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 latest announced huge acquisition.
Stantec was up 3.9% as it announced a small acquisition.
Canadian Western Bank was down 2.45% even though its earnings announced Friday morning were apparently in line with expectations.
RioCan ended the day down only 2.1% after announcing it will cut its distribution by one third. That was a surprisingly tame reaction. Perhaps the market anticipated it. Also, the returns from RioCan will ultimately be determined by its operating success. Whatever level of risk the market perceived about RioCan’s future cash flows from operations was perhaps not much changed by this announcement. And, after all, the cash retained by RioCan and not dividended out is still owned by the unit holders collectively.
The Canadian dollar was noticeably higher this week and has mostly trended up since April. It’s now at 78.25 U.S. cents. At the wholesale rate it will cost Canadians $1.28 to buy a U.S. dollar. So a cheaper U.S. dollar just when we basically can’t travel. It’s never clear where the Canadian dollar will head next. Perhaps it will go higher. But if I had an upcoming need for U.S. currency I’d be inclined to convert at least some Canadian cash now rather than hoping for a better deal later. As investors, we should probably have a certain allocation to U.S. companies and kee p that allocation fairly steady and not try to predict currency movements.