On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.6% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
Correspondingly, most of the stocks on our list were down. 
TFI International was down 3.0% to $37.76. The company has been buying back shares aggressively and the shares do appear ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.45% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Dollarama was down 2.65%. 
Apparently, Alberta is about to announce that it has sold some of its crude-by-rial contract commitments to the private sector. I would have thought the g...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 1.4% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Linamar rebounded somewhat, up 4.4%. Most stocks were up.
The U.S. added fewer jobs than expected. But the unemployment rate is a record low 3.5%. Virtually, it seems there is almost no ...

On Thursday, markets started out negative but finished positive with the S&P 500 up 0.8% and Toronto up 0.4%.
Linamar got hammered down 10.3% after indicating that sales were slowing in all three of its categories (auto parts, access - i.e. sciss...

 
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.8% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Accordingly, most of the stocks on our list were down. The bigger decliners were Apple down 2.5%, BHP Billiton - down 2.9%, Visa - down 2.6%, American Express -down 3.3%, and Au...

Tuesday was a down day in the markets as the S&P 500 fell 1.2% and Toronto was down 1.3%.
With the economy softening, I would be inclined to hold more cash. But I always find it difficult to part with most of the stocks I own and so I have very l...

Today marks the end of the third quarter. Soon, the next round of earnings report will start to flow in.
On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.4%
TFI International was up 2.7% after announcing that...

I have updated two articles that go into detail on specific ETFs to consider investing in.
The first article covers the relatively new balanced fund ETFs from Vanguard and iShares. These could be especially useful for newer investors and for anyone w...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
One of the old favorites on this site but no longer on the list, Wells Fargo, was up 3.8% after announcing its new CEO. Apparently he will work out of New York and not have to bother...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was about unchanged.
So far, it appears that the market is ignoring Trump's problems regarding favors from Ukraine. But it does look like those problems are real.
The most notable move in the ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Shopify recovered some of its recent losses, gaining a hefty 6.9%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.7%. But that was a modest gain considering that the report on new home sales was very st...

Markets were mostly negative on Tuesday with the S&P 500 down 0.8% and Toronto down 0.4%. This was blamed on trade tensions. Also, the Democrats moved to explore impeaching Trump - but in this strange world that was not really big news.
TFI Inter...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.2%.
lululemon was up 3.1%
FedEx was down 2.2%.
Statistics Canada reported that Wholesale sales rose in July and that "the personal and household goods subsector and the motor veh...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5%. But Toronto was up 0.25% and sits at a record closing high.
Canadian Tire was up 3.35% to $148.82. This is a good recovery from the $133.43 level of our update of last month. The recovery is likely due to ana...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 ended the day unchanged while Toronto was up 0.35%.
Couche-Tard was up 2.4% and has recovered a good portion of its recent decline from its high.
Toll Brothers was little changed despite a report this morning indicating t...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 ended the day about unchanged and Toronto was down 0.2%
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 0.25% in light of potential risks to the economy posed by trade tensions.
FedEx fell 13% due to its poor quarterly ea...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Restaurant Brands was up 3.4%. Dollarama was up 2.4%.
Shopify was down 2.6% to $435.67. or U.S. $328.82. That's actually pretty strong considering the company sold shares today at U.S....

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% in a mild reaction to the partial destruction of Saudi Arabia's oil refining infrastructure. Toronto was up 0.4% as oil rose about 10% in reaction to the reduced capacity of Saudi Arabia.
The large cap energy ...

The big news for markets over the weekend was the major attack on the Saudi oil refining. This morning the S&P 500 is down 0.3% which is not a big reaction. Toronto is up 0.4% because oil prices are up a hefty 10%.
The large cap energy ETF, XEG i...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.2%
Toronto hit a new within-trading-day high.
The European Central Bank announced anew round of bond-buying which will keep interest rates lower-than-low in Europe.
Shopify was up for the...

Markets were strong on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 0.7% and Toronto up 0.45%
Canadian Tire was up 1.9%.
Toll Brothers was up 3.2% and then after the close announced a relatively small acquisition of a builder of mostly more moderately priced ho...

Although overall markets did not move much today there was a lot of movement in various stocks. The S&P 500 was almost unchanged and Toronto as up 0.3%.
Restaurant Brands was down 4.2%. Possibly, this was related to Wendy's announcing it would ro...

Costco is updated and rated (lower) Sell at $296.05. Basically, if I owned it I would sell at least half of the position at this price or avoid having a very large position. On the other hand it is a great company and although the valuation would sug...

"Couche-Tard", as the company is often referred to, has been a very long term winner. And, after several years where the share price did not do much, the stock is up about 60% versus a low point in May of 2018.
For quite a few years I thought that de...

Markets were relatively flat on Monday with the S&P 500 unchanged and Toronto down 0.2%.
Stocks on our list that moved up included FedEx - up 3.4%, TFI International - up 1.7%, and Linamar - up 1.7%.
lulu lemon was down 4.3%, giving back some of ...

Our report on Visa Inc. is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $181.55.
Visa certainly has wonderful economics and is extremely profitable and is growing earnings rapidly. But with a price/earnings ratio of 35, the stock is arguably fully valued. A...

Markets were strong on Thursday as the S&P 500 rose 1.3% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
lululemon was up 4.3% and that was before it released a strong earnings report with revenues up 22% and beating expectations on earnings as well and it rose a furt...

On Wednesday the S&P bounced up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
FedEx was up 2.4% and Dollarama was also up 2.4%.
TFI International was up only 0.1%. With the company recently increasing its already very large share buy back program because they th...

Markets were weak on Tuesday with the S&P down 0.7% and Toronto down 0.3%. This was due in part to a decline in U.S. manufacturing activity likely related to the trade war.
Most stocks were down. CRH Medical was down 4.6% despite announcing it w...

Autocanada is updated and now rated Speculative (lower) Buy at $8.45.
In their Q2 report recently released there is a lot of improvement. Higher sales and gross profits. It appears that they have turned the corner on losses and should be profitable ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.35%.
Most stocks on our list were up.
I read the conference call Transcript for Canadian Western Bank today. While there are always risks related to the economy, the tone of that conferenc...

Markets were strong on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 1.3% and Toronto up 0.7%.
Linamar was up 2.35%. And FedEx was up 2.7%. Presumably both related to more optimism or less pessimism about trade wars.
Canadian Western Bank reported Q3 earnings whi...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.65% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Most stocks were up while most of the rate reset preferred shares were down a little.
National Bank reported good results. Hopefully, Canadian Western Bank will as well.
Checking the...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% - probably because the market's faith that a China trade deal is closer started to wane. Toronto was up 0.5% as oil prices were higher.
Couche-Tard was up 2.1%. This has been a winning company for many years. And...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.4%. This came after President Trump said that China was ready to negotiate a trade deal. There is probably little reason to believe it but the market of course wants to believe it, so they d...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 2.6% after Trump escalated the trade war with China. And Toronto got pulled down 1.3%.
Almost all of the stocks on our list were down. Among the hardest hit were Apple - down 4.6%, and FedEx - down 3.9%, and TFI In...

The report on Toll Brothers is updated and rated Buy at $35.97. It looks like a Buy based on its numbers. I completed this report this morning before Trump's tweets sent the price for most stocks lower....

In Thursday's markets the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was down 0.3%
Toll Brothers was up 2.0% presumably because the analyst comments were somewhat positive today after they digested the Q3 earnings report and conference call.
With RB...

Markets were up on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 0.8% and Toronto up 0.6%.
Shopify was up another 4.0%.
Lululemon was up 2.0%,
Toll Brothers fell 4.5% despite reporting Q3 earnings that beat expectations. They also increased their full year gui...

Tuesday was a moderately negative day in the markets.
The S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Shopify was up 3.6% to $499 and traded above $500 today.
Toll Brothers was up 1.4% to $36.91. It then reported Q3 earnings after the close...

Monday was yet another non-boring day in the markets as the S&P 500 was up 1.2% and Toronto was up 1.0%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 5.0% although there was no news from the company. Linamar was up 2.5%, and Toll Brothers was up 3.5%.
The bank...

Friday's action saw the S&P 500 up 1.4% and Toronto up 0.9%. Markets are gyrating up and down mostly based on the latest word on the trade wars.
Notable gainers included CN Rail -up 1.9%, Apple - up 2.4%, FedEx - up 2.1%, TFI International - up ...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $133.43. The recent slide in the share price seems unwarranted and results in Canadian Tire trading at an attractive price....

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.25% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Canadian Tire was down 2.4% to $131.47. I plan to update the report shortly. My initial impression was that its Q2 earnings report was good, but the market obviously found somethi...

WSP Global is updated and rated Buy at $69.82. It has a great history of growth and trades at a reasonable although not particularly compelling valuation.
Compared to Stantec, WSP trades at a higher multiple to trailing earnings and book value. But...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 2.9% and Toronto was down 1.9%.
Market sentiment seems to be on a hair trigger with stocks rising or falling materially each day depending if news developments are considered bad or good.
The fact is that being ...

Markets rebounded on Tuesday after it was announced that the new 10% September 1 U.S. tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports would be delayed until December for most consumer goods.
The S&P 500 was up 1.5% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Linamar rec...

Monday was a negative day in the markets with the S&P 500 down 1.2% and Toronto down 0.6%.
Rate reset preferred shares were mostly particularly hard hit. This was due to the plunge in the five year government of Canada bond yield to 1.20%. It had...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Linamar was hammered down 8.1% (see update). I will be interested to see if the analysts lower their forward earnings estimates. According to Yahoo Finance, the forward P/E is just 4...

Linamar is updated and remains rated Strong Buy, now at $37.92. It is in a period of declining earnings. But its valuation seems extremely low in relation to earnings and book value. The near-term stock price is dependent on how trade tensions evolve...

Stantec is updated and rated Buy at Canadian $28.50 and U.S. $21.56.
The market was disappointed with its Q2 earnings report that featured good revenue growth but also a decline in adjusted earnings of 9.5%. The company blamed this on a delay in impl...

Never a dull day in the markets it seems...
S&P 500 was up 1.9% and Toronto was up 0.9%.
Shopify was up 4.3%.
Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund reported earnings before the open. Same-store sales subject to the franchise fee (excludes alcohol) w...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down most of the day but ended the day up 0.1%. Toronto was up 0.7%.
Restaurant Brands was strong with a 3.6% gain in Toronto and 3.4% in New York.
Rate reset shares were lower due to the declining 5 year Canada bond...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 had a partial recovery from yesterday's losses and was up 1.3%. Toronto, playing catch-up, was down 0.75%.
Some stock movements of note included: Canadian Tire- down 2.1%, TFI International - down 2.6% (I was happy to grab...

On Monday, Canadian markets were closed while the S&P 500 declined 3.0% due to Trump's escalating trade war with China. A 3% decline in the U.S. markets is not a huge deal considering all the recent gains. Obviously, the declines could continue. ...

TFI International is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $39.69. Based on valuation I would have rated the company a Strong Buy. But the company does see some softness in the outlook. I believe a rating of (higher) Buy is conservative. I just listened ...

Markets fell on Friday probably due to Trump's escalating trade war with China and disappointment that the FED did not promise more interest rate cuts.
The S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
Restaurant Brands was one of the few gain...

Having recently looked in detail at Starbucks and at Restaurant Brands, I wanted to look at some of the big similarities and differences between the two businesses.
Both are in the quick-service food and beverage industry with tens of thousands of lo...

Restaurant Brands is updated and remains rated Weak Buy / Hold now at U.S. 77.22 or Canadian $101.02.
This was only added to our list in late July but is now updated for its just released Q2 earnings report. Q2 has strong same-store sales of 3.6% at ...

Markets fell on Thursday after Trump escalated his trade war with China announcing new 10% tariffs on most remaining Chinese goods starting September 1. This will be for most of the goods that he has not already imposed tariffs on.
Stocks that fell ...

Our report on Starbucks is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $95.38. Normally, I would not rate a mature company like this as high as even hold give the P/E ratio of 35. But low and going lower interest rates do support high P/E ratios. And Starbu...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.1% after the FED gave the markets a 25 basis point interet rate cut but apparently did no promise firmly enough to do more of the same in future. Toronto was down 0.4%.
Canadian Western bank was up 3.9% after lend...

Tuesday was a moderately negative day with the S&P 500 down 0.3% and Toronto down 0.2%.
Most stocks that I follow were down a little.
Toll Brothers however was up 2.1%. I don't follow lumber prices but I saw where they are down. That should be go...

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.2%.
TFI International was up 4.1% probably because analysts further digested its Q2 results from last week and liked what they saw.
AutoCanada was down another 3.1% to $8.82. With the recent we...

Markets were higher on Friday as the S&P 500 rose 0.7% and Toronto rose 0.3%.
Aecon jumped 9.8% after reporting earnings. This company takes on risky fixed price construction contracts but has done well. That's in sharp contrast to SNC Lavalin's ...

Restaurant Brands which owns Tim Hortons and Burger King and Popeyes and trades in Canada and the U.S. under symbol QSR is added to our list. This company definitely has reliable cash flows and will likely continue to grow. But it is also quite expen...

Markets took a little rest from their gains on Thursday as the S&P 500 declined 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
AutoCanada was down the most as far as the stocks on my list - down 3.3%. Nothing else declined by a notable amount.
After the close, ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
CN Rail was up 3.3% after releasing a strong earnings report.
lululemon was up 1.7%
Aecon was up 1.5% possibly benefiting from SNC getting out of the fixed price business which Aecon ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Linamar rebounded 3.6% probably due to potential progress on trade talks between China and the U.S.
FedEx was up 2.5%.
SNC Lavalin got hammered down another 9.6% as investors bail. Pre...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Nothing good to report on most of the stocks on our list. Rate reset shares were generally down today as the 5 year government of Canada bond yield rate has slumped down to 1.4%. At tha...

In Friday's session, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% while Toronto was close to unchanged although slightly down.
America Express was down 2.8% after reporting earnings. It's earnings were strong but it forecast increasing costs for card holder rewards...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% boosted by more indications that the FED will cut interest rates later this month.
Toronto was up 0.1%.
Most of the Canadian stocks on our list and that I otherwise monitor were down somewhat.
Couche-Tard was...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.65% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
TFI International slumped 4.1%. This was likely driven by declines in other transport related stocks after U.S. railroad CSX reported lower profits and, of more concern, lower ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% as Trump warned that he could impose further Tariffs on China and as a stronger-than-expected retail spending report cast doubt on the extent of expected FED interest rate cuts.
Toronto meanwhile was relative...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto as up 0.1%
The Melcor REIT announced / confirmed that its distribution will remain unchanged for the next three months and announced that it will release Q2 earnings on July 30th.
Regarding M...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
lululemon jumped 3.5% to $189.52. I had added it to our list less than two weeks ago at $180.86. I had been predisposed to rate it at least a Weak Buy but it seemed to rich. It's a f...

Couche-Tard is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $84.57 (yesterday's closing price).
What a wonderful success story this has been for Canadian investors. Remarkably, it is now the largest Canadian-based company by revenue!
Since I added it to this si...

Thursday saw a new record close for the S&P 500 up 0.2% to 2999.9 (so rounded = 3000) and the Dow Jones closed above 27,000 for the first time. Toronto was down 0.2%.
AutoCananda was down 3.2%.
Costco was up 1.9% after reporting strong same-stor...

This morning I sold what amounted to 8.5% of my Boston Pizza Royalties shares. These were in an RESP account and (although this is not supposed to matter) I had a capital gain on those shares over and above the distributions received. I also may redu...

U.S. markets were higher on Wednesday on indications that the FED may lower interest rates.
The S&P 500 index was up 0.45% to 2994. It poked its head above 3000 for the first time during the day.
Toronto was up 0.1%. West Texas oil is back abov...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Amazon was up 1.8% to $1988.
AutoCanada lost more ground ans it was down 2.7% to $10.81.
Toll Brothers was down 2.2% to $36.25 and continues to lanquish despite the strong U.S. economy...

Monday was a moderately negative day in the markets with the S&P 500 and Toronto each down 0.5%.
Shopify was up 2.65% after a positive analyst comment.
Lululemon climbed another 2.0%.
See the list of stocks on the subscriber home page for updates...

On Friday the markets took a breather from recent gains and the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
BHP was down 4.5% possibly linked to calls for a probe into a recent spike in iron ore prices.
Melcor Developments was down 2.4%.
Rat...

On Thursday, while U.S. markets were closed, Toronto was up 0.1%.
AutoCanada was down 1.9%. After the close it announced it has hired a new CFO who will start on August 12. The person hired has significant experience as CFO of a number of public comp...

Wednesday was a strong day in the markets with the S&P 500 rising 0.8% to close at a new record high and just a hair below 3000. Toronto was up 0.6%.
Among the gainers were: Couche Tard up 2.9%, Dollarama up 2.4%, Starbucks up 2.7%.
The great m...

Tuesday was a positive day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.3% and Toronto as up 0.5% despite a drop in oil prices as it played catch up due to the holiday on Monday.
Home Capital, which is not on our list but which has been mentioned from ti...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.8% to a new record closing high of 2964. Toronto was closed and had risen 0.5% on Friday.
Notable gains included: CN rail up 2.2% on Monday in U.S. trading, CRH Medical up 2.9% on Friday and Linamar, up 1.7% on Fri...

Our report on an Enbridge rate reset preferred share is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $15.81 for those seeking tax efficient yield and willing to hold for the long term. Rate resets and in particular the Enbridge rate rests have disappointed inve...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Melcor Developments was one of the larger decliners on our list - down 2.7% to $12.55. That means the shares are trading at about 40% of book value. And the book value consists of...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.0% and Toronto was down 0.9%.
Accordingly, the great majority of the stocks on our list were down.
FedEx was down 3.1% and then released earnings after the close. While the earnings beat estimates on an adjuste...

Markets were relatively quiet on Monday as the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was about unchanged.
Shopify was down 4.8% giving back a little of its recent massive gains as some analysts think it has ran up too far.
FedEx was down 2.7%.
The Ca...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Couche-Tard was down 3.1% as it retreats from recent record highs. Experience suggests that this is a stock to hold for the long term perhaps adding on dips. Selling when it seemed t...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Couche-Tard was down 2.7% but that was likely just due to some analysts deciding that it has run too far too fast.
Penny Stock Ceapro was down 8.3% to 33 cents. That was on significa...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% as the FED held interest rates unchanged but signaled it might now be more open to a cut but that depends on future data. Toronto was roughly unchanged.
Canadian energy stocks did not react much to the Trans ...

Tuesday was a strong day in the markets as President Trump announced that he would meet with the Chinese leader. This was taken as good news for trade and the economy.
The S&P 500 was up 1.0% and Toronto was up 0.9%
SNC Lavalin was up 5.5% as it ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto up 0.3%.
CRH Medical was up 3.1%. Couche-Tard was up 1.9% as it has continued to make new highs this year.
There are more signs of lower interest rates. RBC lowered its posted rate for a 5 year fixed...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
AutoCanada gave back 2.5%.
On a year to date basis the markets and most of the stocks on our list have done well. But that came after a sharp decline at the end of 2018.
The overall...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Dollarama soared 11.3% after reporting better than expected results and an improved outlook.
AutoCanada was up 4.3% after announcing the sale and lease-back of three more of its dealer...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
There were no particularly noteworthy moves in the stocks on our list.
Today, I attended Stantec's "Investor Day". In reality this is a day for analysts and institutional investo...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.2%.
SNC Lavalin was up 7.0% after a surprise announcement that its CEO will retire and that an existing executive was named interim CEO and has been asked to perform an expedited ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.1%
Trump who, love him or hate him, it seems clear longs to be a dictator called into CNBC this morning to complain about the FED acting independently. Trump has been good for the markets - ...

Linamar is up 2.1% likely due to Trump's agreement with Mexico to not impose the new (illegal-under-NAFTA) 5% and rising tariffs on everything that he had threatened. The reaction would likely be more positive if the market was more certain that the...

Posting from Kelowna this Sunday evening.
The big news on Friday was Trump’s new agreement with Mexico. This should be quite positive for markets on Monday. Linamar should benefit from this news....

Thursday's markets saw the S&P 500 rise 0.6% as there was some optimism that Trump would delay the new 5% tariff on Mexico. Toronto was up 0.1%.
The biggest gainer on our list was Starbucks - up 1.8%.
After the close, Canadian Western Bank announ...

Wednesday was a mostly positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.8% and Toronto up 0.3%.
Shopify surged 6.6%.
RioCan was up 2.2%.
Linamar was down 2.3% and is very close to its 52 week low. Fears of continued trade wars and slower auto ...

Stock markets were up sharply on Friday as the FED chair indicated that the FED would consider lowering interest rates if economic data indicate that this is an appropriate response.
The S&P 500 was up a hefty 2.1% while Toronto was up 0.9%.
Amon...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Shopify was down 4.3%. Amazon was down 4.6%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.4%.
May auto sales were down 5.9% versus 2018 but it was still the third best May on record. Fiat Chrysler sale...

Friday was a down day in the markets due to Trump announcing escalating tariffs on all Mexican imports starting June 10. This despite the existence of NAFTA which is still in place and the USMCA which (was?) soon to be ratified.
The S&P 500 was d...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.3%.
Canadian Tire was down 2.0%. The recent decline would appear to provide a buying opportunity. The stock has often had periods of declines but has certainly trended up in the long t...

Wednesday was a negative day in the markets as the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto down a full 1.0%.
The Canadian dollar slipped under 74 U.S. cents as the Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged.
Among the bigger declines were: Shopify - ...

Tuesday's market saw the S&P 500 close down 0.8% and Toronto down 0.3%.
Canadian Western Bank was down 1.7%, probably dragged down by Bank of Nova Scotia reporting higher loan losses even though that was largely in their international business. ...

The report for CN Rail is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $124.50. I have consistently said that CN is a great company given its duopoly position with CP Rail and the rails' cost advantage over trucking and CN's excellent history. But it usually ten...

U.S. markets were closed on Monday while Toronto was up 0.7%.
Boston Pizza International announced that it has a new CFO effective immediately. That sounded a bit scary depending on why the incumbent was gone. But it turns out that the incumbent was ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Gaining stocks included BHP Billiton - up 2.6%, toll Brothers - up 1.8% and Linamar - up 2.0%.
Aecon Group was down 2.6%.
Canadian Western Bank is set to report earnings on Wednesday. In...

CIBC is out with a 5.15% rate reset preferred share. This is not an exciting investment but for those looking for yield in a portfolio and especially for tax efficient yield in a taxable portfolio it is worth considering. As of about an hour after TD...

The report for Toll Brothers is updated and rated Buy at u>s. $35.66. The previous update had noted that while profits were up, contracts to build new homes (which become revenues and profits some 9 to 12 months later when the home is built and deliv...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
Stocks that rose included Shopify - up 2.1%, Constellation Software - up 2.3%.
Couche-Tard was up 1.5% and continues to set new highs.
Toll Brothers was down 4.6% despite beating ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.85% and Toronto was up 0.15%.
Dollarama was up 3.5%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.2% ahead of its earnings release. It released ts Q2 earnings after the close and the headlines indicate it exceeded analyst expectations...

Our report for Constellation Software is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at Canadian $1182. This is a hugely successful company. However it always seems quite expensive. It might be once again worth paying up due to its track record but on the num...

On Monday, the Toronto stock exchange was closed. The S&P 500 was down 0.7%.
Apple was down 3.1%. Toll Brothers was down 2.4%. Starbucks was down 2.9%.
Over the weekend, Trump ended Steel and Aluminum tariffs he imposed on Canada last year. This ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% but Toronto was up an impressive 1.6%.
Toronto will not trade on Monday due to the Holiday but the U.S. markets are open.
The Canadian banks begin reporting earnings later this week.
Toll Brothers will report...

SNC Lavelin announced a delay in selling part of its stake in highway 407. The reason is that the other owners of the 407 want to exercise their right of first refusal. That supports the valuation of the highway. Analysts have said that SNC's share p...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
Shopify surged another 5.5%.
CN Rail was up 2.2%. In the latest week reported, Canadian rail car loads were equal to the 2018 figure. Forest products, grain and chemicals were lower...

Wednesday was a positive day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.6% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Shopify continues to have tremendous investor support with a 4.1% gain today.
Other gainers included: WSP Global - up 2.2%, Stantec - up 2.2%, and Couch...

Markets had a partial rebound on Tuesday with the S&P 500 up 0.8% and Toronto up 0.6%.
WSP Global was up 2.3% after reporting a 27% gain in earnings.
Shaw Communications is selling off its remaining shares in Corus entertainment by way of a secon...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $142.30.
Its Q1 report contained both positive s and negatives. Its same-store sales growth was stellar with 6.1% overall growth and that was on top of the 5.1% growth that occurred in Q1 2018.
But,...

Stocks were down on Monday as Trump's trade war with China escalates. The S&P 500 slumped 2.4%. Toronto did better with a decline of 0.6%.
Among the bigger declines was Apple, down 5.8% because its iPhones are mostly made in China and will be hit...

On Friday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.4% (but futures suggest markets could open lower by close to 1% on Monday morning).
Canadian Tire was down 2.6% as analysts digested its Q1 results which featured very good same-store sales growth...

The report for Melcor Developments is updated for Q1 results and rated Buy at $13.40. Single family home building in Alberta has declined significantly and therefore Melcor sold 46% fewer building lots in Q1 compared to Q1 of the prior year.
In addit...

The report for Boston Pizza Royalties Income Trust is updated and rated Buy at $17.52.
The 7.9% cash yield is quite attractive.
If the 11.5 cents per share (unit) per month distribution will be maintained for a long time then this is a good investmen...

Thursday's action saw the S&P 500 down 0.3% and Toronto down 0.5%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was up 1.7%.
Canadian Tire was down 1.7% after releasing Q1 earnings that featured lower profits but very strong same-store sales growth. I added to my po...

The BP Royalties Income Fund released Q1 results before the open. The results were better than I feared they might be but not as good as I hoped. Distributable cash per unit was down 0.7%. The trailing payout ratio was about stable at 103.4%. Same-st...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto rose 0.2%
There was not much movement of note in the prices of the stocks on our list but AutoCanada rose 2.9%.
A headline today was that housing starts in April jumped 23% to an annualized 2...

On Tuesday, markets declined in further reaction to Trump's trade tariff threats against China.
The S&P 500 was down 1.65% while Toronto was down 0.8%.
The larger decliners included : Linamar, down 2.9%; WSP Global, down 3.5%; Constellation Sof...

TD Direct has a new issue from Capital Power of a 5.75% rate reset share that has a minimum reset of 5.75%. This is worth considering especially for those looking to generate cash yield from a portfolio and especially in a taxable account where the d...

On Monday. markets were initially down about 2% as Trump escalated trade tensions with China, but by the end of the day the decline was modest.
The S&P 500 was down 0.45% and Toronto closed virtually unchanged.
Earnings reports this week include...

Linamar is updated and rated Strong Buy at $48.10. With earnings in the past 12 months of $8.82 and trading at just 82% of book value despite a trailing ROE of 16%, it certainly looks cheap. But the auto industry has declined somewhat especially in E...

Futures indicate the market could open down about 2% as Trump has escalated the trade war with China imposing higher tariffs, apparently hoping to jolt China into fast agreement on a trade deal.
On Friday, the S&P 500 was up a hefty 1.0% and Toro...

The report for CRH Medical is updated for its Q1 report. The company replaced the CEO on April 9th. Q1 had a 22% increase in revenues per share. Adjusted earnings per share were about unchanged. My expectations is that revenues and adjusted earnings...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
Shopify was up another 3.9%.
Aecon fell 3.1%.
Canadian Tire was up 1.8%.
The Melcor REIT released earnings which were lower but which was not unexpected.
Linimar also released lower ea...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.75% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Apple was up 4.9%.
Constellation Software was up 2.1%. After the close it announced Q1 earnings with a revenue increase but a decrease of 11% in adjusted earnings per share. It ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Shopify was up 7.5% to U.S. $243.53 ($325.75 in Toronto) after reporting a 50% increase in Q1 revenue to $321. million. The market cap is U.S. $27 billion or about 21 times run-rate...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
AutoCanada was up 2.5% and Linamar was up 1.8%.
I added a small amount to my Canadian Tire position today. In general, I think the company continues to do well. But headwinds in Q1 ...

On Friday, markets were down earlier in the day but recovered for a 0.5% gain in the S&P 500 and 0.2% for Toronto.
Aecon (see update just below) gained 7.1% after releasing Q1 earnings which featured an 18% gain in revenues per share and a smalle...

Aecon is updated for its Q1 results and rated Speculative (lower) Buy at $18.76
Aecon was just added to the list a few days ago. It's Q1 numbers came out and I have done an update for that.
Based on Q1 its numbers are improved. 2019 is expected to s...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.1%
American Express was up 1.6%.
FedEx was down 4.5%.
Toll Brothers was down 2.1%. It had been doing quite well despite mostly weaker results on U.S. home building so the drop ...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.5%.
TFI International was up 5.0% due to its strong earnings report.
The Bank of Canada indicates that it no longer has a bias toward higher interest rates. The five year Canada b...

Stock markets were strong on Tuesday with both the S&P 500 (up 0.9%) and Toronto (up 0.6%) closing at new highs.
Gainers included Dollarama up 4.1%, Amazon up 1.9%, Constellation Software up 1.6%.
Linamar was down 2.1%.
A report today indicated ...

The large construction company, Aecon is added to our list but only rated Speculative (lower) Buy at $16.86. (It closed today at $17.00) I was asked by an associate of mine to add this to the list and also I thought it would be interesting to learn a...

On Monday, markets mostly took a break from the recent upward trend. The S&P 500 did manage to gain 0.1%. The DOW was down 0.2% and Toronto was also down 0.2%.
Toll Brothers was down 2.6% after a weak report regarding U.S. single family housing s...

Our Melcor Developments report is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $13.70
This has been a frustrating investment. It is extremely thinly traded and has basically no analyst coverage. Partly due to a lack of analyst coverage, it trades at a huge disc...

The Toronto Stock Exchange Index closed at a new record high on Thursday, up 0.4% on the day. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was up 0.2%.
Most of the stocks on our list were up modestly. Dollarama had a strong day, rising 3.3%.
Statistics Canada released...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% but Toronto was up 0.25%.
Apple was up 1.95%. Constellation Software was up 1.8%.
TFI International was up 1.6%. It announced a small acquisition after the close. It will pay only US $7.2 million plus it w...

On Tuesday, markets were little changed as the S&P 500 was up fractionally and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.9%. Constellation Software was down 2.3%.
Canadian Western Bank announced that its rate reset preferred share which reset...

Our report on the Melcor REIT is updated and rated Buy at $7.64
The yield at 8.8% is quite attractive. But note it does not qualify for the dividend tax credit and so is best suited for non-taxable accounts. While the yield is attractive there may be...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Costco was up 1.8% and trades at a trailing P/E of 32 and a forward P/E of 29. That is expensive but it is also about typical for Costco.
Shopify was up another 1.8% to $292 in Toron...

On Friday, markets were strong with the S&P 500 up 0.7%, Toronto up 0.5% and the DOW up a full percentage point.
Correspondingly, most of the stocks on our list were up on the day. FedEx was up 2.6%, Canadian Western Bank was up 1.8%. Berkshire H...

Ceapro is updated. This basically something of a lottery ticket stock. It's a difficult one to put a rating on but I settled on Highly Speculative Buy / Hold.
Actually, Ceapro does not really even belong on this site because it is such an early-stag...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each essentially unchanged.
Shopify was up 2.5% to a another record high.
Penny stock Ceapro was up 10% most of the day and ended the day up 7.5%. It reported a big gain in sales in Q4 and a small profit ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto each rose about 0.35%.
Linamar was up 1.7%. Dollarama was up 2.0%. CRH Medical was up 3.0%.
AutoCanada rebounded 4.1%. An interesting report today revealed that sales at Canadian new car dealers actually ros...

Tuesday's action saw the S&P 500 fall 0.6% and Toronto down 0.4%.
Shopify rose 2.0%.
Boston Pizza royalties Income Fund rose 1.1% to $17.31. At this price the yield is 8.0%. That suggests that the market may fear a distribution cut and certainly...

After starting the day in negative territory, market ended slightly positive with the S&P 500 and Toronto each up 0.1%.
Apple Inc. was up 1.6% to $200.10. Canadian Tire was up 1.5%.
Statistics Canada reported the value of building permits for Feb...

Bank of Montreal is out this morning with a 5.1% rate reset preferred share. This is down a little from a recent CIBC issue at 5.2% but still indicates lower investor appetite for these shares which means the banks need to offer higher yields to sell...

On Friday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.5%.
Notable gainers included: WSP Global, up 2.3%; TFI International, up 2.1% and Linamar, up 1.7%.
Statistics Canada released another of its volatile jobs reports, this time indicating little cha...

Stantec is updated and rated Buy at $32.64. Historically, Stantec has been a strong growth-by-acquisition company. However, the stock has been relatively flat for the past four years. Initially, this was due to the impact of lower oil prices which sl...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.2%.
Toll Brothers rose 1.9%.
Shopify was down 4.9% after a short seller report came out. That's really not much of a drop considering how fast this stock has risen and considering its high multi...

CRH Medical is updated and rates Speculative Buy at U.S. $2.71 or CAN $3.59.
This Canadian company started with a patented hemorrhoid banding product (of all things) that it was successfully selling to many of the Gastrointestinal physicians (GIs) in...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto as up 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.4%. TFI International was up 1.7%.
CRH Medical was down 1.9%. Our report for CRH will be updated tomorrow and rated probably Speculative Buy. I will likely add ...

Although the DOW was down 79 points, Tuesday ended relatively flat with the S&P 500 virtually unchanged and Toronto up 0.2%.
Constellation Software was up 2.7% while Shopify was down 2.0%.
Figures for March auto sales were released and there was...

Monday was as strong day for the markets with the S&P 500 index up 1.2% and Toronto up 0.8%.
Among the gainers were:
BHP Billiton - up 3.0% for the BBL shares on New YorkCanadian Western Bank, up 2.6%.FedEx, up 2.8%.Dollarama, up 6.1%American Exp...

Thursday was a mostly positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.4% and Toronto up 0.1%.
Gainers included CN Rail up 1.6%, Constellation Software up 1.7%, Starbucks up 1.7% and Alimentation Couche-Tard up 1.3% to a new all-time high.
Stoc...

Wednesday was generally negative in the markets but some of our top picks did well.
The S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
But Couche-Tard was up 3.0%; Toll Brothers was up 2.0%, Melcor Developments was up 3.5%.
Also, Andrew Peller ...

Tuesday was a positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.7% and Toronto up 0.6%.
Most of the stocks on our list were higher. Notably, Constellation Software was up 2.6% and FedEx was up 1.8%.
Toll Brothers was about unchanged as there was ...

Monday was a relatively quit day in the markets with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Toronto down 0.15%. You would never know that any big news (the Mueller Report) came out over the weekend.
Couche-Tard was up 3.3% and Toll Brothers was up 2.8%.
I wa...

As of tomorrow Monday, the focus will be on how the market reacts to the Mueller report. Trump was not really fully exonerated - though he claims he was - but there was no proof of collusion and insufficient proof of obstruction of Justice. The marke...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 1.1% as the market apparently decided (for the moment at leeast) that the benefits of lower-for-longer interest rates out weighted the risk that this was signalling a recession ahead. Toronto was up 0.5%.
Apple Inc...

Wednesday's session saw the S&P 500 down 0.3% and Toronto down 0.1%.
FedEx was down 3.5% after reporting earnings.
Amazon was up another 2.0% which is certainly impressive for such a large company.
As foreshadowed yesterday, I did add to my Couc...

Tuesday was an eventful day for market news. North American stock market were positive earlier in the day but ended weak. The S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.4%.
AutoCanada was up 3.6%. It has, around 10 analysts covering it ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
FedEx was up 2.5%.
Now that almost all (97.5%) companies have reported their 2018 earnings, the final GAAP earnings for the S&P 500 index came in at $132.08. That is 20% higher than...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
There were no particularly large moves in the stocks on our list but Amazon was up 1.5% and CRH Medical was down 2.3%.
In economic news, Canada's manufacturing sales rose more than expec...

AutoCanada is updated and rated Sell. In the previous update I had noted that the value ratios would suggest a sell unless earnings were expected to increase. And I did expect an increase in 2019 (and possibly in Q4 2018) due to the efforts of the ne...

I sold what amounted to 43% of my AutoCanada position today.
As mentioned in my previous post, the Q4 earnings were quite awful. I am surprised that the stock is only down 5.5% at the moment. Earlier today it was briefly down as much as 18%.
I had ac...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.4%.
The market took little notice of Melcor's earnings as Melcor rose 0.5%.
CRH Medical, which also released earnings yesterday was down 3.2%.
AutoCanada released its Q4 results afte...

Wednesday was another strong day for the U.S. stock market with the S&P 500 up 0.7%. Toronto was up just 0.1%.
Nothing on my list was up as much as 2.0% but a number were up over 1%.
Dollarama was down 2.75%.
There have been a lot of large corpo...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.2%
CRH Medical was up 6.5%. It will report earnings tomorrow, after the close.
Fortis Inc., was up 1.5%. Costco was up 1.4%.
Linamar was down 4.4% after reporting earnings and lower "guidan...

Linamar is down 4.5% to $48.52 after releasing Q4 earnings that were good but which included lowering their revenue growth outlook for 2019 to mid single digits while they expect earnings to grow high signal digits. It appeared to me that the stock w...

Markets were higher on Monday with the S&P 500 up a hefty 1.5% and Toronto up 0.7%
Among the gainers were: Apple, up 3.5%; Canadian Western Bank, up 2.0%, FedEx, up 2.7%; Toll Brothers up 2.2%, Visa up 2.2%; and Amazon, up 3.1%.
Linamar reported ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Costco was up 5.1% after reporting earnings.
AutoCanada was up 2.3%. It's scheduled to release earnings on Thursday, after the close. Given its troubles in 2018 and given it is try...

Statistics Canada reports (I probably should say claims) that Canada added 56,000 jobs in February driven by full-time job gains and that this came on top of strong gains in January.
Once again I would take this with a huge grain of salt. Firstly, ...

Thursday was a weaker day in the markets with the S&P 500 down 0.8% while Toronto was down only 0.2%.
On the positive side, Toll Brothers was up 2.0%. And CN Rail was up 0.8% and has has been trending up steadily since the December 24 low.
FedEx ...

(I was unable to make my usual post last evening due to a very rare server problem on the telus system where this website is hosted.)
Canadian Western bank was out with a good earnings report this morning and increased the dividend by 4% which was in...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.3%.
There was not much movement in most of the stocks on our list.
But AutoCanada slipped 2.7% and Toll Brothers was down 2.3%. Dollarama was up 2.4%.
Regarding interest rates. It appea...

On Monday, the markets started out higher but ended lower with the S&P 500 down 0.4% and Toronto down 0.2%.
Dollarama was up 3.0%. Amazon was up 1.5%. Toll Brothers was up 1.2%.
I have to say Amazon is truly amazing. Last night at about 11:30 my...

Bad news on the pipeline front as Enbridge announced a delay in its Line 3 pipeline. Now expected to be operational sometime in the last half of next year rather than late this year. This was due to a new schedule for when U.S. State and federal perm...

Canadian auto sales in February were 3.7% lower than the prior year. The lower sales number is clearly not good news for the economy or for AutoCanada. But it should be noted that February 2018 was "a tough comparable" month. February 2018 had been ...

Friday was a strong day in the markets and for our stock picks. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Linamar was up 3.0% as after Martinrea (also an auto parts company) reported strong results. Linamar will report on March 11. Accord...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
BHP Billiton was down 3.0% in New York. It's a volatile stock that moves with commodity prices including iron ore. It also of course moves with company-specific developments.
Toll ...

Stantec's earnings came in apparently somewhat above expectations. But not great. There is a 5.5% dividend increase. Our latest rating was (lower) Buy and from a quick look at the earnings report I don't think the rating will increase. I plan to trim...

Wednesday's session saw the S&P 500 and Toronto each about unchanged.
Toll Brothers ended the day down 2.5%. It's interesting that after its earnings release yesterday, the stock rose in after-hours trading and the one headline I saw said that th...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Couche-Tard was up another 2.7%.
Stantec was up 1.9%. It will report Q4 earnings on Thursday. The hope is that with the sale of it construction Services division it can get back to ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
AutoCanada was up 4.4% to $13.46. This stock has been increasing despite a lack of positive news regarding Canadian auto sales. January sales were weak. While I hope that the new managem...

Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated Buy at $203.71.
The headline news from Berkshire's Q4 report is hat Berkshire / Buffett lost $25 billion in the quarter and that this included a write-down and other problems as Kraft Heinz. The loss was cause...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Shopify was up another 2.25% in Toronto.
Andrew Peller was up 4.5%.
The S&P 500 and Toronto are each up over 11% in 2019 gaining back much of the ground lost in late 2018.
If Berks...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $145.42. This has been a strong company for decades. It will likely continue to do well with steady but relatively modest growth. Its price to earnings ratio is seldom as low as it is right now...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.35% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
TFI International was up 2.1% to $40.45. This is a very well-managed company.
Toll Brothers was up 1.5% to $37.30.
AutoCanada was up 1.4% to $12.54. I reduced my position in this...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
AutoCanada was up 2.8%. It has recovered a bit of ground lately although it has not released any further news.
Constellation Software was up 2.3%.
Canadian Tire was up 1.9%. I will up...

On Monday markets were closed for President's day and Family Day holidays.
Over the weekend Trump tweeted (among other things):
"The Mueller investigation is totally conflicted, illegal and rigged! Should never have been allowed to begin, except for...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.9%.
Linamar was up 3.9% to $50.28. AutoCanada bounced up 3.6%.
Constellation Software was down 3.3% giving back part of Thursday's big increase.
As of Sunday evening futures were suggesting ...

On Thursday the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
Canadian Tire was down 4.75% after releasing earnings. The only headline on Yahoo Finance last night said that they beat earnings expectations. If that is the case then it was likel...

Boston Pizza Royalties Q4 earnings were not great but definitely better than I expected / feared. The key points are:

Same store sales growth of negative 0.2% for the Period and positive 0.1% for the Year.
On a Franchise Sales basis, SSSG was posi...

Reporting today from off Roatan, an island that is part of Honduras. Spent the day there. The local population is mostly of Spanish heritage but many or most speak English. The local income levels are mostly quite low. But they are an entrepreneurial...

Belize City
Markets were positive on Tuesday with the S&P 500 up a hefty 1.3% and Toronto up 0.5%.
A report today indicated that American's confidence in their financial future is the highest in 16 years.
That sounds positive for Toll Brothers wh...

Posting today from Rhapsody of the Seas just out of Costa Maya entoute to Belize. I expect to be able to post each day but a weak internet would be the problem if I go AWOL.
On Monday, The S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Canadian T...

On Friday the S&P 500 ended the day up 0.1% but Toronto was down 0.45%.
FedEx was down 2.3%, and Linimar got pushed down 7.6%. These both may have been related to some negative news or views on trade talks, especially China / U.S. There was no ne...

Posting from Tampa Florida today...
On Thursday markets were down moderately with the S&P 500 down 0.9% and Toronto down 0.1%.
CRH Medical was up 4.9% in Toronto.
Costco was down 0.9% despite reporting yet another very strong month of same-store ...

Wednesday was a relatively quiet day overall in the markets with the S&P 500 down 0.2% and Toronto up 0.1%.
Not much of particular note, but Linamar was up 1.8% and has now recovered to $52.16. The stock is cheap but faces a lot of negative senti...

Tuesday was another positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.5% and Toronto up 0.6%.
WSP Global was up 2.2%. Stantec was up 2.4%. Starbucks as up 2.6%. Couch-Tard was up another 2.0% to an all-time high.
Tomorrow there may be some reac...

Markets were positive on Monday as the S&P 500 gained 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
CRH Medical was up 4.0% and Ceapro bounced up 6%.
AutoCanada slipped 2.8% which was not surprising given the January auto sales report that I mentioned in my last...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Most rate reset preferred shares were up modestly as the government of Canada five year bond yield rose 7.5% to 1.862%.
Visa was up 3.6%.
Amazon was down 5.3%, giving back j...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
AutoCanada bounced up 5.7%. I stopped in at their Volkswagon dealership in an Edmonton suburb today. This dealership is only about two or three years old and is still ramping up towar...

Wednesday was a positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 rising 1.55% but Toronto as up only 0.1%
The U.S. FED seemed to give something of an "all clear" signal indicating that it sees less need to continue raising interest rates.
WSP Global...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.15% while Toronto was up 0.55%
The Canadian Western Bank preferred share that I said (see January 21) was over-priced in relation to a new CWB issue was down 2.6% to $20.11. CWB's new 6% issue started trading to...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% while Toronto managed a 0.1% gain.
There seems to be a lot happening in the news. The U.S. has now charged Huawei and its CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is facing an extradition hearing in Vancouver. I don't particula...

I have never had SNC Lavalin on the list but its bad news this morning is possibly of relevance to Stantec and WSP. SNC will report lower 2018 earnings for a number of reasons. The stock is down 20% on the news. On a mining&metallurgy division pr...

Friday was a positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.85% and Toronto up 0.6%.
Our one penny stock, Ceapro was up 7.5%.
Linamar was up 4.8% to $51.17 after it announced approval for a share buy-back. They are authorized to buy back up ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 finished the day up 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.5%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.7% and Linamar was up 2.8%.
Starbucks was down 2.5% but is up about 2.0% in after hours trading after it released a favorable earnings report.
Au...

Apple Inc. is added to our list and rated Speculative Buy at $153.92. Apple is well known as one of the most valuable companies in the world. It also has a low P/E ratio at 12.9 - those two factors together tell you that it is highly profitable. It...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
About the only notable move in stocks on our list was Constellation Software, up 3.0%
Rail car loading reports are out for the third week of January. In Canada, every category exc...

On Tuesday some fear returned to the market and the S&P 500 was down 1.4% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
BHP was down 3.2% in New York (the BBL shares).
CN Rail was down 3.2%. Amazon was down 3.8%. CRH Medical was down 3.5% in Toronto.
Our one penny ...

U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King jr. holiday on Monday. Toronto rose 0.3%.
CN Rail was up 2.3% amid reports that it and CP are rationing capacity due to congestion - which is to some degree a nice problem to have for the two rail l...

This is very time sensitive but CWB is out with a new rate reset preferred share issue paying 6%. I just placed an order for some. This 6% yield would suggest to me that the current pref issues of CWB should fall a bit in price today....

American Express is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $100.48.
With this update I added four new lines to the report (all reports will get these new rows as they are updated).
The new rows are just below the rating cell as follows:

Generic Rati...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 1.3% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
Berkshire Hathaway was up 2.9%, TFI International, FedEx and Constellation Software were each up 2.1%
Among the relatively few stocks on our list that were down was Linamar, down 1.5%.
A...

Thursday's action saw the S&P 500 rise 0.8% ans Toronto was up 0.7%
Dollarama was up 2.5%. Most stocks were up but Toll Brothers was down 1.6% and Linamar was down 1.2%.
Regarding rate reset preferred shares, Toronto Dominion was out with an issu...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% as U.S. banks rose after some of them reported higher-than-expected earnings. Toronto was up 0.4%.
Shopify was up 2.1%. With a great future but no current earnings, the value of this company is somewhat "unt...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Shopify was up 3.55%. Amazon was also up 3.55%
Most stocks have risen considerably off their December lows. This includes Toll Brothers up 1.1% today to $36.11, Canadian Western Bank ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% which was blamed on news a decline in China's imports and exports in December. The market did not seem to pay much attention to the latest news about Trump. (Allegedly took steps to keep secret his discussions...

I have added Shopify to the list of stocks but only on a preliminary basis and have not yet assigned it a Buy / Sell rating other than to say that it is Speculative. Shopify appears to have a wonderful business model and a great future. But it it is...

Friday was a relatively quiet day for the markets with the S&P 500 unchanged and Toronto up 0.2%.
And there were no noteworthy movements in any of the stocks on our list.
A possible headwind for the markets is the political situation. Friday ther...

Markets were up moderately on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 0.45% and Toronto up 0.7%
TFI International continued to recover and was up 2.2%.
Linamar was up 1.7% and that was despite news that Ford and Landrover Jaguar would be laying off thousan...

Today, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and Toronto rose 1.4%
West Texas Oil is at $52.16 and I believe I saw Western Canadian Select at over $43 on BNN today. The Canadian dollar is back up to 75.7 cents from lows of 73.3 U.S. cents just one week ago.
Two ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 1.0% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Notable gainers included: TFI International, up 4.4%Dollarama, up 5.1%WSP Global, up 3.0%Andrew Peller, up 2.9%
Canadian Western Select oil continued to climb and was over $40 U.S. Thi...

Markets rose on Monday with the S&P 500 up 0.7% and Toronto up 0.5%.
Rate reset preferred shares rose with the Canadian Western Bank pref share on our list up 4.2% and the Enbridge one up 3.7%.
Couche-Tard was up 2.5% and sits basically at an al...

Wine maker Andrew Peller Limited is added back to the list rated (lower) Buy at $13.87. It's not particular cheap but it has been well managed and may be of interest especially to those who enjoy its products....

The next update will be to add wine maker Andrew Peller back to the list. Its price is down to about $14 from highs of $19. With the recent market declines it was briefly under $12 in December. At $14 it is probably reasonably priced but not cheap an...

Markets  were higher on Friday due to a strong U.S. jobs report combined with soothing comments from the Fed Chair.
The S&P 500 was up a huge 3.4% and Toronto was up 1.5%
Some of the larger gainers were:
Amazon, up 5.0%
American Express up 4.5%
V...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 2.5% while Toronto fell 0.9%. Apple reported lower sales in China and there was also other weak economic news from China including lower automobiles sales.
Berkshire Hathaway which has a large investment in Apple sha...

December 31, 2018: On Monday, markets closed out the year with gains. The S&P 500 was up 0.85% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
It was not a good year in the markets. Fear and predictions of lower earnings ahead came into the market and pushed "multiples...

The report for RioCan is updated and rated Buy at $23.80 to yield 6.0%. This is fundamentally a lower return business but it provides reliable cash distributions. It is very well managed....

The report for Fortis Inc. is updated and rated Buy at $45.07. Fortis projects raising its dividend by an average of 6% per year for the next five years with the earnings increase coming from its various capital investments. In Q4 Fortis will definit...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.4%
The great majority of stocks on our list were up.
Rate reset preferred shares were up with the Enbridge series A share up 5.1%. The Canadian Western Bank rate reset preferred share on...

On Thursday, the U.S. markets appeared set to take back most of Wednesday's big gain. But the market rallied into the close with the S&P 500 up 0.9%. With the markets swinging up and down for no particular reason, the next move(s) are not somethi...

Costco is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $198.63.  It is a pleasure to read the annual report of this company . It is a simple company that has a very powerful business model. My ONLY hesitation on this stock is that it trades at a high price t...

Wednesday brought some welcome relief for the U.S. markets. The Toronto exchange was closed but should catch up tomorrow unless the U.S. market turns sharply negative again.
The S&P 500 was up a huge 5.0%. The increase was a partial bounce back f...

Given recent market actions it was no surprise that markets were down once again on this Christmas Eve Monday.
The S&P 500 was down 2.7% and Toronto was down 1.1%.
Most stocks were down. But Canadian Western Bank, Melcor and Toll Brothers managed...

The recent stock market declines have been hard to stomach.
The economy so far has remained strong with corporate earnings in general at record levels. But the potential that the long economic expansion is about to turn down into a recession and a wh...

Royal Bank of Canada is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $90.95.
With the market declines a lot of stocks look very attractive on valuation and that is the basis if the rating. Meanwhile the potential that the long economic expansion is about ...

Friday was another weak day as the S&P 500 closed down 2.1% and Toronto was down 1.5%.
The situation with Trump is certainly not helping matters. He is now apparently mulling firing the Fed chair. With all of the investigations and with the Democ...

Thursday was another nasty down day in the markets.
The S&P 500 was down 1.6% and Toronto was down 0.9%.
And tomorrow is not shaping up to be any better... (more below)
Most stocks were down, some of the bigger declines were Starbucks down 3.0%, ...

FedEx is updated and rated (higher ) Buy at $163. It reported adjusted earnings per share in Q2 up 27%, so that was not the problem. But it indicated that "Global trade has slowed in recent month" and this along with customers choosing to pay less in...

On Wednesday, markets were initially up. They then initially rose even more when the Fed increased rates as expected but then fell when the Fed indicated it still planned probably two rate increases in 2019 (down from three but not down to one or non...

Markets closed relatively flat on Tuesday with the S&P 500 about unchanged and Toronto up 0.4%.
Stantec was up 2.3% after announcing a $35 million contract win for planning and design work at a shipyard in Maine.
Melcor Developments was down 3.8%...

Monday's markets were ugly especially considering that the declines come on top of all the other recent declines.
The S&P 500 was down 2.1% and Toronto was down 1.6%. And it is certainly very possible that the declines will continue. The best nea...

The report for Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $26.10. CWB earned an ROE of 11.8% in its just completed fiscal 2018. It has not reported a loss in any quarter in over 28 years. And yet, due to fears and due to general...

Dollarama is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $31.99. After being targeted by a short seller and after reporting unusually low earnings growth, the shares have come down to a more reasonable level....

With so many stocks trading at what appears to be bargain prices I am keeping a closer eye on insider trading.
Melcor CEO Darrin Rayburn bought 1800 shares at $12.55 on Wednesday to hold 43,643. This was reported on Friday. A few days ago I mentioned...

Friday was another negative day in the markets. The other side of that coin however, is that those with cash to invest can do so at lower stock prices.
The S&P 500 was down 1.9% and Toronto was down 1.05%.
The decline in the S&P 500 was blame...

Toll Brothers is updated and rates Strong Buy at $32.88.
In it recently released Q4, earnings per share were up 79%. But those earnings were driven by home sales that they contracted for nine to twelve months earlier. The market is focused on slowing...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.2%.
CRH Medical was up 3.2%. Dollarama recovered 3.4%.
TFI International was down 6.1%. I did not see any news to explain the decline. It's been an exceptionally well run compa...

Stocks rose on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 0.5% and Toronto up 0.8%.
Constellation Software was up 3.3%. Toll Brothers was up 3.2%. AutoCanada was up 2.4%.
Teranet reported that its index of the price of existing houses edged down slightly in m...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.4%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard rose 2.7%. This company continues to be very well managed and has plans for continued growth. The stock has risen since the end of October despite s...

Monday was a volatile day in the markets. But at the end of the day, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.45%.
Most of the stocks on our list were down. Constellation Software was among the few gainers and was up 1.1%.
Checking inside...

Melcor continues to buy back its small allowed quota of 1262 shares per day. It began the buybacks on October 9. This came after several years where Meclor had obtained permiossion from regulators to buy back shares but then did not do so. They buy b...

Friday's action saw the S&P 500 down 2.3% and Toronto down 0.95%.
Costco was down 3.6%.
AutoCanada was down 4.4% to $11.09.
Statistics Canada reported large job gains for November. And this is NOT explained by Christmas hiring since these figures...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 ended the day down 0.15% while Toronto was down 1.6%
Earlier on Thursday, the S&P 500 had been down as much as 2.9%.
Investors are nervous about trade tensions with China and in general are fearful of declines. Theref...

On Wednesday, the U.S. markets were closed to respect the late President George H. W. Bush.
Toronto rose 0.8%
The Bank of Canada held interest rates constant but apparently sees risk in the economy and therefore it is now thought that interest rates ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down a hefty 3.2% while Toronto was down 1.4%.
Most stocks were down.
FedEx took an extra hit (and ended up down 6.3%) because a Morgan Stanley analyst said that Amazon has some planes of its own and will take away 10%...

On Monday, the S&P 500 ws up 1.1% which was likely due to reduced trade tensions between China and the U.S. after Trump met with the Chinese leader on Saturday.
Toronto was up 0.5%
West Texas Oil is up to $53.55 after Russian and Saudi Arabia app...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.8% while Toronto was about unchanged.
AutoCanada was up 10.7%. This may have been due to an analyst recommendation given that the company did not release any news.
Boston Pizza Royalties was up 3.3%. After the clos...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.15.
Linamar recovered 3.3%.
AutoCananda was up 4.1%. Earlier this week, AutoCanada announced a new partnership with Kijiji as its preferred online partner. It's hard to say what the be...

The report for Melcor Developments is updated and rated (higher) Strong Buy at $12.75 based on the fact that it trades at 42% of book value per share and based on the "hard" nature of its assets. This has obviously been a very frustrating stock to ow...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 surged 2.3% and Toronto was up 1.3%. This came after remarks by the FED Chair that were interpreted to mean that interest rates may not rise as high as had been expected in 2019. However, this was only an interpretation ...

There are lots of things to mention tonight.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.5%.
CRH Medical was up 6.9%. The company did not release any news and there was no new insider buying. Therefore, the reason could be an ana...

Our report on the Melcor REIT is updated. Based on its 9.0% yield and the fact that it is trading at 67% of book value, and supported by recent insider buying, it is rated Buy. But at the same time its distributable cash per unit has declined in 2018...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 1.5% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Boston Pizza Royalties recovered 4.6% after it announced it will initiate unit buy-backs. I was a bit surprised by that because it has already taken on a material amount of deb...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
BHP Billiton was down 4.0% which may have been linked to lower oil prices.
Canadian Western Bank got pushed down 5.8% to $27.89. This was no-doubt due to the current gloom in the wes...

Our report for Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $15.53 (It closed today at $15.13 to yield 9.1%).
These units have been falling in price. Presumably, the market is now expecting a distribution cut. I believe a d...

On Thursday, the U.S. stock markets were closed while Toronto was about unchanged.
There were no particularly note worthy moves in the Canadian stocks on our list.
Boston Pizza is down to $15.53 yielding 8.9%. Rising interest rates would not seem to ...

Wednesday was another interesting day in the market.
The S&P 500 was about unchanged. But Toronto was up 1.5% and almost all the stocks on our list were higher.
CN Rail was up 3.0%.
Constellation Software was up 3.1%.
TFI International was up 2.5...

The report for WSP Global is updated and rated Buy at $64.18. It's not cheap but if it keeps growing like it has been it will do well.
WSP Global is fairly similar to Stantec in that both are consulting engineering companies that have grown by acquis...

Tuesday was a non-bring day in the markets.
The S&P 500 was down 1.8% and Toronto was down 1.3%.
Almost all the stocks on our list were down. But the three exceptions were stocks I mention a lot.
Toll Brothers was up 2.0%.
Linamar was up 0.8%
And...

Monday's action saw the S&P 500 down 1.7% and Toronto down 0.6%.
Canadian Western Bank had a notable decline of 2.7% to $29.91. Book value per share is $25.77 (end of Q3 and will almost certainly be higher when it reports Q4 in early December). R...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Melcor Developments was up 4.0%. The company continues to buy back each day the small amount of shares that it is allowed to which is just 1262 shares per day. They are also allowed to a...

Stantec is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $31.01.
I was tempted to rate it higher due to a potential turn-around in 20019 but the numbers don't support that just yet.
The story of Stantec is that it has been a successful growth-by-acquisition compa...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 1.1% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Stocks on the rise included: Visa, up 1.9%, American Express up 1.7%, Linamar up 1.7%.
Stocks on the decline included: CRH Medical down 4.2%, AutoCanada down 1.9%, Dollarama down 2.7...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $152.70. The stock has fallen in the past week even thought the company reported strong earnings growth in in Q3....

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% while Toronto was about flat.
AutoCanada fell 12.3% to $11.09 giving back a good portion of its recent gains. Unfortunately, there may be nothing to support the share price unless and until it able to post ...

The drop in the price of West Texas Oil along with continued wide discounts on Alberta oil do not bode well for the Alberta economy unless something changes.
In downtown Edmonton there is nevertheless a LOT of building going on. Near the new downtown...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.15% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
AutoCanada rose 11.4% to $12.65. But it is likely to continue to be quite volatile until and unless it can book some solid improvements in 2019. See update below.
TFI International...

The report for AutoCanada is updated and rated Speculative Buy at $12.45. The future of this investment is heavily dependent on the abilities of the new management team that took over in July. They have made a number of changes and they seem to have ...

Monday was a government holiday, but the markets were open. The S&P 500 was down a hefty 2.0% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Amazon was down 4.4%. Visa was down 2.9%. Stantec was down 3.4%. Canadian Tie was down 2.85%.
AutoCanada managed a gain of 2....

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.9% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Stantec was down 6.5% in what seems to be a delayed negative reaction to its earnings release of Thursday morning.
Linamar was down 3.2% in further negative reaction to its earnings ...

Linamar is updated and rated (higher) Strong Buy at $48.21. This is primarily based on its low price to earnings ratio of 5.4 times and low price to book value combines with management's optimism that earnings will continue to grow. There are never a...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.25%, giving back a bit of yesterday's gains. Toronto was down 0.1%.
Melcor was down 4.3% to $13.40. That puts it at 44% of book value. Unfortunately, the wait for a recovery here continues. CMHC reported today ...

Wednesday, in response to the results of the mid-term elections, the S&P 500 was up 2.2% while Toronto rose 0.5%.
Among the many gainers were:CRH Medical up 8.4% Amazon, up 6.9%Starbucks up another 3.3%Visa, up 2.8%
And Canadian Western Bank was ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% as U.S. markets await the election results. Toronto was up 0.5%.
TFI International was up 3.6%. Starbucks was up another 2.4% 
Melcor Developments released earnings after the close that were very similar to yea...

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up about 0.6%.
Berkshire Hathaway surged 4.7%, Toll Brothers was up 2.4%, TFI International was up 2.1%, Costco was up 1.9% and Canadian Western Bank was up 1.8%. Most stocks were up but Linamar was do...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Starbucks was up 9.7% to $64.32 after releasing Q3 earnings and sales figures. This high-quality company was added to our list on August 25 rated Buy at $52.75. Linamar was up 3.4%.C...

(This post was made on November 1, but inadvertently, was not uploaded until November 3) On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
BHP Billiton was up 5.0% after it released details on a special dividend and a stock buy-back p...

Our report for FedEx is updated and rated Buy at $222. The stock is down 11% this year to date. That's in spite of sharply higher earnings per share. Growth in volume of packages moves has been strong and it has also increased prices charged. The low...

CRH Medical posted Q3 results after the close. In general the results looked positive with higher adjusted EBITDA attributable to owners ( a good portion is attributable to minority interests) but lower net income attributable to owners. Given the co...

The Melcor REIT released earnings after the close. The bad news is that adjusted Funds From Operations per unit were down 13% in Q3 and 8% year to date. Furthermore, the payout ratio as percent of this AFFO has risen to 105% in Q3 and 99% year to dat...

So, Halloween was anything but scary in the markets.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose (or recovered) 1.1% while Toronto was up 0.9%.
Notable winners included:Amazon, up 4.4%Visa, up 3.8%TFI International, up 2.3% CRH Medical, up 4.1%
Dollarama was ...

Tuesday was a positive day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 1.6% and Toronto was up 1.2%.
Our big gainer was Toll Brothers which rose 8.75%. Tomorrow will be the last day of its fiscal 2018 and it will report earnings in December. It's earnings...

On Monday, stocks were initially higher but closed the day with the S&P 500 down 0.7% and Toronto down 1.1%.
Amazon was down 6.3%. (see update below)
Toll Brothers was down 2.5% as was Visa Inc.
CRH Medical was down 3.3% in Toronto and will repor...

Our report for Amazon is updated for Q3 earnings. With the recent slide in its stock price and its recently higher earnings the price / earnings ratio of this stock has come down a lot but is still very high at 86. The company is forecasting slower 1...

There is news this evening that IBM is making a big acquisition.
What shocks me about it is the price paid in relation to not only profits but even revenues. Based on this I dearly wish that some of the companies I own and that are on our list would ...

Our report for Constellation Software is updated and rated (lower) Buy at Canadian $871. The price has declined from a high of $1,134 and meanwhile earnings have continued to grow briskly. While the stock is not cheap, this may be an opportunity to s...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 1.7% while Toronto declined 0.2%.
Amazon was down 7.8% to $1643. In early September it had briefly reached $2050.
Costco was down 3.6%
On a day when most stocks were down, Toll Brothers gained 3.1% and TFI Internat...

Our report for Visa Inc. is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $137.74. Shares in this powerful money maker have looked expensive on a P/E ratio basis for quite a few years. But the subsequent growth has justified the premium valuation. Now, the valuat...

Thursday saw a partial rebound from Wednesday's market declines.
The S&P 500 was up 1.9% but Toronto was up only 0.1%.
Amazon surged 7.1% but then was down 5.3% to $1687 in after-hours trading after it released Q3 earnings. If I had some U.S. cas...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down a very hefty 3.1% and Toronto was down 2.5%.
Given a lot of negative sentiment including concern about the outcome of the U.S. mid-term elections and many other international risks, it is certainly possible that...

Our report on CN Rail is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $107.79. It's an excellent and strong company with a good outlook but is not cheap in relation to earnings....

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 ended the day down 0.55% but had been down over 2% earlier in the day. Toronto closed down 0.8%.
Among the few stocks on the rise were Toll Brothers, up 4.1% and Linamar, up 3.4% and Melcor, up 2.2% and TFI International, ...

The report for TFI International is updated with a (higher) Buy rating at $44.99.
Amid the gloom of falling stock prices in recent days, it was nice to see this company report an eye-popping 97% increase in adjusted earnings per share in Q3. Year to ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.4%.
Most stocks were down.
But Stantec rose 5.8% as the market continues to react positively to last week's news that it has reached a deal to sell its problematic construction services division...

The steep decline in the price of Toll Brothers down to about book value is hard to stomach.
Investment banks including Bank of America and RBC analysts have turned negative on the home building sector. Still, the forward P/E ratio is very low at 5.9...

Our report on American Express is updated for Q3 earnings and rated (higher) Buy at $106.73...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.4%.
Stocks on the rise included:
CN Rail, up 1.9%.
Stantec up 3.3% on its pending divestiture of its problematic construction services division.
American Express up 3.8% on its Q3 ...

Canadian National Raiway Company will report Q3 earnings on Tuesday. I expect another good quarter. CN is up 2.5% this morning after Canadian Pacific reported good results in Q3.
Rail car loadings for Canada are running higher than 2017 in most weeks...

Stantec has announced it has reached a deal to sell its problematic MWH Constructors division. This division was acquired in May 2016 as a portion of the acquiistion of MWH Global which included substantial core free-for-service business. The MWH Con...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 1.4% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Most stocks on our list were down. Heineken was up 2.3% to $78.50.
FedEx was down 2.7% to $217. It is well below its high of $274 and looks attractive.
Canadian Western Bank was do...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.3%.
Starbucks was up 2.3%.
Linamar was down 2.15%. I could not resist adding a little to my position again today.
It was disappointing to see Toll Brothers down 2.6%. This was...

Our one mining company, the giant BHP Billiton (market cap about $129 billion U.S.) is updated and rated Speculative Buy. This is an inherently unpredictable company since its earnings can swing massively with commodity price changes. As detailed in ...

Tuesday was a very positive day for North American stock markets with the S&P 500 up 2.15% and Toronto was up 1.1%.
Constellation Software was up 6.0%. Amazon was up 3.35%. Visa was up 3.3%, Toll Brothers was up 3.3%. There were quite a few stock...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Linamar recovered 3.4%.
Canadian Western Bank recovered 2.0% to $33.72 and trades at 1.30 times book value and, according to Yahoo Finance 12.3 times trailing earnings and 10...

On Friday, markets recovered somewhat as the S&P 500 rose 1.4% and Toronto rose 0.6%
Visa was up 4.7% and Amazon was up 4.0% and so perhaps Thursday was the day to grab these. But it is never clear when these dips have hit a low. 
Linamar, howeve...

Thursday was a negative day in the markets with the S&P 500 down 2.1% and Toronto down 1.3%.
Most stocks were down including AutoCanada down 4.3%.
A few stocks on our list managed not to fall today including Melcor up 1.0% and Constellation Softw...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down a hefty 3.3% and Toronto was down 2.1%.
I don't think investors can complain much about the S&P 500 giving back a little of the big gains it has recently made but complaints about the TSX being down 2.1% are...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.6%.
Ceapro was up 19% on its news but for whatever reason most of the gain and most of the trading came only in the last 90 minutes of trading. Walmart was up 2.5%. Starbucks was up 2...

Ceapro press release this morning that they have Health Canada approval to start a human trial on using one of their two main products as a cholesterol lowering agent. If this panned out it could be a very big deal. And perhaps this will give the mar...

On Monday, the S&P 500 ended the day about unchanged. Toronto was closed.
Amazon was down 1.3% to 1864 but was as low as $1831. Those wanting to own Amazon could consider buying on this dip but probably don't need to be in any rush.  There is not...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Costco was down a hefty 5.6% to $219. This was after Costco announced earnings and announced that it had identified some control issues regarding the accuracy of its financial report...

Thursday saw the S&P 500 down 0.8% and Toronto down 0.4%.
A drop in the S&P 500 is no surprise and not distressing after almost two years of almost uninterrupted gains since Trump's election. But it also seems to pull down Toronto and various...

Whenever I travel, I like to make note of how various retail and consumer businesses are doing or what my impressions are.
At Edmonton Airport on Tuesday night I went to the BP for a beer before our flight (strictly for research of course).
The airpo...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Canadian Tire was up 1.7%.
Toll Brothers was down 2.0%. Competitor Lennar reported strong earnings and sales growth this morning but its price was down 1.1%. It appears that the marke...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto (apparently unexcited by the big LNG announcement) was down 0.5%.
CRH Medical bounced up 7.1% on Toronto to $4.99. It's been quite volatile lately but has mostly trended down after reachin...

Our report on the Enbridge Rate reset preferred share, the Series 9 trading as ENB.PF.A is updated and rated Buy at $20.47.
The shares happen to be very similar to the Canadian Western Bank rate reset preferred share that is on our list which is rate...

Shell and partners have announced a go-ahead decision on this project. They say it is $25 to $30 billion capital investment. That would be U.S. dollars which may explain why we are seeing a $40 billion figure in the Canadian news. It appears that a $...

On Monday, with a NAFTA (Sorry Trump, I mean USMCA) deal in hand, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up only 0.2% on this news.
Linamar was up 6.3%. It will probably rise more as the good news is digested.
In unrelated news, Alimentation Cou...

Late Sunday night, CBC indicates that sources tell it that a tentative NAFTA deal has been reached,his should be very positive for Linamar and probably also CN and AutoCanada perhaps most Canadian stocks.
As for Friday, the S&P 500 was unchanged ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.2%
Toll Brothers was down 2.4% to $33.55. That makes the price to book value 1.13. The trailing price to earnings ratio is 8.4 and the stock is trading at just 6.5 times the earnings that ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto rose 0.1%.
The FED increased interest rates as expected and apparently signaled more increases to come.
AutoCanada was up 3.8% on news of the sale and lease-back transaction that I mentioned y...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Linamar was down 2.2% and will probably continue to be weak until and unless there is some progress on NAFTA.
After the close, AutoCanada announced it did a deal to sell and leaseba...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.35% which was blamed on the escalating China / U.S.A. trade war.
Toronto was down 0.1%
West Texas Oil rose 2.1% to $72.25 as OPEC indicated it would not increase supply as requested by Donald Trump.
Most of the s...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Amazon was down 1.5% to $1915.
BHP Billiton was up 2.0%. Due to commodity price volatility this is an inherently volatile stock. It can be held for diversification although in ...

Our report for Dollarama is updated and rated Weak Buy at $43.21
After a decade of growing its earnings per share at a compound annual average rate of about 31%, Dollarama grew earnings per share by "only" 12% year-over-year in the latest two quarter...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 closed at a new record high, surging 0.8% to 2931. The 3000 level is not far away. The U.S. economy is undeniably strong. And the great bulk of the income tax reductions appear to have fallen to the bottom line. If the 50...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.3%.
West Texas Oil is at $71.48. Unfortunately as BNN Bloomberg reported today, basically ALL the different grades of Canadian crude are selling at big discounts to the West Texas Pri...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% as investors basically ignored any negative risks from Trump's trade war with China. Toronto was up 0.7%.
West Texas oil is just a hair under $70.
TFI International was up 3.3% to $48.70.
FedEx was down 5.5%.
C...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% which was at least partly due to concerns about Trump's escalating trade war with China. An announcement by Trump about new Tariffs is apparently pending as of early Monday evening. Update, Trump has now annou...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto edged up 0.1%.
Costco was down 2.4% as an analyst report pointed out the high P/E ratio.
Penny stock Ceapro was down 5%.
Our best hope this week would be for good news on the NAFTA file.
A fe...

Our report on Amazon is updated and rated Speculative Weak Buy / Hold at $1970.
I was very tempted to not put a rating on it because it is "too hard". Buffett has said that many investments should be put in the "too hard" basket and that he would jus...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while Toronto was down 0.3%.
Linamar was up another 4.5% top $61.06. I suspect it was upgraded by some analyst(s) since there does not seem to be any NAFTA news to explain it.
Toll Brothers was down 1.6% to $3...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.3%.
West Texas Oil was back over $70 U.S. dollars.
Linamar was up 5.8% and AutoCanada was up 4.5%. I did not see any news to explain this. When (if?) a NAFTA deal is announced...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Yesterday, after the close, Boston Pizza Royalties had announced that its latest distribution would remain at 11.5 cents. I had been wondering if the market had been expecting or fear...

Alimentation Couche-Tard is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $65.99 which was the closing price yesterday. Its recent Q1 fiscal 2019 earnings report featured stellar gains. The next two quarters should also show some growth based on acquisitions. Ho...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Canadian Western Bank was down 1.7% to $35.16.
CRH Medical which is a higher risk pick, was up 2.3% to U.S. $4.35 or Canadian $5.72. I reduced my position by 20% today. I had added t...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Costco was up 2.0% to $241.46 after releasing very strong same-store sales figures for August. I listened to a recorded call regarding the results and it was not clear to me how much...

Our report and rating on the Canadian Western Bank rate reset preferred share Series 5 CWB.PR.B is updated and now rated (lower) Sell at $24.57.
These shares will reset in less than seven months on April 30, 2019. The yield will reset to the yield on...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
WSP Global was up 7.3%. It did not release any news and so perhaps the price rise was due to an analyst upgrade in outlook.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was up 4.5% due to its strong...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.15%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.1%. AutoCanada was up 2.5%, possibly on optimism that the new management will turn things around.
Visa was down 3.5%. Its had strong increases in the past ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.7%.
The cancellation of approval and therefore work permits for the Trans Mountain pipeline was an ugly blow for Alberta on Friday. That could continue to affect stocks this week...

Our one penny stock, Ceapro Inc., is updated and rated Sell at $0.45. When first added to this site, Ceapro was a profitable operating company that was also engaged in research that might payoff. But over almost the past two years sales declined and ...

Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $35.50.
It was surprising and disappointing to see CWB drop $2.00 after releasing a strong earnings report on Thursday morning. The earnings growth of about 9% apparently fell short of analys...

Happy Birthday to Warren Buffett who turned 88 today. He spent the day in Manhattan at a lengthy lunch for eight that he auctions off annually. This year the lunch auction had raised over $3 million for a charity. He was interviewed on CNBC today. I ...

Canadian Western Bank reported earning this morning. Earnings per share up 9%, the dividend raised by 4% and giving a positive outlook. And the stock promptly declined 5%.
Headlines indicate analysts expected 12% earnings growth. And perhaps the 4% d...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
AutoCanada was up 5.1%.
On Thursday morning, Canadian Western Bank will report. With its commercial lending  focus, its results do not necessarily track that of the large Canadian Ban...

Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund is updated and rated Speculative Buy at $18.09.
The thesis for investing in the BP Royalty units was that you get a good yield and the yield should rise perhaps 1 to 3% annually on average. If that can be expected t...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.5%.
Linamar was up 3.3%.
Our one penny stock, Ceapro was down 10% after releasing its latest results.
The next update will be for Boston Pizza Royalty Units. On a yield basis it...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up another 0.8% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Linamar rose 6.5% on news of progress on NAFTA. I suspect that if Canada gets a NAFTA deal done then Linamar could easily rise another 20% or more. Meanwhile it could be volatile...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up  0.6% to a new all-time closing high.
Toronto was up 0.2%.
Constellation Software was up 2.2%.
This week the Canadian market will get earnings reports from the remaining big banks. We will also get earnings for Canad...

Starbucks is added to the list rated Buy at $52.75.
Starbucks is not a screaming Buy but it is a solid blue-chip type company that is very likely to be a decent invest over the long term. If you are  customer then why now own at least some shares? An...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
AutoCanada was down 5.1%. If new management are successful in their plans to substantially increase earnings, those earnings are not likely to start to materialize until Q4. Q3 cou...

On Wednesday, the market basically ignored Trump's latest troubles as the S&P 500 was about unchanged.
Meanwhile, Toronto was up 0.3%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 2.4% to $38.68. This was likely in reaction to good results from Royal Bank and al...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down by 0.2%.
Toll Brothers earnings were better than expected in all regards and the stock was up 13.8% and I think remains cheap.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.8%.
AutoCanada managed a 5.8%...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was about unchanged.
CRH Medical was up 6.0% in Toronto. With the strong recent gains, I am considering trimming my position in this company.
Toll Brothers is scheduled to report earnings before th...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
CRH Medical was up 4.5% to $5.14 in Toronto.
The big Canadian Banks will begin reporting their Q3 earnings this week. They will likely report continued growth in profitability on their l...

Constellation Software is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at Canadian  $949. Note, though that it is analysed in U.S. dollars because it reports in U.S. dollars.
Constellation Software has been a fantastic investment over the years. I have generall...

Markets were very strong on Thursday with the S&P 500 up 0.8%, the DOW surging 1.6% and Toronto up 0.5%.
Walmart surged 9.3% after a strong earnings report which including a big gain in on-line sales.
CRH Medical was up 6.3% in the U.S. and 4.9% ...

Wednesday was a down day in the markets apparently due to worries about the situation in Turkey and contagion from that.
The S&P 500 was down 0.8%. Toronto was down 1.2% as the price of West Texas oil fell to about U.S. $65.
Most stocks were down...

Tuesday's markets were strong with the S&P 500 up 0.6% and Toronto up 0.5%.
Dollarama was up 4.0% although it did not issue any news. Many stocks were up in the range of 1% to 1.5% today. Linamar was up 2.0%.
Stantec was down 0.4%. But after the ...

The report for Costco is updated and rate Weak Sell / Hold at $220.31 (That was the analysis price, it's 221.33 as I post this).
Costco is a fantastic business. It's high P/E (34 currently) is the reason that I have typically rated the stock as Weak ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
AutoCanada fell another 6.5% to $10.05. Trump's threats about auto tariffs are another factor pushing this stock down.
Toll Brothers was down 4.2% to $34.17. They will report earning...

The report for AutoCanada is updated and rated Speculative Buy at $10.75.
This has been a very (very) disappointing investment since it was added to this site on July 14, 2015 rated Buy at $40.36. At that point it had already declined from a high of ...

AutoCanada released its Q2 results and they are extraordinarily poor.
They are replacing the CEO (though weirdly keeping him on as an adviser in the area of relations with the various auto makers and dealership acquisitions).
The CFO is resigning but...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% but Toronto rose 0.6%.
Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund released Q2 earnings which I found to be somewhat disappointing. The increase in same-store franchise-fee-eligible sales that I thought would occur d...

Stantec is updated and rated (lower) Buy at Canadian $34.14 or U.S. $26.20 after releasing Q2 earnings.
Q2 results were hampered by continued losses related to a few projects that Stantec inherited in its 2016 purchase of MWH Global. These were Const...

Boston Pizza Royaties Q2 results are out this morning. The results are at least moderately disappointing with same-store-franchise-eligible sales down 0.4% and this is despite some menu price increases and increased take-out orders. Traffic volume in...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.2% despite a decline in oil prices.
Canadian Tire surged 3.2% after announcing it would partner with Petco to bring bring Petco's prducts into its stores and online. It was not ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.8%.
Based on my Melcor update I added a little to my position in that stock.
I also added a little to AutoCanada which will report on Thursday. It's certainly possible that AutoCanada's...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up another 0.35% while Toronto was closed.
Berkshire Hathaway was up 2.9% on its good earnings results. I had mentioned that Berkshire had not yet bought back any shares under its new plan and I thought that might be a ...

Melcor Developments is updated and once again is rated Strong Buy at $14.52.
It is frustrating to see this stock languish at just under half of book value. Not only does the equity per share have a value that is likely around twice the share price bu...

On Friday, markets were strong with the S&P 500 up 0.5% although Toronto was up only 0.1%.
Berkshire Hathaway released its Q2 numbers on Saturday morning. They were strong. Of interest they reported no share buybacks have taken place. In isolatio...

The report for CRH Medical is updated and rated Speculative Buy at U.S. $3.45 or Canadian $4.49. While nominally a Canadian company it is in fact a 100% U.S. company in substance and my report is in U.S. dollars.
This company was added to the site ra...

Thursday saw the S&P 500 rise 0.5% and Toronto rise by 0.2%.
CRH Medical was up 3.5% after reporting earnings. The market apparently agreed with my assessment (on a quick look at the earnings) that the earnings report was good but not great.
The ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.35%.
TFI International was up 5.2%. This has been a very well run company. Reducing my position in this name earlier this year has not turned out so well. Sometimes it seems that the ...

The report on the Melcor REIT has been updated and rated (lower) Buy at $8.17.
On the one hand the 8.2% yield is highly attractive. And the units are trading at 73% of book value. And the REIT is doing a good job of signing on new tenants and keeping...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 and Toronto were both up 0.5%.
TFI International was down 2.2% giving up part of recent gains. In contrast Constellation Software was up 2.5% recovering part of a recent decline.
FedEx was up 2.2% and has been volatile of late....

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Heineken fell 5.3% after releasing first half earnings.
Constellation Software slipped another 4.2%.
The Canadian dollar is at 76.7 U.S. cents which is a six week high.
West Texas oi...

I ate at the large BP at Niagara Falls, BP calls this a flagship location. On a Saturaday afternoon it was certainly very busy although not full. Almost any food and drink business in Niagara Falls seems to be quite busy due to the crowds.
Sunday mor...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
TFI International (formerly TransForce) was up 10.0% after releasing Q2 earnings. It's now up 32% year to date and 67% since being added to this site rated (lower) Strong Buy on Octo...

The main recent problem processing PayPal payments including new subscriptions have been (it appears) solved. Nevertheless, I am working on having a second payment processor to provide more choice in payments. For now, I am leaving the subscriber pag...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% adn Toronto was up 0.2%.
CN Rail was up 4.7% after reporting Q2 earnings. This has been a stellar long term investment. It usually looks expensive but seems to end up justifying the price paid. Probably wise ...

When traveling, I like to check out and document anything I see related to companies on our list or just observations on the economy.
At the Edmonton airport on July 19 at just before noon I saw that the big Couche-Tard store in the arrivals area was...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while Toronto fell 0.2%.
BHP Billiton jumped 5.1% (The BBL American Depository receipts in New York). I don't see any news or earnings release to explain that. It might have been an increase in the price of iron or...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Boston Pizza units were down 2.6% to $18.33
No doubt, we are all getting tired of too many stocks giving opportunities to buy rather than just giving gains.
In this case the yield on the...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.65%.
Linamar was down 4.8% due to tariff war fears. The U.S. Commerce department was conducting hearings late last weak regarding the (preposterous) issue of whether auto and auto part...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
CRH Medical was up 3.5% to $4.18. It has settled back from the $.50 to $4.60 range it reached in early May. The market is still dealing with the uncertainty of how profitable it wi...

Firstly, as you likely noticed, I have a new contributor, Zack Trease, to InvestorsFriend who has written some posts that you see below. We actually intended his posts to show up on a separate page. They showed up here on the daily posts page before ...

Tuesday saw the S&P 500 rise 0.4% and Toronto 0.15%.
Linamar was up 3.0% to $59.38 modestly rewarding those who were brave enough to buy near its recent low of under $55.
Toll Brothers was up 2.8%. My betting is that this stock will rise as the U...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Linamar recovered 2.75%. There was not much movement of particular note in most of the stocks on our list.
A headline this morning on BNN television said that U.S. consumer spending ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was about flat (it was down marginally).
AutoCanada was down another 0.1% to $15.32. Earlier in the day it was as low as $14.74.
Reviewing its press releases I took notice that in addition to Arlen...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.9% which made for a strong day in the markets.
Constellation Software was up a hefty 4.6% and has continued to be a real winner even when it seems expensive. Similarly, Amazon was up another 2.4...

The report for Alimentation Couche-Tard is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $62.20.
The fact that this is (inexplicably) now Canada's largest company by revenue does not seem to have gotten much attention.
It now only derives about 13% of its revenu...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.8%. Today, the market took notice of Trump's trade was threats and his insults to NATO and Germany.  It's hard to argue with his economic success so far. Time will tell if that contin...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.35% and Toronto was up 0.6% to a record high.
The record high on Toronto is welcome, but it is not necessarily cause for any great celebration, and the achievement of a record high certainly is not a recent to con...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
FedEx was up 2.9% recovering some of its recent decline.
C.N. rail was up 2.7% to a record high.
Linamar bounced up 2.7%,
Toll Brothers was up 2.2%.
Couche-Tard was up 1.75% before repor...

Friday was a positive day in the North America stock markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.85% and Toronto rose 0.65%.
Statistics Canada reported the labour Force survey results for June. The report was positive with 32,000 jobs added. More people return...

On Thursday, the U.S. markets were quite strong with the S&P 500 rising 0.9%. Toronto, however was down 0.2%.
Q2 earnings reports from U.S. companies will start to be released next week.
Also Alimentation Couche-Tard will release on Monday its Q4...

AutoCanada
With AutoCanda currently undergoing a 'Strategic Review", I wanted to put down some thoughts about the company's strategy and its competitive advantages. I will also send these to the Special Committee of the Board that is currently lookin...

On Wednesday, U.S. markets were closed for the holiday while Toronto was up 0.3%.
Canadian Western Bank rose 1.9%.
The Enbridge rate reset preferred share that is on our list rose 0.6% to $20.60. These shares will reset to the yield on the government...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.9%.
Couche-Tard was down 2.9%, giving back a portion of its recent partial recovery. There was news today that Irving Oil will acquire 13 and brand ...

On Monday, the Toronto Stock market was closed for the holiday and the S&P 500 ended the day up 0.3%.
Oil remains strong at U.S. $74.50 for West Texas Intermediate.
Trump is complaining that OPEC has manipulated oil prices higher than they should...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.6%.
Linamar recovered 3.2% to $58.91. Perhaps Thursday was the day to buy.
The first half of 2018 has not yielded much return for most investors. The Toronto stock index is up 0.5% in thes...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% while Toronto was down 0.3%.
Linamar was down 4.5%. This came after CEO and founding family member Linda Hasenfratz painted a very grim picture of what would happen to the entire North America economy if heavy...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.9%. And Toronto was down 0.3%. Earlier in the day both markets had been up.
CRH Medical was down 3.9% and has generally given back some of its recent gains.
Toll Brothers was down 2.3%. Yet when I check for ne...

On Tuesday, markets rebounded somewhat and the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
West Texas oil was up about 2.5% and sits at U.S. $70.63 which is close to $94 Canadian which is actually not at all a low price for oil if you look at sa...

Monday was a down day in the markets with the S&P 500 falling 1.4% and Toronto down 1.6%.
Most stocks were down on the day. This was blamed on Trump's escalating trade wars.
Walmart was an exception and rose 1.9%. I suppose higher prices for Chin...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2%.
Toronto was up 0.7% as the price of oil climbed because OPEC agreed to production increases that were smaller than expected/feared (feared by those who want higher oil prices, which is certainly not everyone).
...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
AutoCanada was down 3.8% losing some of the little bounce it had had on news that it will look at strategic alternatives.
Linamar was down another 2.9% on trade war worries.
I was ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2%.
Toronto was up 0.6% and has crept up to a new record closing high. That's a good thing but not exactly earth-shattering. Stock markets should be expected to trend up over time and therefore must at least occ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% (modest compared to the decline of 1.1% in the DOW). Toronto was also down 0.4%.
BHP Billiton was down 2.9% in New York. This was due to lower commodity prices. Volatility is par for the course with commodity...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
AutoCanada recovered 2.8% after it announced that it has, at the request of an activist shareholder, formed a Special Committee of the board to look into strategic alternatives and a...

On Friday, the S&P 500 ended the day down just 0.1% although it been down considerably more earlier in the day on trade war worries. Toronto was also down 0.1%.
BHP Billiton was down 3.7% which I believe was due to commodity price declines.
WSP G...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.25% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Linamar recovered 2.0%.
CN Rail was up 1.0% to an-time high. That should be no surprise. CN has marched high fairly steadily ever since its Initial Public Offering in November 1995 at...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
The Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S. increased interest rates by the expected 0.25% and also apparently signaled that there will be two more rate increases by the end of 2018 and ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.2%.
AutoCanada was down 4.4% and so it seems the market is not convinced much will come of the activist investor's request to put the company up for sale even though the company did not reject th...

AutoCanada has responded to the activist shareholder as follows:
"AutoCanada Inc. ("AutoCanada" or the "Company") (ACQ.TO) today acknowledged receipt of a letter from Clearwater Capital Management. The Company's Board of Directors welcomes constructi...