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. It closed slightly below 20,000.
Higher oil prices are part of the reason that the TSX has pushed higher. The energy exchange traded fund, XEG was up 4.3% at $8.73. That ETF has been a heart-breaker and value destroyer since it peaked around $28 in mid 2008 (13 years ago). But it has done well this year.
Linamar was up 3.3%.
One of the big bank analysts this morning recommended selling TFI International. Given I had already sold most of my shares I sold today the last of what I held. I would not mind buying back into this company if it happened to really dip again but that certainly may not happen.
Canadian Western Bank just announced that it will redeem one its preferred shares. They will be redeemed at $25.00. That was the Series 7 trading as CWB.PR.C. It had an above market yield as it paid $1.5625 per year or 6.25% of $25. It was issued at a time when rate reset preferred shares were particularly unpopular and Canadian Western Bank can replace it with a lower yield if it chooses to. What this points out is the fact that most of these rate reset preferred shares can never really trade too far above $25 given that the issuer has the right to redeem them (albeit only on a certain date every five years) at $25.
Canadian Western bank also announced today that it has in place an At The Market equity program. This is new and allows CWB to issue up $150 million in shares by simply selling them into the market at the market price. Normally they would issue shares through a secondary offering at a fixed price. This is to increase capital for growth. It’s a bit disappointing given that CWB has been claiming it has excess capital and that it would be seen to have excess capital if it were allowed to calculate its risk-weighted assets under the more advanced method that the big banks use and that it has been hoping to be allowed to use. But which has been delayed yet again. It might also suggest that we should not expect a dividend increase given that they need to build capital. But it may be that they will only do this is they get a lot of growth in their loans either organically or through some acquisition.
In other news today, penny stock Ceapro announced the results of voting at its annual meeting. It was rather ugly. Their chairman and one other direct had 46% of the votes withheld. The CEO had 19% withheld. This is a lot of share owner dissatisfaction. this is very unusual.