Markets in both Canada and the U.S. are open despite the holiday. Markets are down a little right now but nothing unusual to report.
Friday was another mostly positive day for our stocks. That was despite Trump throwing some cold water on the China trade deal hopes. AutoCanada had a good increase. It’s up a little more now. I think the Q3 results were a sort of all-clear signal and I am tempted to buy back some of what I sold some months ago. The new management is far better than who they replaced. But this is still a speculative stock. Update: I did add somewhat to my position.
Canada jobs data came out and was considered weak with a loss of 1800 jobs. A few news sources correctly pointed out that the survey is just an estimate and subject to quite a lot of error. You can’t go by any one month’s results. Still, there are other signs that the economy is slowing somewhat (rail car loadings for example).
CMHC reported weak housing starts for October. But actually, in the details, single family starts were up 3% year over year nationally. Weak in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. But Alberta was up 11% year over year. Alberta is up compared to weak numbers in 2018 but this is still progress. Edmonton was up 24% while Calgary was up only 3%. This is consistent with Melcor’s Q3 results where the vast majority of lots they sold in Canada were in the Edmonton region. The October figures are positive for Melcor but they will still be selling fewer lots for some time due to lower demand and they are developing fewer lots given the weak demand.