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 International. It appears that BPI needed money and its owner Jim Treliving is going to inject $10 million. And BPI has accessed bank borrowing.
I am taking a look at Alcanna Inc. It’s definitively a speculative stock. It has a poor history but is under new and seemingly better management and is benefiting from increased alcohol sales as bars and restaurants were closed and are now operating at limited capacity.
After the close, stock futures fell on reports that the hoped for U.S. / China trade deal was off but then recovered when the White House denied that report.
The new Bank of Canada governor today explained that the Bank bank is buying government of Canada bonds from short term to long term and thereby lowering all interest rates. This is quantitative easing. He said this was initially started a couple months ago to prevent credit markets were in danger of freezing up. Now it continues and is stimulative. He also mentioned that the real interest rate (after deducting expected inflation) is negative across the spectrum from short term to long term. We can only wonder where all of this will end as central banks manipuate interest rates lower. We live in a world where the government can borrow at negative real rates. No wonder they keep doing so massively. And if rates stay low, the government will have no reason to ever pay off that debt. Strange days indeed…