets were down modestly on Tuesday as the S&P 500 fell 0.65% and Toronto was down 0.25%.
TFI International was up 2.35% on its earnings release.
RIWI a very small company that was recently added to our list posted a good strong earnings report...

Monday was another positive day in the markets. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 1.0%.
Some of the larger gains included Shopify - up 4.7%, Toll Brothers - up 3.8%, AutoCanada up 3.5%.
With the huge gains on so many stocks since the Mar...

Markets were lower on Friday as the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
AutoCanada was up 2.6%. 
The Melcor REIT was down 9.1% to $3.50. 
Looking at AECON Group's Q2 report there was an interesting aspect regard the 75% federal wage ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 1.2% and Toronto was down 0.9%.
AutoCanada had a atrong day rising 17%. Presumably there was an analyst upgrade. I did not see any news. 
Aecon Inc. reported after the clsoe a Q2 loss but emphasized their record ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 gained 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Shopify bounced down 6.4%.
Energy stocks were generally higher and the Energy ETF XEG was up 8.9%.
After the close, CN Rail reported Q1 earnings that were down but which beat expect...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Linamar was up 5.0% to $40.81. Toll Brothers was up 6.9% to $36.69 and AutoCanada was up 3.9%.
Ceapro slipped back 5.6% to 67 cents.
The latest rail car loading statistics w...

Stocks were mostly higher on Monday as the S&P 500 rose 0.8% and Toronto 0.4%.
Amazon soared another 7.9%. That is a HUGE amount of wealth creation. About U.S. $120 billion in new added wealth based on investors bidding up the price in a single d...

Markets were positive once again on Friday as the S&P 500 rose 0.3% and Toronto gained 0.6%.
Couche-Tard was up 2.2% and sits at a recoird high. 
Ceapro was up 7.7%. But that's not such a big move for a volatile penny stock. 
This week will featu...

Markets were down a little on Thursday as the S&P 500 declined 0.3% and Toronto ws down 0.2%.
Penny stock Ceapro was up 14% to 65 cents. There was no news to explain this and so we should not read too much into it.
Toll Brothers was up 4.0%.
Most...

Markets were higher once again on Wednesday as the S&P 500 rose 0.9% and Toronto ws up 1.0%.
Restauant Brands was up 3.9%. AutoCanada was up 8.6%, CRH Medical was up 5.7%.
Penny stock Ceapro jumped 11.7% to a new 52 week high of 57 cents but rema...

Tuesday markets ignored the virus situation as the S&P 500 went up 1.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.1% and Toronto was up 1.7%. I can't help but wonder if investors are "whgistling past the graveyard" in ignoring the virus situatio...

Markets were initially higher on Monday but went lower late in the trading day and the S&P 500 ended the day down 0.9% while Toronto ended the day down 0.5%. The late-day decline was blamed on the virus situation and the reversal of some of the e...

Markets had another strong day on Friday with the S&P 500 up 1.05% and Toronto up 0.9%.
Toll Brothers bounced up 4.7% but this comes after a 4.8% loss on Thursday.
Berkshire Hathaway was up 2.3% and this was likely because of a report that it app...

Stock indexes were down modestly on Thursday as the S&P 500 fell 0.6% and Toroto was down 0.4%.
Couche-Tard was up 3.9%. Amazon rose another 3.3%.
Costco was up 2.9% after announcing strong June sales.
Toll Brothers was down 4.8%....

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.8% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Toll Brothers was up 5.1%. Constellation Software was up 3.6%.
Yesterday I mentioned the convertible debenture that Cineplex was offering. The reason the exact interest rate and conve...

Markets were down somewhat on Tuesday as the S&P 500 fell 1.1% and the Toronto stock index fell 0.5%.
Canadian Western Bank was down 3.0%. Possibly this was due to bad news on the pipeline front as courts are at least temporarily blocking the con...

Cineplex is out with a convertible debenture offer that looks very strange. On the one hand it could be a reasonably safe way to play the potential upside if Cineplex wins its massive legal settlement with Cineworld or if Cineplex recovers greatly as...

Markets were strong once again on Monday as the S&P 500 was up 1.6% and Torontow as up 0.5%.
Amazon was up 5.8% which is rather astounding for such a huge company.
Toll Brothers was up 3.4%.
Shopify had a rare down day and fell 3.8%.
AutoCananda ...

As of Sunday evening, U.S. stock futures suggest that Monday will be another positive day for stocks. That despite the virus situation.
On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
CRH Medical was up 9%.
Over the weekend Berksh...

Markets continued to move higher on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 0.45% and Toronto up 0.7%.
Shopify romped up another 8.4% as enthusiam for this company seems to know no bounds.
TFI International was up 2.4% and is at an all-time high.
Linamar wa...

Markets were higher on Tuesday as the S&P 500 rose 1.5% and Toronto 0.8%.
lululemon was up 6.0% on news of an acquisition it will make.
FedEx was up 4.2% and then rose a further 9.1% in after hours trading after it released earnings.
Toll Brother...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down a hefty 2.4% and Toronto was down 1.7%.
A few stocks on our list managed to buck the trend. TFI Interenational was up 1.1%. AutoCanada was up 1.0% and Stantec was up 1.2%.
Futures were reportedly down earlier this ...

On Thursday, stocks moved higher near the close and the S&P 500 ended the day up 1.1% while Toronto was up 1.0%.
U.S. bank stocks were strong as certain regulations were loosened. But then after the close the FED expressed concern and moved to re...

Park Lawn Corporation has a new issue out - a five year debenture (the word debenture signifies a bond that is not secured by assets) that pays 5.75% annually and matures December 31, 2025.
As of 12:30 pm eastern time the issue was still "open" for p...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 2.6% and Toronto fell 1.7%.
The great majority of stocks on our list were down.
Markets seem to have started to take notice of the higher virus cases in much of the U.S.
Penny stock Ceapro had reached a 52 week high...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
A notable gainer was AutoCanada - up 11.9% 
Boston Pizza did not react to the news I mentioned yesterday. Probably becasue it was still very unclear what the duistribution might be once...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.65% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Boston Pizza provided an update after the close but it was not clear what the cash distribution will be after it is re-started. Most of the information was about the parent Boston Pizza...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% while Toronto was about unchanged.
On Sunday evening, stock futures are down about 0.6%. Virus cases continue to rise in the U.S. but so far the stock market is not expecting this to lead to a reversal of the ...

Markets were not much changed on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Toronto up 0.3%.
Shopify had another strong day rising 5.9%.
I added some updated comments in the stock table on the Subscriber home page. For the preferrred shares I added th...

Stocks were mostly down on Wednesday as the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and Toronto fell 0.65%.
The increased virus cases in the southern U.S. could cause the market to cool its enthusiasm.
I'm going to take a look at Alcanna, symbol CLIQ,  which owns liqu...

Stocks rose on Tuesday as the FED indicated that interest rates will stay low and in continued reaction to strong retail sales gains in May and perhaps due to positive news regarding COVID-19 treeatments.
Ceapro was up 10%, Heineken was up 3.5%....

Markets were initally down noticeably on Monday but ended the day with the S&P 500 up 0.8% and Toronto up 0.7%.
A notable gainer was our one Penny Stock, Ceapro, up 25% after announcing progress in one of its research efforts. It has a number of ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 1.3% and Toronto was up 1.4%.
Boston Pizza Royalties recovered 12.0%.
Stock futures are down somewhat on Sunday evening....

Markets were down sharply on Thursday as the S&P 500 fell 5.9% and Toronto fell 4.1%.
This is not exactly shocking given the huge run up and given the unemployment levels. But optimism remains and the futures are higher this morning.
The report f...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Most stocks were down. Notable exceptions included: Couche-Tard - up 4.3%, Dollarama -up 2.5%, Apple - up 2.6%, Amazon - up 1.8% and lululemon up 2.6%.
Markets have of course rise...

Markets were down modestly on Tuesday with the S&P 500 down 0.8% and Toronto down 0.9%.
CRH Medical was down 6.9%, giving back some of its recent gains.
Apple was up 3.2% and is at an all-time high.
My next update will be for Amazon which will no...

Markets were highere once again on Monday with the S&P 500 up 1.2% and Toronto up 0.8%.
CRH Medical was up 22%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 6.1%.
RioCan was up 5.2% to $18.14. A week ago it was under $15.
Boston Pizza was up 17% to $9.94. That's...

Markets were sharply higher on Friday in response to employment gains in May when the forecasts had predicted further job losses.
The S&P 500 was up 2.6% and Toronto was up 2.1%.
The great majority of stocks were up. 
Oil prices were sharply high...

Wednesday was yet another positive day in the markets. The S&P 500 was up 1.4% and Toronto was up 1.2%.
Toll Brothers was up 9.2% and AutoCanada was up 11.4%.
Rail car loadings in the U.S. were down again last week but that was likely mostly due ...

Tuesday was another positive day for stocks as the S&P 500 was up 0.8% and Toronto was up 1.0%.
Canadian Tire was up 5.4%.
Auto Canada was up 7.2%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 4.2%.
Our one penny stock, Ceapro, is updated and rated Speculative B...

Ignoring the riots, stocks were higher on Monday with the S&P 500 up 0.4% and Toronto up 0.3%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 4.0%.
Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated Speculative Buy at $23.59. It looks quite cheap. But the extent of loan l...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while Toronto was down 0.5%.
lululemon was up 5.5% to reach a new high at $300. I'm certainly surprised at that given that some of its stores are still closed and given that unemployment levels. 
Canadian Wester...

Markets ended the day moderatley lower with the S&P 500 down 0.2% and Toronto down 0.1%.
Penny stock Ceapro was up 44% after releasing Q1 earnings. 
CIBC and TD reported earnings today and, as expected, their earnings were sharply lower due to mu...

Markets continued higher on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 1.5% and Toronto up 0.8%.
Toll Brothers was up 9.5% to $33. Then, after the close it released earnings which at least one headline described as better than expected. But the market may be ...

U.S. markets were higher on Tuesday with the S&P 500 up 2.2% and Toronto up 0.5%.
The Bank of Nova Scotia reported lower earnings which however were better than expected. Loan loss provisions rose but not as much as feared. The Bank expensed high...

On Monday, the TSX was up 1.1% while New York was closed for the Memorial day holiday.
Canadian Tire was up 3.8%. 
Oil prices continue to recover somewhat with West Texas now at $34.11
This week the Canadian Banks begin to release quarterly earnings....

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.8%.
Melcor Developments was up 6.5% after releasing its Q1 report.
The report on Shopify is updated and is rated Sell or reduce at Canandian $1121. I try to fathom how its price of 53 times sa...

Markets were up on Wednesday as the S&P 500 rose 1.7% and Toronto rose 0.75%. 
After the close, Melcor Developments released Q1 earnings which were fairly good. But they reduced the dividend by a further 2 cents to 8 cents to preserve cash. They ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.05% as yesterday's excitement about the early results of a vacine trial died down. Toronto was up 1.7%.
Linamar was up 8.6%.
Melcor Developments will post Q1 earnings after the close. Given low expectations, per...

American stocks had a strong day with the S&P 500 rising 3.1% while Toronto was closed for the holiday.
West Texas Oil is at U.S. $32.74 which is better news for Alberta.
Toll Brothers was up 11.8%. Wells Fargo, American Express and Bank of Ameri...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.9%.
On Sunday, West Texas oil was U.S. $30.65. Not great but still a welcome improvement for Alberta.
The Toronto stock excahbe will be closed tomorrow Monday for Victoria day while New York...

On Thursday, markets swung from negative to positive. The Dow was down over 400 points in the morning but closed up 377 points.
At the close, the S&P 500 was up 1.15% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Our report on CRH Medical is updated and rat...

Markets were down on Wednesday as the Fed chair predicted that the impacts of the pandemic would be realtively long lasting.
The S&P 500 was down 1.75% and Toronto was down 2.5%.
After the close, Linamar posted weak earnings for Q1 but strong cas...

Markets were down on Tuesday which may have been related to the realisation that the opening of the economy will be slower than hoped.
The S&P 500 was down 2.0% and Toronto was down 1.5%.
After the close, CRH Medical reported results. Revenues we...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.9%.
Canadian Tire was up 7.8% in further reaction to its Q1 report and its comemnts about how it is doing in April. I will post an update for it tomorrow and it is rated (higher) B...

Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated Buy at $173.48. This is based on the high quality of the company and ists current low price to book value at 1.14. And with the stock market recovery since March 31, it's actual price to book value today is eve...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 1.15% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Markets continue to do well despite the huge unemployment figures and despite some forecasts that suggest that even after the economy reopens unemployment will remain somewh...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% while Toronto managed a 0.1% gain.
There is a lot of earnings news for the market to digest.
After the close, Costco reported April same-store sales. For the first time in a very long time they were down. B...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.45%.
Oil prices have been recovering but are still very low.
Our report on VISA Inc. is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $178.44. Although not bargain priced it is a good long-term hold...

On Monday, stocks were mostly down most of the day but finished the day higher with the S&P 500 up 0.4% and Toronto up 0.8%.
With RioCan under $15 today, I added to my position. It seems undervalued. But that depends on how soon the retail sector...

Markets gave back some ground on Friday with the S&P 500 down 2.8% and Toronto down 1.1%.
Amazon was down 7.6% (but this comes after it recently soared) after its Q1 earnings came in below expectations and indicated that it would incur over $4 bi...

Markets backed off somewhat on Thursday with the S&P 500 down 0.9% and Toronto was down 2.9%.
Wells Fargo has stopped accepting new applications for home equity lines of credit. J.P. Morgan had stopped in mid April. Many millions are out of work ...

Markets were up strongly on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 2.7% and Toronto up 2.9%.
This was attributed mostly to positive early results from a drug that appears to lessen the severity of Covid-19. The results just preliminary but the market reac...

Metro Inc. is added to our list rated Buy at $58.35. It's reasonably valued and a good quality company for a long-term hold....

On Tuesday the Toronto stock Exchange index was up 1.1% while the S&P 500 was down 0.5%.
Markets continue to anticipate the opening up of the economy.
For example, the latest forecast of S&P 500 earnings for 2020 indicates a decline of 13% fo...

Markets continued to do well on Monday as the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 1.5%.
Toll Brothers was up 6.9% to $23.91. New Home sales of course fell off a cliff with the shutdown situation. But a report today indicated that interest in new hom...

Markets were higher on Friday with the S&P 500 up 1.4% and Toronto up 1.2%.
Stimulus programs and signs of reopening have kept markets buoyant. Things that could push markets down include: continued weal economic data such as GDP and unemployment...

Trudeau has announced a rent subsidy for small businesses paying 75% of the rent for businesses that are shut down or where revenue is down at least 70%. This applies to monthly rent payments up to $50,000.
This could benefit many businesses and land...

On Thursday, stocks had been somewhat higher most of the day but finished slightly negative with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Toronto down 0.3%.
Aecon Group reported Q1 results. At a quick look it appears that Q1 results were similar to last year. A...

Markets were higher on Wednesday as the S&P 500 was up 2.3% and Toronto was up 2.5%.
Apparently the Congress in the U.S. is set to roll out more stimulus.
The latest rail car loading reports show another week of decline in the U.S. with traffic d...

Markets were down somewhat on Tuesday as the S&P 500 and Toronto each fell 3.1%.
Futures at the moment suggest the markets will open slightly higher on Wednesday morning.
After the close TFI International reported Q1 earnings and gave an update f...

U.S. markets gave back a little today with the S&P 500 down 1.8%. But Toronto managed a 0.2% gain.
Most stocks were down by Shopify gained another 6.7%. It is certainly pricing in a ton of growth and future profitability. And perhaps with the shu...

Dollarama is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $43.15. See report....

Market rose again on Friday probably due to expectations of the economy opening before long.
The S&P 500 was up 2.7% and Toronto was up 3.3%
Shopify surged another 12% after its Chief Technology Officer said they have been helping thousands of bu...

Markets were somewhat lower most of Thursday but strengthened near the close. The S&P 500 finished the day up 0.6% while Toronto was down 0.4%.
Amazon continues to soar as did Shopify. 
Costco was up 3.6% after its dividend announcement. Costco i...

A perpetual preferred share from Intact Financial is added to the site and rated Buy at $21.99 to yield 5.9%. The other preferred shares on our list are rate reset preferred shares. Those (unlike perpetuals) were supposed to at least hold their value...

Intact Financial is added to the site but is rated only Weak Buy / Hold at $138.70 (the closing price April 15th, it closed today at $136.56. It's been an excellent long-term hold but looks expensive at this time. Also it is not entirely clear if it ...

Markets were lower on Wednesday apparently due to weaker-than-expected economic news.

March retail sales fell 8.7%, the most ever in government data, and New York regional manufacturing activity hit an all-time low, declining to a shocking negative ...

Markets were strong on Tuesday apparently driven by Presidents Trump's indications that the economy will soon start to be reopened starting by the end of this month.
The S&P 500 was up 3.1% and Toronto was up 1.3%. Amazon was up another 5.3% and ...

Markets were down moderately on Monday with the S&P 500 down 1.0% and Toronto down 0.6%. Markets were down about 2% earlier in the day but recovered ground late in the day.
Amazon was up a hefty 6.2% causing me to wonder why I never bought it giv...

Markets were higher on Friday with the S&P 500 up 1.45% and Toronto up 1.7% capping a very strong week.
On Sunday evening oil prices are up moderately (to $24.27) as OPEC plus a few other countries that apparently have state-controlled oil produc...

The report on CN Rail has been updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $111.
Canadian national Railway has been an excellent investment over the years going all the back to its privatization and Initial Public Offering in 1995. A buy and hold strategy h...

Markets were higher on Wednesday on continued optimism that the virus situation won't get as bad as recently thought and optimism that the U.S. economy will not stay shut down very long.
The S&P 500 was up 3.4% and Toronto was up 2.3%.
The price ...

Markets had been strong on Tuesday but ended the day  with the S&P 500 down 0.2% while Toronto as up 0.2%. The late-day drop was blamed on a drop in oil prices.
Amazon has announced that starting in June it will suspend its new shipping service t...

On Monday, markets were focused on the hope that the virus cases are at or near the peak in Italy and Spain and the hope that this will soon occur in the U.S. The S&P 500 was up 7.0% and Toronto was up 5.1%.
I am surprised at this resilience in t...

The report for Costco is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $305. It's a fantastic high quality company but always seems expensive (current P/E) 36. It is now up 4% in 2020. Not a stock to "play" a recovery but rather one to consider as a long term...

On Friday, the S&P 500 ended the day down 1.5% and Toronto was down 1.2%.
Canadian Tire announced that its Canadian Tire stores in Ontario will be closed after today to in-store shopping by delivery and curb-side pickup will continue.
So what is ...

Melcor has unfortunately been a disappointing investment since 2014 when oil prices started to slide.
Now, on top of relatively weak single family housing starts in Alberta it has been slammed by extremely low oil prices as well as the economic shutd...

On Thursday markets rose after Trump tweeted that he had talked to leaders in Saudi Arabia and Russia and that he expected or understood that they would soon agree to cut production by some 10 million barrels per day.
The direction of markets on Frid...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 4.4% and Toronto was down 3.8%
As COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise and as the shutdown gets more extensive and looks to last longer, markets could continue to fall. Offsetting that is the impact of the...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 ended the day down 1.6% while Toronto was up 2.6% boosted by announcements that the Keystone XL pipeline would be financially supported by the Alberta government and that TCE intended to go ahead with it.
Later Tuesday,Pre...

Markets were higher on Monday as the S&P 500 was up 3.3% and Toronto was up 2.8% despite lower oil prices.
There has been some positive developments regarding much faster testing for the virus.
A few companies have formally withdrawn their earnin...

Markets are higher today despite indications over the weekend that the shutdown will be longer than recently hoped. 
The Canadian government is offering to pay 75% of wages if businesses keep workers on (up to $58,700) The businesses do not even have...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 3.4% and Toronto was down 5.1%.
Given the current situation I am surprised to see that, after its big rally last week, the S&P 500 is only down 21% this year (down somewhat more from its peak level). 
A lot of ...

Markets were down this morning giving back some of the recent huge rally but the DOW is currently down about 700 points while it was down closer to 1000 points earlier. 
Possibly it will get a boost when the House passes the stimulus bill but perhaps...

On Thursday the huge market rally continued with the S&P 500 up 6.2% and although Toronto was up only 1.8%.
It seems the market has decided that the gargantuan U.S. stimulus package will take care of much of the revenue losses associated with the...

The big stock market rally continues now in its third day.
It's difficult to know what to do.
Many investors were well positioned to ride this through. Those who were comfortable with their level of equity exposure can continue to do that.
For those ...

The markets were up strongly again on Wednesday making for a very large recovery in the past two days.
It would seem that investor fear was diminished mostly due to the massive $2 trillion stimulous package in the works in the U.S. Investors may also...

With markets up this morning, my fear that the trend was still negative is suspect at this time. But there are many days ahead before the virus situation is even remotely resolved.
I understand there is agreement on the U.S. $2 trillion stimulus deal...

Melcor REIT  isupdated and rated Buy at $2.98. It's difficult to account for the changed world. But basically the Melcor REIT would look to be a good bargain unless things will get so bad that it goes under and the debt holders end up owning the buil...

The markets staged an epic rally on Tuesday mostly in response to an epic U.S.A. financial aid package expected to be passed imminently. Apparently 2 trillion and there was talk that along with other measured the total was $6 trillion. That's 10 time...

Stocks are up strongly this morning. CNBC indicates this is due to the pending U.S. financial aid package.
There is also good news from China which will lift its lock down on April 8 and apparently there has only been one new case of the virus in the...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 2.9% and Toronto plunged 5.3%.
The economic shutdown continues and deepens daily. 
The case counts and lack of testing in the U.S. is frightful.
There is some indication the cases in Italy may be peaking. 
Unless t...

Markets are down once again this morning. And this is despite additional major moves by the FED to support credit markets.
The shut down is becoming more extensive and fear is rising and therefore the markets could certainly go lower still.
On the vi...

Markets spent much of Friday somewhat higher but ultimately ended lower with the S&P 500 down 4.3% and Toronto down 2.6%.
The extent of business closures is monumental. We can only hope that it will be short-lived.
If this lock down lasts two mon...

Markets rebounded a little on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 0.5% and Toronto up 3.8% as West Texas Oil recovered somewhat (a 24% increase but from a low base).
I really don't think the worse is over for the markets.

The economic shut down is more...

Wednesday saw the S&P 500 down 5.2% and Toronto down 7.6% as oil prices dove.
Most stocks were down, many double digit percentage losses.
A few stocks were up. Amazon has held up really well. Walmart and Costco too. FedEx has not done well but wa...

Markets down again this morning.  Canadian Border with U.S. closed to non-essential visits. Trade to continue. Oil prices in Alberta collapsing. Government offering increased child tax benefits.
I did sell a few more stocks this morning. I am just no...

So Tuesday saw an increase in the markets driven by fairly massive U.S. FED stimulus / liquidity announcements and promises to help out both businesses and individuals.
S&P 500 was up 6.0% and Toronto (hampered by lower oil prices) was up 2.6%.
M...

Markets are currently up 4 to 5% and rising at the moment due to breaking news on massive stimulus in the U.S. including the FED supporting the commercial paper market, support to airlines and even apparently $1000 cheques going out.
For those still ...

As everyone is no doubt aware, and to no great surprise, markets were down sharply again on Monday.
Ugh, S&P 500 down 12.0%, Toronto down 9.9%. Oil down as well.
Individual declines are too painful to list.
Looking at futures, I am greatly surpri...

North America is starting to understand the seriousness of the virus situation. With all the closures, the fear levels are way up since Friday.
Sadly, I doubt that the FED rate cut and the Fed bond buying is going to do much for the markets.
I am ple...

The latest World Health Organization situation report is out. China has 18 new cases and 14 new deaths. That's higher than the low numbers of the past few days but still indicates very good containment given they had 81,000 total cases. Singapore con...

Markets on Friday were somewhat higher over the day and then really jumped when trump announced a national emergency along with big steps to get testing ramped way up in the U.SA. And there was news of a faster test coming available. Also there was a...

There has been something of a relief rally in stocks this morning due in part to positive about progress on getting far more people tested for the virus. There is also more news about central banks supporting bank liquidity.
But the relief rally soon...

Thursday, as everyone must know by now, saw another huge loss in the markets. The S&P 500 was down 9.5% and Toronto was down 12.3% for apparently its biggest ever one day percentage loss.
Almost all of the stocks on our list were down sharply and...

Markets down another 7% at the moment.
With fear really rising and the prospect of large-scale closures of universities and work places and cancellation of gatherings, the fear is getting worse. Could get far worse.
In that scenario it is hard to see...

Wednesday saw another big decline in the markets with the S&P 500 down 4.9% and Toronto down 4.6%.
Virtually every stock on our list was down. The biggest decliners were the  Boston Pizza units down 11.7% and Toll Brothers down 10.9% and AutoCana...

Tuesday saw a partial rebound from the big losses on Monday.  This was due to investors buying the dip but also very much due to indications that President Trump is about to provide some kind of stimulus.
I am not going to list any of the individual ...

With the market decline today, almost every stock on our list would look like a buy based on past earnings. But of course fear could push stocks lower as the market anticipates that fear will also hamper the economy.
Investors with cash may want to s...

On Friday markets were down again. The S&P 500 was down 1.7% and Toronto was down 2.3%.
Stantec at $40.57 has weathered the storm much better than most stocks. The same can be said for Couche-Tard.
Many stocks are down to what would appear to be ...

It was not surprising to see the markets down on Thursday. The good news of the Joe Biden strength in the primaries was yesterday's news and now the focus is back on the coronavirus and its impact on the economy.
The S&P 500 was down 3.4% and Tor...

Markets were up sharply on Wednesday due to probabaly a delayed reaction to central bank rte cuts and due to Joe Biden's success in the primaries. (The markets would not like Bernie Sanders to be the Democratic nominee and potential President.)
Almos...

Markets are up today so far. 
How bad could this all get? Well (temporarily) very bad of course. If countries really start to restrict travel and if consumers are scared to shop and people become scared to go to work or are prevented from working the...

Tuesday was yet another non-boring day in the markets as the S&P 500 fell 2.8% and Toronto fell 0.8%.
This despite the FED cutting interest rates by 0.5% and other central banks also expected to cut. I can see that cuts are good for stocks but I ...

Monday saw a strong and I think surprising recovery in stocks. But I would not bet on the declines being over.
The S&P 500 was up a hefty 4.6% and Toronto was up 1.8%.
Apple was up 9.4%, Costco was up an amazing 10.0%. Visa was up 5.8%.
Canadian ...

Friday saw another big headline-grabbing drop in the market on coronvirus fears.
The DOW was down over 1000 points during the day but recovered for a decline of 357 points or 1.4% at the close. The S&P 500 was down 0.8% and Toronto was down 2.7%....

Thursday was another down day in the markets due to the coronavirus.
The S&P 500 was down 4.4%. Toronto was down 1.9% but likely would have been down more except that it has to close early due to some technical problem.
Notable declines included:...

Markets at first rose on Wednesday but finished the day with the S&P 500 down 0.4% and Toronto down 0.8%.
Most stocks declined including American Express - down 2.0%, TFI International - down 2.15%, Linamar - down 2.9%, and Royal Bank - down 2.1%...

Toll Brothers is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $37.90. It just reported weak figures for Q4 but also reported sharply higher contracts for new houses which will show up in earnings when the houses are completed and "delivered" nine to twelve mont...

Tuesday was the second day in a row of headline-grabbing losses in the markets. The DOW was down 879 points or 3.25%. The S&P 500 was down 3.0% and Toronto was down 2.0%.
Some of the bigger losses included: Aecon Group Inc. - down 3.6%, Apple Inc...

Markets were down sharply on Monday on fears about the Coronavirus.
The S&P 500 was down 3.35%. The DOW was down a 3.6% or just over 1000 points. Toronto fared better but was still down 1.6%.
The bigger declines included Visa down 4.8%, American ...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $145.44. They had a very strong Q4. There are always risks, but based on the numbers and its history this stock is quite attractive....

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 1.05% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
The market has started to take notice of the Coronavirus situation and S&P 500 futures are down a further 1.2% as of Sunday evening. It looks like Monday will be yet another non...

TFI International is updated and rated (higher) Buy at CAN $47.03 and U.S. $35.51. This is an excellent company. I sold a good portion of my holdings last week on concerns about the what the Coronavirus (and the resulting sharp slow-down in China) is...