North American markets rebounded on Thursday with the S&P 500 and Toronto each up 1.0%.
Element Financial was up 5.5%. It is splitting into two separate companies. The hope being that one divided by two will equal more than 0.50.
Toll Brothers was up 2.4%.
Statistics Canada released figures for new car auto sales in July. For Canada as a whole, the number of motor vehicles sold was down 2.9% versus July 2015. For Alberta the decline was 14.2%. And that was compared to July 2015 which was already doen 16.7% versus July 2014. Based on this AutoCanada is likely having another tough quarter and will have to rely on cost cuts. Nevertheless AutoCanada has remained profitable and is likely to continue to do so.
A week or so ago I placed an order for 800 of the 4.85% rate reset shares issued in an IPO by Bank of Nova Scotia. I was only allocated 200 shares. This was a bit of a waste of time and tied up some funds as I had to have the cash on hand in case I was allocated all 800 shares. But the positive takeaway is that investors now (and once again) consider 4.85% on a bank rate reset share to be quite attractive. This bodes well for the value of all the existing rate reset shares.