On Tuesday, markets were once again setting record highs. In round numbers, the Dow is now 25,000. The S&P 500 was up 0.15% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
CRH Medical bounced down 4% in Toronto. I had understood from this company that they were going to buy back shares starting either November 9 (for ad-hoc purchases) or 20th (for purchases under an automated portion of the buy-back plan) and that the buy-back purchases had to be reported on SEDI by 10 days after the end of the month. So far? crickets. This certainly does not add to my confidence. The unfortunate reality is that when a company disappoints in one way they tend to disappoint in other ways as well. I thought this company had a good business model. Then they got bad news in terms of government regulated pricing for their services. But that bad news seems to have been made worse by their poor ability to communicate (or perhaps anticipate) the exact nature of and impact of the price changes. They also surprised the market in the spring with their treatment and disclosure of changes in their estimates of accounts receivable. I am still hopeful for a decent recovery in this stock. P.S. After I wrote this I got a response from the company indicating “We are having a setup issue with sedi that we hope to resolve tomorrow”.
On Wednesday, the FED is expected to increase interest rates. And even though it is already expected, I think it might push the Canadian dollar down if and when it gets announced.