U.S. markets continue to be on fire. At the moment, this is a market that knows no fear.
The S&P 500 was up 0.9% on Wednesday and the DOW was up a scorching 1.25%. Meanwhile, Toronto was up 0.2%.
CRH Medical was up 6.5% to $3.44. The company continued to buy back shares at a good pace through to the end of December. (Apparently these trades are only reported on a monthly basis). On a negative note, a director sold 16,000 shares in December at U.S. 2.50.
I added to my position in AutoCanada.
The Bank of Canada increased interest rates by 0.25% today. The 5 year Government of Canada bond yield rose to 2.015% which is the highest since 2011. This bodes well for rate reset preferred shares, particularly those that will reset relatively soon. Keep in mind however that rate reset shares should not be expected to go much above $25 because typically the issuer can redeem them for $25 on the reset date.
West Texas Oil remains relatively strong at $64.22.
The Canadian dollar is at 80.3 cents and seems to have defied a lot of predictions that it would fall.
I have been saying that I expect at least some of the income tax cuts in the U.S. to be competed away in price declines. I finally saw one analyst on BNN today who mentioned that should happen in more competitive sectors.