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12-01-10 - THE LAST POST
As of today, all posting will appear on the HOME page because readers who have attempted to subscribe to posts to the DAILY SQUAWK page advise that the RSS feed only works for the HOME page. See you there!
11-30-10 - WHO COULDA GUESSED?
Not me for sure. Early this morning I was looking at the overnight news and couldn't come up with anything positive or optimistic to write about. Asia tanked to catch up as the Asian markets closed before the markets took a dive on Monday. Then at about 7:30 AM 'Peg time the Government of Canada released some dismal September GDP numbers. So, rather than post, I shut down the computer and went out for the day.
Well, sometime around mid morning some numbers came out of the US indicating a rise in consumer confidence and the markets, the TSX at least, took off. For most of the rest of the day the TSX was in near record territory over 13,000. Remember, the TSX has only closed over 13,000 one day in the past two and a bit years. The day was November 8. Something happened in the late afternoon and the 100 plus point gain slide to 57 for a close of 12,952 up from 12,676 at the end of ROCKTOBER! It's been a remarkable three month run. Gotta love it!
11-29-10 - EUROPEAN FEARS ABOUND
Early this morning things were looking good. Asia, Europe and US futures were all up and then along came new/revised European fears of trouble in Ireland, Spain and Portugal. Asia closed just in time to dodge the bullet but Europe dropped off. North American markets fell at the open and now, 30 minutes into the trading day, the TSX is down 89, the DOW is down over 140.
CANADIAN BANKS...
Start reporting tomorrow with National Bank coming out first followed by CIBC and TD on Thursday. The market isn't predicting anything spectacular. Me, I just hoping for some good solid numbers which may put a little spark in Canadian financials.
11-26-10 - LOOKS LIKE BLACK FRIDAY HERE TOO
Markets have been open for less than a minute and TSX already down over 80 points. It doesn't look like there's any good news on the horizon to bring it back today.
11-25-10 - NOVEMBER VOLATILITY
6:45 AM 'Peg time. After a great run up in September and October this month is looking like a short term version of 2008. Big daily swings in the TSX. That being said, yesterday was the 8th day this month when the TSX closed over 12,900, a level we haven't seen since September 19, 2008. Closed over 13,000 on November 8th and has been down to 12,600 since. 12,902 yesterday. Oil up...Nat gas way up overnight. Might we see 13,000 again today?
11-24-10 - OUCH! IRISH EYES AREN'T SMILING...
10:10 AM 'Peg time. Watch for a new wave of Irish immigrants as Ireland hikes their value added tax (GST) to 23%.
SOME GOOD NEWS
6:45 AM 'Peg time. George Weston (WN) reported a double for third quarter earnings. This morning Deere & Co. (DE:NY) reports best fourth quarter ever! This bodes well for my aggie ETF (COW) as Deere is the second largest holding. Oil turns up on expectation of inventory draw down for the week...report at 9:30 AM. The two Koreas stopped shooting at each other. We may see a reversal of yesterday's sell off.
11-23-10 - ANYBODY'S GUESS
7:30 AM 'Peg time. Continued weakness in Ireland and the two Koreas shooting at each other... not good. HP's big beat...real good. Oil, Asia & Europe all down, gold up a tick and US futures wwwaaayyy down. Doesn't look good.
LAST WEEK'S BIG SURPRISE
For me at least. The overwhelming interest in the General Motors (GMM-U:NY) IPO. Just not sure I can wrap my head around shares of the new GM. The Volt be may a great idea but it'll be years before they make money on Volt sales. Sure, the movie stars will all buy one but that won't be enough.
11-22-10 - UP & DOWN...DOWN & UP
4:30 AM 'Peg time. Volatility continues. After hitting a two year high on November 8 both my stuff and the TSX sagged and all the gains of November disappeared. Over the next few trading days the downward trend continued...until last Thursday when the TSX bounced 212 points. Another 80 on Friday and my stuff reached a new for the year despite the fact that the TSX is still 100 down from its high on the 8th.
THIS WEEK?
Who knows? Oil came back a couple of bucks over the weekend on Euro strength which then causes US$ weakness which then causes oil and other commodities to rise. Nat gas is $4.21 this morning up from the $3.80 range for most of last week. Hewlett Packard (HPQ:NY) earning today. Here at home, George Weston (WN) tomorrow. Earnings reports may set the direction this week.
11-18-10 - LOVIN' MY NEW COAL MINER
When I bought Western Coal (WTN) for $8.05 on November 9 I was guessing that the coal miners would go up within twelve to eighteen months. Sure didn't predict a takeover offer within nine days. Offer by Walter Energy (WLT:NY) $11.50 per share. WOW! Because it's a friendly takeover offer we won't get the big run up which usually accompanies hostile offers. Presently trading a bit below the $11.50 mark because the offer is combination of cash and shares and Walter shares dipped today as the market digests the info.
11-17-10 - HUH?
2:35 PM 'Peg time. Soooo, US oil inventory lower than expected and the price of oil goes down rather than up and then the TSX goes up rather than down. Go figure? Twenty-five minutes to close.
IT ALL STARTED WHEN NOTHING HAPPENED
5:30 AM 'Peg time. We were basking in the glow of the best September and October in years and along came the G20 meeting. Because the brain trusts didn't manage one agreement the markets began to cave in. Duh...did anyone really think twenty megalomaniacs from twenty very different jurisdictions were actually going to agree on something?
After the G20 failure, Irish eyes stopped smiling as Ireland's financial crisis reared it's ugly head once again. Then along came the biggie. Worries of a weakness in China blew commodities out of the water. $1,400 gold is down to $1,334 and $88 oil is under $82. The world is depending on China's insatiable appetite for pretty much every thing to bring us back to prosperity. Any hint of slowing in China can quickly kill any rally.
11-15-10 - FRIDAY'S SELL-OFF
Pretty much wiped out the November gains. Some important earnings reports (Lowes, Home Deport, Loblaws) this week could establish a short term direction. With gold and oil off their highs the TSX may wander for a couple of weeks until the Canadian banks begin reporting in the first week of December.
11-12-10 - NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR TODAY
8:31 AM 'Peg time. Markets all dropping off in first minute of trading. The whole world seems to have dropped off overnight. Eleven of eleven Asian markets are down from .08% for the Seoul Composite to 5.16% for the Shanghai Composite.
ON A BRIGHTER NOTE
All you old guys who are always catching $#*! for watching BNN should show your wives my last post on the HOME page. Of course, only do this if you're actually doing something with the info. If you're watching BNN for entertainment...get a hobby! Thank You Mr. Brieger!!! is a story that began by watching BNN that day back in early August of 2009. Sure no guarantees, but sometimes things do work out.
11-11-10 - DEFYING FUNDAMENTALS
9:30 AM 'Peg time. Amid a slew of excellent earnings reports (Sprott Inc.), dividend increases (Canadian Tire), share buybacks (Tim's), gold over $1,400 and oil nearing $88.00 the TSX is down over 50 points on the day. Go figure? ♣
11-10-10 - WHO KNEW?
That the US dollar would suddenly jump halfway through the day causing gold, oil and all things priced in US dollars to drop in value. Naturally, this resulted in a sudden sell off on the TSX. While things were rocking yesterday morning I sold Lundin Mining (LUN) for $7.02 a nice 37% gain from my April purchase price of $5.10. By the end of the day Lundin settled down to $6.64.
11-09-10 - CLAWING??
7:00 AM 'Peg time. Did I say clawing it's way up? More like galloping! Six trading days in November. TSX up every day and no sign of a let up today. Gold at new record over $1,400.00, oil reaching toward $88.00....even the perennial loser nat gas has been up for the past couple of days. Been a while since it's been over $4.00. $4.16 at the moment.
11-08-10 - CLAWING IT'S WAY UP
10:30 AM 'Peg time. Despite the fact that gold, oil, US & European markets are ticking down, the TSX is clawing it's way toward 13,000. Up 34 at 12,959 at the moment. Can't help but wonder if this bubble's going to burst. In the meantime, we'll take it!
11-05-10 - SMOKIN' !!
1:00 PM 'Peg Time. Finally! The TSX got into step with the rest of the world yesterday and bounced 207 points or 1.64%. At yesterday's close of 12,878 we're at a level we haven't seen since the crash of October 2008. It's been a 25 month grind.
STILL GOING UP!
As of this moment, the TSX is up another 76 points, leading all North American and European markets for the day. Two hours to market close.
11-04-10 - WILL THE TSX JOIN THE CROWD?
The whole world is responding positively to the US 600 Billion stimulus package. Tokyo up 2.17%, Hong Kong up 1.62%, London, Paris and Frankfurt all over 1.5%. Since the end of October the TSX has been out of step. Sure hope it joins in today.
DECISION MADE OR WAS IT?
So, Investment Canada studied it and reported the findings to Mr. Dithers (Tony Clement) and he made a sort of, final, maybe, temporary decision stating sort of very clearly that the BHP offer for Potash does not maybe provide a net benefit for Canada and he'll probably, maybe bring down sort of a final decision in 30 days. Come on Tony. Make up your frickin' mind!
11-03-10 - LOOKING FOR DIRECTION
After a great September and October the TSX seems to wandering aimlessly. A tick down on Monday, a tick up Tuesday a tick down in the first hour today. With gold holding above $1,350.00 and oil reaching toward $85.00 it's a bit surprising. Maybe investors are waiting to see if Harper does the right thing or the Right thing on the Potash decision. Still waiting for US stimulus announcement which is due this afternoon. US oil inventory numbers out in 2 minutes. Something should help establish a direction.
11-02-10 - IT'S ALL ABOUT THE US TODAY
Europe and Asia are up over night in anticipation of an announcement of new stimulus package in the US. Earlier estimates had it at a Trillion but estimates have now been tempered to a paltry 500 Billion. US voters are expected to throw out the Democrats today because they have yet to solve all the problems they inherited from the Republicans. US markets should kick up. Hopefully the TSX will follow along.
11-01-10 - GOOD-BYE PUMPKIN, HELLO NOVEMBER
I've suffered a wee bit of writer's block in the past week but think I'm ready to go again. I did manage to put up the CHARTS on the weekend. Things are looking sweet. Keep an eye on the HOME page in the next few days as I've got a couple of posts in the final draft stage. The winds of change are blowing.
10-26-10 - AAAGGGHHH!
I took my RIM money off the table and RIM takes off. Oh well, I was happy with the gain and still am. I believe that my reasons for bailing were valid. Not sure that a single conference demo will sustain RIM or it's share value.
ON A BRIGHTER NOTE
After struggling all day the TSX closed up again. Gotta wait a couple of hours for the fund numbers but it's looking like the upward trend will continue. UP! Eleven out of twelve days! WOW!
10-23-10 - UP ! UP! UP!
The past two weeks have pretty amazing. Excepting a slight tick down last Tuesday, my stuff has gone up every day. Up nine of ten days. Not sure when that happened last. The CHARTS are looking pretty good. Gotta love it!
10-20-10 - NO SURPRISE...
That BoC kept the prime rate at 1%.
BIG SURPRISE!
At China's quarter point hike in its prime rate. This one caught the markets by surprise...triggered an increase in the US dollar which in turn triggered a drop in the price of gold and oil which in turn triggered a drop in the markets. For a while in the afternoon it looked like the beginning of another huge sell off. Thankfully, things stabilized toward the end of the day and both TSX & DOW are ticking up in the first ten minutes this morning.
10-18-10 - HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?
I first mentioned Apple (AAPL:NY) way back on March 10 under the heading STOCKS I WISH I HAD. The share price that day was $223.00. The share price today...$318.00. A gain of 42.6% in seven months. Apple is now the third largest company in the world by market cap, after Exxon Mobile and Petro China.
BoC announces interest rate tomorrow morning. The consensus is that they'll hold the line at 1%. As always, I'm hoping for a quarter point hike.
10-16-10 - DEFYING GRAVITY
Okay, I was wrong on Thursday morning. Despite all the positive signs before the markets opened, the TSX fell off 50 points on Thursday and another 10 on Friday. Interesting thing...my stuff went up and reached a new high for the year both days! Gotta love it.
10-14-10 - CRAZY GOOD WEEK!
5:00 AM ' Peg time. TSX and my stuff reaching new highs each day. Gotta love it! Asia, Europe, US futures, Gold and oil all up overnight. They, whoever they are, say that the has been trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines waiting to come back to the market. I wonder if this is it.
10-13-10 - COLD FEET, HOT PROFIT
Ya, ya, call me chicken but I bailed on RIM today. Despite everything I said in my Change of Direction post, there's just too much negative press about RIM. Too many analysts express concern about RIM's loss of market share to Apple's iPhones everyone elses' Android phones. What really got to me the fact that RIM is now chasing rather than leading. They produced their first touch screen sixteen months after the iPhone was introduced. Now, they tell the world about the Play Book another sixteen months after the iPad launch and then announce that it won't be out until early 2011 when Apple is slated to bring out the next generation iPad.
Yup, bailed today at $50.02 for a 7.6% gain in 42 days. Not too shabby, I'd say.
10-08-10 - EXIT, EXIT, READ ALL ABOUT IT
I triggered my exit strategy yesterday by bailing on my long held Canadian Resource Fund. Not exactly sure where the proceeds will end up for the long term. For now I just parked them in a daily interest account.
10-06-10 - WHICH WAY WILL WE GO?
6:00 AM 'Peg time. It's Wednesday...US oil inventory figures out at 9:30 AM could set the tone for the price of oil and the TSX...for today at least.
US earnings season begins tomorrow with Alcoa (AA:NY). Many analysts are predicting a robust earnings season for US companies. This could indicate a continued rally through to year end.
10-05-10 - QUESTION ASKED, QUESTION ANSWERED...AGAIN
But the answer is better this time. Way back on March 16 when the TSX had been above 12,000 for a few days I asked a question. What will we see next, 12,500 or 11,500...again? The answer came on May 6 when the TSX went below 11,500 on an intraday basis. Fourteen days later, it was official. The TSX closed at 11,405. On September 8 when the TSX had been back above 12,000 for four whole days I asked the same question once again. The answer came today with an intraday high of 12,509. The final close was 12,498 but we did get over 12,500!
How about that Gold? $1,341 today! Pretty amazing.
10-01-10 - HELLO OCTOBER
7:00 AM 'Peg time. Yesterday's slight downward tick came as a bit of a surprise. Gold dropped $2 from the record high and the sellers moved in and sold off the big gold miners and others to lock in third quarter profits. This morning Gold is back up to a new record...$1,316 right now...it was a buck higher an hour ago. Oil is flirting with $81. I'm betting on a good start for the new month.
SOLD ENCANA (ECA) YESTERDAY
Nat gas continues to do absolutely nothing. I doubt that even a real cold winter could help this loser. There's just too much gas around. Can't see any reason to hold a big gas company. Nothing has changed since my September 1 post on this page. Time to move on.
09-30-10 - WOW!!!
5:00 AM 'Peg time. Lifted by commodities, Gold at $1,313 and oil nearing $77, the TSX gained 103 points to close at a level not seen since the fall of 2008. Yup, it's been two full years since the financial crisis began with the sub-prime loan issue in the US. Hundreds of billions lost, hundreds of billions injected by governments to rescue banks and General Motors (and Chrysler), hundreds of billions of government stimulus to prevent total collapse of the economy. All that and only three, or was it four, guys went to jail. Remarkable!
09-29-10 - SEEMS RIM HAS TO WALK ON WATER TO GET A LITTLE RESPECT
On one hand, some are suggesting that the new Blackberry Play Book, announced on Monday, raises the bar for tablet PCs. Yup, they think it's ahead of Apple's iPad. On the other hand, many are criticizing announcing a new device that won't be available until the new year. At the end of the day, the share price fell off yesterday and it may very well revisit the low end of the 52 week range.
Yesterday's close of 12,278 for the TSX was just 2 points down from the high for the year way back on April 26. If it doesn't fall apart today or tomorrow September will be a great month! Don't be tricked into thinking we're on a roll. Same thing happened last September and then the TSX tanked 323 points on October 1.
09-27-10 - NICE END TO THE WEEK
Friday's 103 point rally of the TSX nearly reclaimed all the losses of the preceding three days. Interesting, even though the TSX was still down a tick from Monday's close, my stuff was up 1% from Monday. In fact, I'm doing even better YTD with a gain of 5.4% compared to 3.8% for the TSX. The CHARTS are looking pretty good.
With Gold hanging onto the $1,300 price and oil nearing $77 things are looking good for continuation of the rally today. Will we end the month with a spike up?
09-24-10 - CAN WE PULL IT UP TODAY?
8:00 AM 'Peg time. After nearly reaching a new high for the year on Monday, the TSX has been falling off all week. Gold hits new record of $1,300 per ounce, oil approaching $76 after spending most of the week around $74. Maybe, just maybe we can get some back today.
RIM shares get no respect. If they don't come out with a big new product announcement next week I can see the share price falling back toward the 52 week low range. A bit of a bounce today and I may try a stop loss to capture the short term gain. In the meantime, my $50.14 sell order expires today. We'll see?
09-22-10 - IT PAYS TO KEEP AN EAR TO THE GROUND
9:40 AM 'Peg time. WOW! RIM shares over $50.00. Day's high $50.39!
8:50 AM 'Peg time. Especially if you have orders in. On Monday I was second guessing my RIM purchase as the share price turned down after Thursday's excellent second quarter numbers. I figured I'd be happy with a 5% gain in less than a month. I placed a sell order at $48.81. RIM shares ended the day at $46.38...below my cost of $46.49.
On Tuesday out came rumors of a new Blackberry and/or a so called Black Pad to compete with Apple's iPad. I revised my sell order to $50.04. Tuesday's close was $48.29.
Up early this morning and I learn that the Wall Street Journal has an article suggesting that the Black Pad may be introduced at a developer's conference next week in San Fransisco. Before the market opened I revised my sell order to $51.14...a full 10% up from my September 2 purchase price. RIM shares opened this morning at $49.13 and have been as high as $49.60 in the first 20 minutes.
Had I left Monday's sell order in place I would have been taken out at the opening bell this morning. Yup, when you have orders in you've got to pay attention.
09-21-10 - SOMETIMES IT JUST SNEAKS UP ON YOU
As the TSX has been bumping along... two steps forward, three steps back and vise versa, it has slowly ground out a near high for the year. Yesterday's close of 12,234 was second only to the close of 12,280 way back on April 26. It would be nice to see a new high today, but with oil back under $74 it's doubtful.
NOBODY HAS ANYTHING NICE TO SAY
About my RIM purchase. Each time the guest analyst changed on BNN yesterday someone called in for an opinion about RIM. Despite the fantastic numbers posted for the second quarter, as mentioned here on Friday, nobody likes it. I might hedge my bet with a sale order aimed at a quick profit if it bounces again.
05-06-10 - I'M SPEECHLESS!
04-05-10 - NEW HIGH FOR THE YEAR!
AS OF DECEMBER 1, 2010 THE SHORT "DAILY SQUAWKS" WILL APPEAR ON THE HOME PAGE.
12-01-10 - THE LAST POST
11-30-10 - WHO COULDA GUESSED?
Not me for sure. Early this morning I was looking at the overnight news and couldn't come up with anything positive or optimistic to write about. Asia tanked to catch up as the Asian markets closed before the markets took a dive on Monday. Then at about 7:30 AM 'Peg time the Government of Canada released some dismal September GDP numbers. So, rather than post, I shut down the computer and went out for the day.
Well, sometime around mid morning some numbers came out of the US indicating a rise in consumer confidence and the markets, the TSX at least, took off. For most of the rest of the day the TSX was in near record territory over 13,000. Remember, the TSX has only closed over 13,000 one day in the past two and a bit years. The day was November 8. Something happened in the late afternoon and the 100 plus point gain slide to 57 for a close of 12,952 up from 12,676 at the end of ROCKTOBER! It's been a remarkable three month run. Gotta love it!
11-29-10 - EUROPEAN FEARS ABOUND
Early this morning things were looking good. Asia, Europe and US futures were all up and then along came new/revised European fears of trouble in Ireland, Spain and Portugal. Asia closed just in time to dodge the bullet but Europe dropped off. North American markets fell at the open and now, 30 minutes into the trading day, the TSX is down 89, the DOW is down over 140.
CANADIAN BANKS...
Start reporting tomorrow with National Bank coming out first followed by CIBC and TD on Thursday. The market isn't predicting anything spectacular. Me, I just hoping for some good solid numbers which may put a little spark in Canadian financials.
11-26-10 - LOOKS LIKE BLACK FRIDAY HERE TOO
Markets have been open for less than a minute and TSX already down over 80 points. It doesn't look like there's any good news on the horizon to bring it back today.
11-25-10 - NOVEMBER VOLATILITY
6:45 AM 'Peg time. After a great run up in September and October this month is looking like a short term version of 2008. Big daily swings in the TSX. That being said, yesterday was the 8th day this month when the TSX closed over 12,900, a level we haven't seen since September 19, 2008. Closed over 13,000 on November 8th and has been down to 12,600 since. 12,902 yesterday. Oil up...Nat gas way up overnight. Might we see 13,000 again today?
11-24-10 - OUCH! IRISH EYES AREN'T SMILING...
10:10 AM 'Peg time. Watch for a new wave of Irish immigrants as Ireland hikes their value added tax (GST) to 23%.
SOME GOOD NEWS
6:45 AM 'Peg time. George Weston (WN) reported a double for third quarter earnings. This morning Deere & Co. (DE:NY) reports best fourth quarter ever! This bodes well for my aggie ETF (COW) as Deere is the second largest holding. Oil turns up on expectation of inventory draw down for the week...report at 9:30 AM. The two Koreas stopped shooting at each other. We may see a reversal of yesterday's sell off.
11-23-10 - ANYBODY'S GUESS
7:30 AM 'Peg time. Continued weakness in Ireland and the two Koreas shooting at each other... not good. HP's big beat...real good. Oil, Asia & Europe all down, gold up a tick and US futures wwwaaayyy down. Doesn't look good.
LAST WEEK'S BIG SURPRISE
For me at least. The overwhelming interest in the General Motors (GMM-U:NY) IPO. Just not sure I can wrap my head around shares of the new GM. The Volt be may a great idea but it'll be years before they make money on Volt sales. Sure, the movie stars will all buy one but that won't be enough.
11-22-10 - UP & DOWN...DOWN & UP
4:30 AM 'Peg time. Volatility continues. After hitting a two year high on November 8 both my stuff and the TSX sagged and all the gains of November disappeared. Over the next few trading days the downward trend continued...until last Thursday when the TSX bounced 212 points. Another 80 on Friday and my stuff reached a new for the year despite the fact that the TSX is still 100 down from its high on the 8th.
THIS WEEK?
Who knows? Oil came back a couple of bucks over the weekend on Euro strength which then causes US$ weakness which then causes oil and other commodities to rise. Nat gas is $4.21 this morning up from the $3.80 range for most of last week. Hewlett Packard (HPQ:NY) earning today. Here at home, George Weston (WN) tomorrow. Earnings reports may set the direction this week.
11-18-10 - LOVIN' MY NEW COAL MINER
When I bought Western Coal (WTN) for $8.05 on November 9 I was guessing that the coal miners would go up within twelve to eighteen months. Sure didn't predict a takeover offer within nine days. Offer by Walter Energy (WLT:NY) $11.50 per share. WOW! Because it's a friendly takeover offer we won't get the big run up which usually accompanies hostile offers. Presently trading a bit below the $11.50 mark because the offer is combination of cash and shares and Walter shares dipped today as the market digests the info.
11-17-10 - HUH?
2:35 PM 'Peg time. Soooo, US oil inventory lower than expected and the price of oil goes down rather than up and then the TSX goes up rather than down. Go figure? Twenty-five minutes to close.
IT ALL STARTED WHEN NOTHING HAPPENED
5:30 AM 'Peg time. We were basking in the glow of the best September and October in years and along came the G20 meeting. Because the brain trusts didn't manage one agreement the markets began to cave in. Duh...did anyone really think twenty megalomaniacs from twenty very different jurisdictions were actually going to agree on something?
After the G20 failure, Irish eyes stopped smiling as Ireland's financial crisis reared it's ugly head once again. Then along came the biggie. Worries of a weakness in China blew commodities out of the water. $1,400 gold is down to $1,334 and $88 oil is under $82. The world is depending on China's insatiable appetite for pretty much every thing to bring us back to prosperity. Any hint of slowing in China can quickly kill any rally.
11-15-10 - FRIDAY'S SELL-OFF
Pretty much wiped out the November gains. Some important earnings reports (Lowes, Home Deport, Loblaws) this week could establish a short term direction. With gold and oil off their highs the TSX may wander for a couple of weeks until the Canadian banks begin reporting in the first week of December.
11-12-10 - NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR TODAY
8:31 AM 'Peg time. Markets all dropping off in first minute of trading. The whole world seems to have dropped off overnight. Eleven of eleven Asian markets are down from .08% for the Seoul Composite to 5.16% for the Shanghai Composite.
ON A BRIGHTER NOTE
All you old guys who are always catching $#*! for watching BNN should show your wives my last post on the HOME page. Of course, only do this if you're actually doing something with the info. If you're watching BNN for entertainment...get a hobby! Thank You Mr. Brieger!!! is a story that began by watching BNN that day back in early August of 2009. Sure no guarantees, but sometimes things do work out.
11-11-10 - DEFYING FUNDAMENTALS
11-10-10 - WHO KNEW?
That the US dollar would suddenly jump halfway through the day causing gold, oil and all things priced in US dollars to drop in value. Naturally, this resulted in a sudden sell off on the TSX. While things were rocking yesterday morning I sold Lundin Mining (LUN) for $7.02 a nice 37% gain from my April purchase price of $5.10. By the end of the day Lundin settled down to $6.64.
11-09-10 - CLAWING??
7:00 AM 'Peg time. Did I say clawing it's way up? More like galloping! Six trading days in November. TSX up every day and no sign of a let up today. Gold at new record over $1,400.00, oil reaching toward $88.00....even the perennial loser nat gas has been up for the past couple of days. Been a while since it's been over $4.00. $4.16 at the moment.
11-08-10 - CLAWING IT'S WAY UP
10:30 AM 'Peg time. Despite the fact that gold, oil, US & European markets are ticking down, the TSX is clawing it's way toward 13,000. Up 34 at 12,959 at the moment. Can't help but wonder if this bubble's going to burst. In the meantime, we'll take it!
11-05-10 - SMOKIN' !!
1:00 PM 'Peg Time. Finally! The TSX got into step with the rest of the world yesterday and bounced 207 points or 1.64%. At yesterday's close of 12,878 we're at a level we haven't seen since the crash of October 2008. It's been a 25 month grind.
STILL GOING UP!
As of this moment, the TSX is up another 76 points, leading all North American and European markets for the day. Two hours to market close.
11-04-10 - WILL THE TSX JOIN THE CROWD?
The whole world is responding positively to the US 600 Billion stimulus package. Tokyo up 2.17%, Hong Kong up 1.62%, London, Paris and Frankfurt all over 1.5%. Since the end of October the TSX has been out of step. Sure hope it joins in today.
DECISION MADE OR WAS IT?
So, Investment Canada studied it and reported the findings to Mr. Dithers (Tony Clement) and he made a sort of, final, maybe, temporary decision stating sort of very clearly that the BHP offer for Potash does not maybe provide a net benefit for Canada and he'll probably, maybe bring down sort of a final decision in 30 days. Come on Tony. Make up your frickin' mind!
11-03-10 - LOOKING FOR DIRECTION
After a great September and October the TSX seems to wandering aimlessly. A tick down on Monday, a tick up Tuesday a tick down in the first hour today. With gold holding above $1,350.00 and oil reaching toward $85.00 it's a bit surprising. Maybe investors are waiting to see if Harper does the right thing or the Right thing on the Potash decision. Still waiting for US stimulus announcement which is due this afternoon. US oil inventory numbers out in 2 minutes. Something should help establish a direction.
11-02-10 - IT'S ALL ABOUT THE US TODAY
Europe and Asia are up over night in anticipation of an announcement of new stimulus package in the US. Earlier estimates had it at a Trillion but estimates have now been tempered to a paltry 500 Billion. US voters are expected to throw out the Democrats today because they have yet to solve all the problems they inherited from the Republicans. US markets should kick up. Hopefully the TSX will follow along.
11-01-10 - GOOD-BYE PUMPKIN, HELLO NOVEMBER
I've suffered a wee bit of writer's block in the past week but think I'm ready to go again. I did manage to put up the CHARTS on the weekend. Things are looking sweet. Keep an eye on the HOME page in the next few days as I've got a couple of posts in the final draft stage. The winds of change are blowing.
10-26-10 - AAAGGGHHH!
I took my RIM money off the table and RIM takes off. Oh well, I was happy with the gain and still am. I believe that my reasons for bailing were valid. Not sure that a single conference demo will sustain RIM or it's share value.
ON A BRIGHTER NOTE
After struggling all day the TSX closed up again. Gotta wait a couple of hours for the fund numbers but it's looking like the upward trend will continue. UP! Eleven out of twelve days! WOW!
10-23-10 - UP ! UP! UP!
The past two weeks have pretty amazing. Excepting a slight tick down last Tuesday, my stuff has gone up every day. Up nine of ten days. Not sure when that happened last. The CHARTS are looking pretty good. Gotta love it!
10-20-10 - NO SURPRISE...
That BoC kept the prime rate at 1%.
BIG SURPRISE!
At China's quarter point hike in its prime rate. This one caught the markets by surprise...triggered an increase in the US dollar which in turn triggered a drop in the price of gold and oil which in turn triggered a drop in the markets. For a while in the afternoon it looked like the beginning of another huge sell off. Thankfully, things stabilized toward the end of the day and both TSX & DOW are ticking up in the first ten minutes this morning.
10-18-10 - HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?
I first mentioned Apple (AAPL:NY) way back on March 10 under the heading STOCKS I WISH I HAD. The share price that day was $223.00. The share price today...$318.00. A gain of 42.6% in seven months. Apple is now the third largest company in the world by market cap, after Exxon Mobile and Petro China.
BoC announces interest rate tomorrow morning. The consensus is that they'll hold the line at 1%. As always, I'm hoping for a quarter point hike.
10-16-10 - DEFYING GRAVITY
Okay, I was wrong on Thursday morning. Despite all the positive signs before the markets opened, the TSX fell off 50 points on Thursday and another 10 on Friday. Interesting thing...my stuff went up and reached a new high for the year both days! Gotta love it.
10-14-10 - CRAZY GOOD WEEK!
5:00 AM ' Peg time. TSX and my stuff reaching new highs each day. Gotta love it! Asia, Europe, US futures, Gold and oil all up overnight. They, whoever they are, say that the has been trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines waiting to come back to the market. I wonder if this is it.
10-13-10 - COLD FEET, HOT PROFIT
Ya, ya, call me chicken but I bailed on RIM today. Despite everything I said in my Change of Direction post, there's just too much negative press about RIM. Too many analysts express concern about RIM's loss of market share to Apple's iPhones everyone elses' Android phones. What really got to me the fact that RIM is now chasing rather than leading. They produced their first touch screen sixteen months after the iPhone was introduced. Now, they tell the world about the Play Book another sixteen months after the iPad launch and then announce that it won't be out until early 2011 when Apple is slated to bring out the next generation iPad.
Yup, bailed today at $50.02 for a 7.6% gain in 42 days. Not too shabby, I'd say.
10-08-10 - EXIT, EXIT, READ ALL ABOUT IT
I triggered my exit strategy yesterday by bailing on my long held Canadian Resource Fund. Not exactly sure where the proceeds will end up for the long term. For now I just parked them in a daily interest account.
10-06-10 - WHICH WAY WILL WE GO?
6:00 AM 'Peg time. It's Wednesday...US oil inventory figures out at 9:30 AM could set the tone for the price of oil and the TSX...for today at least.
US earnings season begins tomorrow with Alcoa (AA:NY). Many analysts are predicting a robust earnings season for US companies. This could indicate a continued rally through to year end.
10-05-10 - QUESTION ASKED, QUESTION ANSWERED...AGAIN
But the answer is better this time. Way back on March 16 when the TSX had been above 12,000 for a few days I asked a question. What will we see next, 12,500 or 11,500...again? The answer came on May 6 when the TSX went below 11,500 on an intraday basis. Fourteen days later, it was official. The TSX closed at 11,405. On September 8 when the TSX had been back above 12,000 for four whole days I asked the same question once again. The answer came today with an intraday high of 12,509. The final close was 12,498 but we did get over 12,500!
How about that Gold? $1,341 today! Pretty amazing.
10-01-10 - HELLO OCTOBER
7:00 AM 'Peg time. Yesterday's slight downward tick came as a bit of a surprise. Gold dropped $2 from the record high and the sellers moved in and sold off the big gold miners and others to lock in third quarter profits. This morning Gold is back up to a new record...$1,316 right now...it was a buck higher an hour ago. Oil is flirting with $81. I'm betting on a good start for the new month.
SOLD ENCANA (ECA) YESTERDAY
Nat gas continues to do absolutely nothing. I doubt that even a real cold winter could help this loser. There's just too much gas around. Can't see any reason to hold a big gas company. Nothing has changed since my September 1 post on this page. Time to move on.
09-30-10 - WOW!!!
5:15 AM 'Peg time. Even with overseas markets and US futures down a tick overnight, I'm thinking that the TSX will hang in there today. Gold just ticked up to $1,315 and oil to $78.
5:00 AM 'Peg time. Lifted by commodities, Gold at $1,313 and oil nearing $77, the TSX gained 103 points to close at a level not seen since the fall of 2008. Yup, it's been two full years since the financial crisis began with the sub-prime loan issue in the US. Hundreds of billions lost, hundreds of billions injected by governments to rescue banks and General Motors (and Chrysler), hundreds of billions of government stimulus to prevent total collapse of the economy. All that and only three, or was it four, guys went to jail. Remarkable!
09-29-10 - SEEMS RIM HAS TO WALK ON WATER TO GET A LITTLE RESPECT
On one hand, some are suggesting that the new Blackberry Play Book, announced on Monday, raises the bar for tablet PCs. Yup, they think it's ahead of Apple's iPad. On the other hand, many are criticizing announcing a new device that won't be available until the new year. At the end of the day, the share price fell off yesterday and it may very well revisit the low end of the 52 week range.
Yesterday's close of 12,278 for the TSX was just 2 points down from the high for the year way back on April 26. If it doesn't fall apart today or tomorrow September will be a great month! Don't be tricked into thinking we're on a roll. Same thing happened last September and then the TSX tanked 323 points on October 1.
09-27-10 - NICE END TO THE WEEK
Friday's 103 point rally of the TSX nearly reclaimed all the losses of the preceding three days. Interesting, even though the TSX was still down a tick from Monday's close, my stuff was up 1% from Monday. In fact, I'm doing even better YTD with a gain of 5.4% compared to 3.8% for the TSX. The CHARTS are looking pretty good.
With Gold hanging onto the $1,300 price and oil nearing $77 things are looking good for continuation of the rally today. Will we end the month with a spike up?
09-24-10 - CAN WE PULL IT UP TODAY?
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| TSX 09-20 to 09-23 |
RIM shares get no respect. If they don't come out with a big new product announcement next week I can see the share price falling back toward the 52 week low range. A bit of a bounce today and I may try a stop loss to capture the short term gain. In the meantime, my $50.14 sell order expires today. We'll see?
09-22-10 - IT PAYS TO KEEP AN EAR TO THE GROUND
9:40 AM 'Peg time. WOW! RIM shares over $50.00. Day's high $50.39!
8:50 AM 'Peg time. Especially if you have orders in. On Monday I was second guessing my RIM purchase as the share price turned down after Thursday's excellent second quarter numbers. I figured I'd be happy with a 5% gain in less than a month. I placed a sell order at $48.81. RIM shares ended the day at $46.38...below my cost of $46.49.
On Tuesday out came rumors of a new Blackberry and/or a so called Black Pad to compete with Apple's iPad. I revised my sell order to $50.04. Tuesday's close was $48.29.
Up early this morning and I learn that the Wall Street Journal has an article suggesting that the Black Pad may be introduced at a developer's conference next week in San Fransisco. Before the market opened I revised my sell order to $51.14...a full 10% up from my September 2 purchase price. RIM shares opened this morning at $49.13 and have been as high as $49.60 in the first 20 minutes.
Had I left Monday's sell order in place I would have been taken out at the opening bell this morning. Yup, when you have orders in you've got to pay attention.
09-21-10 - SOMETIMES IT JUST SNEAKS UP ON YOU
As the TSX has been bumping along... two steps forward, three steps back and vise versa, it has slowly ground out a near high for the year. Yesterday's close of 12,234 was second only to the close of 12,280 way back on April 26. It would be nice to see a new high today, but with oil back under $74 it's doubtful.
NOBODY HAS ANYTHING NICE TO SAY
About my RIM purchase. Each time the guest analyst changed on BNN yesterday someone called in for an opinion about RIM. Despite the fantastic numbers posted for the second quarter, as mentioned here on Friday, nobody likes it. I might hedge my bet with a sale order aimed at a quick profit if it bounces again.
09-20-10 - SO GOES OIL, SO GOES THE TSX
The wind came out of the sails of the TSX on Friday as oil drifted lower throughout the day. What coulda, shoulda, woulda been a great end to the week flattened out as the day wore on. Down 8 points on the day, up 67 for the week.
Gold continues to set new records, not because gold is any more valuable but rather because the US dollar is loosing strength. Once again, reminding me of the error of my ways opening a US funds bank account about this time last year.
09-17-10 - DID I FINALLY PICK A WINNER?
6:30 AM 'Peg time. My Research In Motion story began with yesterday's post on the HOME page. Beat! Beat! Beat! RIM's second quarter results out last night after the close. Beat estimated sales. Beat earnings estimates. Beat estimated units delivered. RIM shares were up a buck yesterday and were the most active in after hours trading on the NASDAQ as they gained another $2.11.
COULD THIS BE A HAPPY FRIDAY?
Gold at a new record high. Oil recovers a tad after backing off to below $75. Asia, Europe and US futures all up. RIM should blast off this morning to catch up with last night after hours pricing in the US. I'm thinking the TSX will end the week on a high note.
09-16-10 - ALL THAT GLITTERS...
6:10 AM 'Peg time. Gold is crazy this week. $1,277.30 at the moment. Despite a draw down in US inventory, oil has backed off from $77 and change to the $75. range. TSX slumped a bit yesterday after a few nice days. All-in-all, September is looking pretty good.
As mentioned on the HOME page, I'll be listening on on the RIM web cast after the close tonight.
09-13-10 - OIL UP, FUTURES UP.
8:10 AM 'Peg time. Oil back up over $77. Crazy volatility! Asia, Europe and US futures all up. Could be a good day.
09-10-10 - GOOD NEWS - BAD NEWS - MIXED NEWS
Bump up in the price of oil. Back over $75. Good news. Bump up in Canada's trade deficit. Bad news. Huge beat for Lulu Lemon's (LLL) second quarter earnings. EPS estimate .24, actual .30. Empire Company (EMP.A) operator of Sobeys first quarter earnings disappoint. Mixed news. Interesting that a high end fashion retailer does well in what we're told is a slow economy. Go figure.
AND THE BIG NEWS!
Takeover of CTV by Bell Canada (BCE). Bell raises its stake in CTV from 15% to 100% in a deal valued at $3.2 Billion.
09-08-10 - SAME QUESTION
Back on March 16 when the TSX had been above 12,000 for three whole days I asked the question. What will we see first...12,500 or 11,500...again? Well, we got the answer on May 6 when the TSX tanked to 11,422 intraday before finishing the day at 11,842. Fourteen days later, on May 20, the TSX closed at 11,405. Since then, we've had a low of 11,092 on July 7 and a high of 11,945 on June 17...until September 1 that is. On September 1 the TSX closed at 12,003 and has now been above 12,000 for four consecutive days.
Same question. What will we see first...12,500 or 11,500...again?
THAT CHEERING YOU HEAR IS THE OLD GUYS!
Bank of Canada hiked rates by a quarter point this morning. Yippee! We only wish that the markets would recover to a point where we could begin to exercise our exit strategy.
09-07-10 - THE END OF THE SUMMER DRIVING SEASON
5:30 AM 'Peg time. It seems that the passage of the Labour Day long weekend signals the end of the summer driving season. The result? Last week's $75 oil is down under $73. After eight days of gains, it's looking like that will come to a screeching stop today. Commodities, Asia, Europe and US futures are all down this morning.
BANK OF CANADA TOMORROW
Rate announcement Tuesday. Look for a quarter point increase.
09-02-10 - A NICE START TO THE MONTH
After a flatter than flat August, September got off to a real nice start yesterday with the TSX closing over 12,000 for the first time since May 14. Since then, it's dipped as low as 11,092 on July 5. Do I hear volatility? Huge gain the US yesterday with the DOW up 254. Will we have another September to Remember?
TD earnings out this morning. Earnings flat at 1.17 Billion. Missed EPS by a penny at 1.43 compared to estimates of 1.44. Canadian Western Bank just reported a record third quarter profit. All in all with the exception of a big miss last week by RBC the Canadian banks reported some very numbers.
AUGUST...THE WHOLE MONTH WENT SIDEWAYS
This chart for my stuff for the month says it all. Bumped along to decent rise on the 9th, followed by two dips only the end the month just where it started.
08-31-10 - RIGHT NOW, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BANKS
6:00 AM 'Peg time. Last week CIBC (CM) and Bank of Montreal (BMO) beat expectations while RBC (RY) fell short. Scotia Bank (BNS) earnings out at 1:00 PM 'Peg time.
Compared to the other Big 5, RBC is trading at a big discount from it's 50, 100 & 200 moving averages. I'm thinking that now is the time to pick some up. Had a low ball order in yesterday but the share price never dipped down to my level. May have to up it a bit today to get the TransCanada money back into play.
With oil and gold down overnight, it's not looking like a great day.
08-28-10 - THANK YOU MR. BERNANKE!
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's assurance that the Fed is prepared to take steps to prevent a double dip recession was all it took yesterday. TSX up 226 points, DOW gained 164.
The strategy I outlined in my August 18 post on the HOME page is beginning to work. Sold TransCanada (TRP
08-26-10 - DELAYED REACTION
5:00 AM 'Peg time. After a slow start yesterday, the TSX finally responded to CIBC's excellent numbers and staged a late day rally. A nice rise in gold and a slight uptick in the price of oil helped the cause.
Today's direction will likely be set by RBC earnings out this morning.
5:20 AM 'Peg time. Found the RBC numbers on their web site.(RBC - pdf) Who needs to wait for BNN? Believe it or not, this quarterly profit of $1.276 Billion, or .84 per share, will disappoint as analysts were expecting EPS of .94. Not good!
08-25-10 - SOOOO... WE WANT OUR BANKS TO WALK ON WATER
7:00 AM 'Peg time. BMO reports a 20% increase, to $669 Million, in quarterly profit and this disappoints! What's with that? The problem. Missed analysts' estimates. In response, the TSX tumbles 161 points.
CIBC out this morning with a whopping 47% profit increase for the quarter. Maybe yesterday's sell off of all things financial was a bit premature. Do ya think?
08-23-10 - HAPPY MONDAY!
If you're a Potash Corp (POT) shareholder. Potash announces that both Vale S.A. (VALE:NY) and China's Sinochem are peeking under the skirts. Potash shares up over $158.00, more than 20% above BHP Billiton's offer of $130.00...a whopping 36.87% gain from a week ago...the day before the original offer.
Canadian banks begin reporting tomorrow with BMO first up.
08-18-10 - IS IT TOO SOON TO SPEAK?
2:00 PM 'Peg time. Hope this doesn't jinx it. One hour to close. Up for third day in a row! WOW! A small uptick on Monday, a big POTASH bump yesterday and we're riding the wave today!
MORE GOOD NEWS (MAYBE)
66% of surveyed analysts believe that BoC will bump interest rates once again on September 8. Old Guys can hardly wait.
08-17-10 - GEEEZ, YOU GO AWAY FOR A WEEK AND IT TURNS TO $#*!
Not that anything would have been any different if I'd stayed in town. It just seems like you turn your back and all heck breaks loose. Oil worth $82 a week ago drops to $75. What's with that? So much for my head being above water. Back to down under for the year.
LET THE DANCE BEGIN
This morning's hostile offer from BHP Billiton (BHP:NY) for Potash Corp (POT) is just the beginning of a slow dance that will go on for weeks or months. As I described many months ago in my HudBay story, Potash was out with minutes claiming the BHP offer to be totally inadequate and not close to recognizing the true value of the company. The 25% run up in Potash shares was no surprise. I'm sure happy as Potash is the second largest holding in my COW ETF. COW got a nice bump today.
08-04-10 - NICE BOUNCE BUT...
It still felt like a miss. After US markets rose 2% on Monday, the TSX was smokin' early on Tuesday. Up as much as 150 points. Held the triple digit gain until about 1:00 PM then it petered out. Ended the day with a 69 point gain. We'll take it. TSX is now back to where it was at the beginning of the year. Whoopee!
A BIT ABOUT GOOGLE - ANOTHER REASON I WISH I HAD SOME SHARES
I've been doing some reading about various browsers. Decided to download and install Google Chrome. It's like lighting. Unbelievable page load speed. Going to have to play with it for a while but based on speed alone, it may become my browser of choice.
08-03-10 - GOODBYE JULY
5:00 AM 'Peg time. And good riddance! TSX hit a new low for the year on the 5th but did manage a choppy recovery as the month wore on. That being said, I'm still under water on a YTD basis as per the CHARTS.
It's not uncommon that our Canadian holidays, Thanksgiving and August Civic work against us as was the case yesterday. The US and other markets had a tremendous day with gains in the 2% range and we were closed in Canada. This morning, futures are down indicating a lower opening as they taking a breather after yesterday's run up, so the TSX will open just in time to get in on the breather day after missing the rally...but who knows, with oil back up over $81 we could have our own bounce today.
07-29-10 - VoLaTiLiTy CONTINUES
Since the 116 point dip on July 21 we've had three days up, two days down followed by a tick up today. On a positive note, the up days are outnumbering and have been bigger than the down days. The result is that the TSX is up over 200 points since the 21st and a remarkable 600 since the low point for the month on July 5. I wonder how we'll end the week and the month tomorrow. Another uptick would sure be nice.
Bye the way, I sent the link the Monday's post on Pension Reform to my MP, my MLA and my City Councilor. Did you?
07-28-10 - EARNINGS & OIL
6:30 AM 'Peg time. We're in the thick of Canadian earnings season. The TSX should take it's direction from corporate earnings reports but undoubtedly the price of oil will have it's usual effect when US inventory figures come out in three hours.
07-27-10 - MUST HAVE BEEN FATE
6:05 PM 'Peg time. Twelve hours ago at 6:00 this morning I prepared a predictive post noting that oil, gold, European markets and US futures were all up overnight. Then, the fickle finger of fate, my finger actually, accidentally dragged across the super sensitive touch pad of my laptop and blew it away. I checked to see if the post had been saved as a draft but no such luck. Realizing that I was out of time I hit the shower and didn't get back to TPCI until now. Yup, fate intervened and prevented me from making a Pollyanna prediction in advance of what would turn out to be a down day. Just down a tick, but still down, after three nice days of gains.
Who knew that both US and Canadian consumer confidence would take a kicking today? A better question...who are these consumers they're always surveying? Me, I feel just about as good about things today as I did yesterday. How about you?
07-21-10 - QUARTER POINT
Yesterday's quarter point increase by the Bank of Canada was welcome news for those of us who still have some cash outside of the equity markets. Old Guys aren't getting rich, but every little bit helps. I wonder when the financial institutions will move their deposit rates up. There was little or no change after last month's quarter point increase.
As usual, for Wednesday, the TSX will be all about the price of oil after inventory figures come out at 9:30 AM 'Peg time.
07-20-10 - THIS ALONE SHOULD DRAG ENERGY PRICES HIGHER
4:45 AM 'Peg time. Even with the very slow recovery in the US, the China story bodes well for energy prices. There's some very interesting numbers here. (Globe & Mail) Some huge percentage gains!
US EARNINGS SEASON
All the good news seems to belong to the tech companies. Texas Instruments triples! (Forbes)
07-16-10 - TWO PROBLEMS SOLVED
5:30 AM 'Peg time. British Petroleum (BP:NY) stops the leak (Canadian Business). Interesting that BP shares have already bounced even though the 3.5 Billion spent to date on the cleanup is only the beginning. On the other hand, BP does earn over 25 Billion annually and, they've already set aside 30 Billion.
Goldman Sachs (GS:NY) settles with the SEC agreeing to pay fines of 550 Million (BBC)...and their shares have already been upgraded as it looks like they may have dodged any criminal charges. (Market Watch).
07-15-10 - MIGHT BE A DECENT DAY
7:00 AM 'Peg time. South of the border, JP Morgan (JPM:NY) cranks out a 4.8 Billion profit for the second quarter. (Bloomberg) Oil is holding over $77 and gold is up about 6 bucks. The JP Morgan thing could spill over and give our Canadian banks a boost.
STRANGE DAY
3:30 PM 'Peg time. Down substantially in mid morning, then sideways for pretty much the rest of the day until the last half hour then a huge pop of 121 points. Don't know what happened but I'll sure take it.
07-14-10 - AM I ACTUALLY GETTING AHEAD OF THE CURVE?
In Friday's post I asked if you still love finance guy and showed a comparison between the TSX and a GIC. Referenced this again on Monday and Tuesday and then this morning the Free Press comes out with this. (Winnipeg Free Press) I'm not sure that a savings account is the answer but I'm not at all surprised to see this reduction in risk appetite.
I don't generally recommend a given supplier but if you're thinking GIC, you really should check out Ally Bank as mentioned on this page on May 31. Today's rate for a 60 month GIC with interest payable monthly is 4%. The best of 28 quotes from my discount broker is 3.375%. Not sure why or how, but Ally pays the same for monthly payment of interest as they do if you allow it to compound. See (ally.ca).
07-13-10 - IT MAKES YOU WONDER
Friday's post to the HOME page continues to create discussion about why we're staying with our funds. Aging boomers who stay with funds must be convinced that the next ten years will look more like the ten years of the eighties or nineties. If, on the other hand, you think the next years will look more like the last ten, all logic says get the heck out! RFN! Me, I'm on the fence but leaning toward an exit strategy withing the next 12 to 18 months.
STUFF I'M READING THIS MORNING
Good news. Alcoa (AA:NY) kicks off US earning season on a positive note...for a change (Bloomberg).
Not good news. Moody's downgrades Portugal's rating (Globe & Mail).
The CHARTS are looking pretty sad. Hit new low for the year on July 5 but have since clawed it's way back a bit.
07-12-10 - FOND MEMORIES...
Nothing produces feedback like Friday's post on the HOME page about the GICs we all used to hold before finance guy introduced us to the world of mutual funds. A reader wrote in to relate his story of regular calls from finance guy back in the day. Finance guy tracked the maturity dates of his GICs and contacted him prior to each maturity to roll the money into fund du jour. Apparently, he hasn't heard boo from finance guy since the meltdown. When is the last time you heard from finance guy?
06-30-10 - APPLE SHINES
8:20 AM 'Peg time. Apple sells 1.7 million iPhones in first 3 days. (Newsden). And, this is a weak economy?
HOLY CRAP! IT'S A BLOODBATH!
5:20 AM 'Peg time. Rumors or fears, fears of rumors, slowing recovery, more trouble in Europe, possible double dip recession, US consumer confidence at record low. Take your pick...all reasons for current sell off. Markets unlikely to stabilize until earnings season begins in a couple of weeks and then only if there's some decent numbers.
Overheard yesterday. An Asian man telling a guy that he used to work with a large local company but lost his job when the company outsourced his department...you guessed it, to Asia. Go figure.
06-28-10 - TOO DEPRESSING TO WRITE ABOUT
Nearing the end of the second quarter and what a quarter it's been. Strong April but it's all gone away in May & June. As of Friday I'm actually down on a YTD basis. See the CHARTS.
06-18-10 - HMMM, I WONDER...
8:00 AM 'Peg time. Gold up $11.00 overnight from yesterday's record high close. Now $1,260.00 an ounce. Oil off a buck and a half from earlier in the week but still holding at $76.00, a level which usually indicates neutral at worst, or a tick up, for the TSX Energy Sector. Asia up overnight, Europe pretty much neutral swinging between up a tick and down a tick. US futures down a tick. Real good Canadian financial data out a couple of hours ago. Might we get a seventh straight increase for the TSX? Might we see 12,000 today?
Apple (AAPL:NY) keeps on rockin' (Yahoo! News).
Had BNN on since it went live at 6:00 AM 'Peg time. They've now 'covered' the Moody's downgrade of BP about 28 times. They mention it leading into the news. They report on it while reading the news and then they introduce Paul Bagnall for an in depth discussion of the downgrade...over and over and over again. I've got more news on my various Home Pages than BNN has. They really need to subscribe to some more services.
8:31 AM 'Peg time. TSX first tick up 1 point. Second tick up 42. Happy Friday to you too!
9:35 AM 'Peg time. TSX up and hit 12,000! Since the things I'm wondering about are coming out so well, might I win Lotto Max tonight?
06-17-10 - ASPER OUTRAGED???
5:30 AM 'Peg time. This is the guy that took the value of the shares from $18.00 to 15 cents. (BNN video) I wonder why he has "a lot of people" who would join him in an auction when he couldn't get anyone to come to the party to save the sinking ship?
5:30 PM 'Peg time. Twelve hours later. TSX up for sixth day. Be still my beating heart.
06-16-10 - WOW!
4:25 PM 'Peg time. Market closed. TSX up for fifth consecutive day albeit Monday was up only .42 of a point. The big gain was yesterday at plus 240 points. Total for 5 days plus 470. Gotta do some thinking and come up with a revised strategy for my trading account. The ups are good the downs are worse and it's not going anywhere all told.
06-15-10 - THINGS I WONDER ABOUT...
The price of gold. Why is gold so valuable? I recently found an article that helps put it perspective. This is one of those Believe It Not things. All the gold in the world for all time would fit into a 66 foot cube. Yup, ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD would fit into a smallish six storey office building or would cover a Canadian football field to a depth of 3.27 feet.
The price of oil. Compared to gold at about $1,200. an ounce, what is the value of an ounce of oil? Well, Professor Google tells me that a barrel of oil weighs about 305 pounds, give or take for purity. That's 4,880 ounces. At the current price of $77. per barrel, an ounce of oil is valued at just a tich over 1.5 cents.
The volume difference. Another bit of math for gold is that all the gold in the world would fit into 8,187 cubic meters. That's all the gold for all time. By comparison, the world's daily consumption of oil at 80 million barrels would fill 12,718,400 cubic meters. That's every single day! ...just in case you were wondering too.
06-14-10 - A LITTLE WEEK END BOUNCE
The tick up on Thursday and Friday were sufficient to produce a wee gain for the week. We'll take it.
12:55 PM 'Peg time. TSX up FOR THIRD DAY IN A ROW! WOW! Been as much as 115 points but has settled down to plus 58 just as oil has settled down from plus 2 bucks to the present $1.05.
06-11-10 - THIS IS JUST SO EXCITING!
1:30 PM 'Peg time. TSX has been up all day. Could we actually have two plus days in a row? An hour and a half 'til close. We'll soon know.
06-09-10 - AAAGGGHHH!
7:00 AM 'Peg time. Touching new lows for the year...not quite, but almost. See CHARTS. Depressing. Small hope for today. Weekly oil inventory numbers out at 9:30 AM. Expectations are for a drawn down. Here's hoping.
Up overnight in Europe based on surge in China's exports in May (Yahoo! News). That means we're all buying more stuff. Right? If we're buying more stuff, that means the economy really is recovering. Right?
06-04-10 - HERE WE GO AGAIN!
7:30 AM 'Peg time. Huge drop on the first, bounce back on the second & third. Another month, another roller coaster ride. So, what's new?
Great Canadian jobs date out just a few minutes ago (Yahoo! News) This might lead to a positive day for the TSX...might.
8:40 AM 'Peg time. Lousy US jobs report (Yahoo! News) trumps Canada's good data. No surprise there...the markets head south.
06-02-10 - A CRAPPY START FOR THE MONTH
05-31-10 - BEST ONLINE EXPERIENCE EVER!
I've never recommended a product or service on these pages but this one is worth a mention. While reading a Canadian Banking blog last week I clicked on an ad for Ally Bank. You've all seen the ads with the guy, representing traditional banks, shafting little kids. One little girl gets a toy pony, because she failed to read the fine print, while the other gets a real live pony.
Well, I followed the link to Ally Bank and what a great experience. Within minutes I set up a new account with the help real time, live chat with an Ally rep.
Why, would I open a new account so quickly with something a new as Ally? Four reasons. Firstly, their published GIC rates are by far the best I've seen and I have access to quotes from over 30 institutions through my discount brokerage account. Secondly, they pay the same rate when you elect to take the interest monthly. This is unheard of. Generally, there is a reduction of anywhere from 10 to 50 basis points when choosing monthly payment of interest. Thirdly, they make it possible to link your accounts with other institutions with your Ally account. This is something that I've said forever should be possible, given the facilities of the Interac network which we all use with our debit cards. One click to transfer funds both to and from. Finally, it's fully insured with CDIC. By the way, Ally is the old GMAC which has turned itself into a bank.
Interest rate announcement. Bank of Canada sets the rate June 1. The consensus is that us Old Guys are finally going to get a raise. Here's hoping!
05-28-10 - IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE MARKETS...WAIT A WEEK
6:45 AM 'Peg time. Last Friday things looked pretty bleak at the opening. TSX was down over 200 in the first 6 minutes. Today, we're looking back at a week of gains and the news is all good in advance of the opening.
Stuff I'm reading this morning;
Oil back up over $75. (Reuters) World markets on a roll. (Reuters) Apple(Yahoo! News)
05-27-10 - THE BANKS ARE ROCKIN'
6:40 AM 'Peg time. Yahoo! News (CIBC), (RBC), (TD).
Oil is back up over $73. Today's word....RALLY!
05-26-10 - OIL BOUNCES OVERNIGHT
6:30 AM 'Peg time. Up two bucks in advance of inventory figures at 9:30. Two contradictory stories just 13 hours apart. Oil down 15 hours ago (Yahoo! News). Oil up 13 hours later (Yahoo! News). Do I hear VoLaTiLiTy?
7:00 AM 'Peg time. BMO beats. All of the big five report in the next two days. Could the banks pull us out of this slump?
05-25-10 - OIL DOWN + GOLD DOWN = MARKETS DOWN
6:15 AM 'Peg time. After a surprising comeback on Friday things aren't looking so hot for this week. More concerns in Europe. This time it's Spanish banks. No real surprise there.
Here at home, BMO kicks off the bank earnings season tomorrow. Great expectations (Globe Investor).
05-21-10 - AN UGLY END TO AN UGLY WEEK
8:25 AM 'Peg time. Markets open in five minutes and it's not looking good. My stuff is down over 5% this week! Wishing for some stability today but there's nothing in the wind to suggest that it'll happen. The free fall is likely to continue.
8:30 AM 'Peg time. First tick for the TSX is down over 100.
8:36 AM 'Peg time. TSX now down over 200. UGLY!
Me, I'm going to stop watching, pack the car and head to the lake for May long. I'll update the CHARTS on Tuesday. Have a good one!
05-19-10 - NEWS FLASH!
6:30 AM 'Peg time. In an apparent move to slow oil deliveries to the US, thus reducing inventory levels in advance of today's report, OPEC nations have stalled an entire fleet of super tankers off the west coast of Africa.
OPEC chief Ali El-Omar was quoted as saying they'd rather scuttle the fleet than sell at this morning's price of $68. We'll have to wait and see. Market opens in two hours, inventory report in three.
05-17-10 - A LITTLE MORE ABOUT OIL
Down another $3 since Friday. Under $71. Now needs a 20% bounce to get back to the April 30 price of $85. TSX back well under 12,000. Lousy start to the week!
05-14-10 - WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FORTNIGHT MAKES
5:15 AM 'Peg time. When speculating what direction the TSX may take on a given day I often mention the overnight change in the price of oil. If it's up or down a buck or two the TSX often takes the same direction at the opening. The last time I mentioned the actual price of oil on this page was April 30 and it was over $85. This morning it's $73
SOME VERY BIG NUMBERS
So why is oil so important to our markets? The world's daily consumption of oil is 86.4 Million barrels. At today's $73 price the indicated value is over $6.3 Billion. Daily! The drop from $85 to $73 shaved over $1 Billion from this daily value!
05-13-10 - SEEMS LIKE A DISCONNECT
Between the commodity prices and share prices. Oil dropped off yesterday and the shares of Canadian energy companies popped. Gold soared to an all time high and gold miner shares went sideways. In fact, the biggest of the all, Barrick (ABX) saw a drop in their share price. TSX opens in 2 minutes and it's not looking good. (Yahoo! News)
MISSED MY ANNIVERSARY!
No, no, not the one that causes trouble at home and can only be fixed with long stem roses. I just realized that it was a year ago last Saturday that the story of The Passive Canadian Investor began with the Investing 101 post.
GREEK TOURISM IN TROUBLE...
No surprise here (Yahoo! News) εκ νέου στον ελαιώνα Δημήτρη!
05-12-10 - WE'LL TAKE IT
8:32 AM 'Peg time. On Monday, I noted that the TSX, which was up about 2%, lagged behind other markets most of which were up in the 4% range. Yesterday, while other markets settled back the TSX continued to climb. Up over 100 points intraday before settling back to a end the day with a 50 point gain. First tick this morning plus 95 now over 100. Today's direction will be decided by US oil inventory figures out 58 minutes from now. As usual, the crystal ball guys have already made their calls and, if they're right, it won't be great as the guess is that inventories will be up. Inventory up...price down. Nice to be back up over 12,000.
MONDAY EUPHORIA, TUESDAY DOUBTS, WEDNESDAY FEARS EBB
(Yahoo! News). 1:30 PM 'Peg time. Four trading days after the fat finger fiasco and we have it all back and then some. In fact, the TSX at 12,180 is only 100 below the high for the year of April 26.
05-11-10 - EUPHORIA ON MONDAY - DOUBTS ON TUESDAY
(Yahoo! News) The word for the month is VOLATILITY...crazy volatility! This might have been the year to join the Sell in May movement...too late now.
05-10-10 - AN UGLY END TO AN UGLY WEEK!
Even after the near recovery from Thursday's sell-off, the TSX continued the downward trend on Friday by dropping another 150 points. The CHARTS say it all. Actually down for the year...just a tick but still down. Disappointing after reaching a new high for the year only nine trading days earlier.
TOUCH WOOD...THEY SAY THE GREEK THING IS OVER
The weekend deal in Europe to settle the Greek thing and stop it from spreading to other countries bodes well for this week. Maybe, just maybe the markets will begin a steady climb out of the hole...at least until the next goofy crisis screws thing up. Too bad the Greeks don't get it. Their country was on the verge of bankruptcy and they don't want anything to do with the required cutbacks. If these people don't get with the program they'll soon be back to picking olives and living a third world existence.
MARKETS ARE RECOVERING...TSX NOT SO MUCH???
European markets gained 3-5%, US markets are up in the 4% range and the TSX is lagging at plus 2%. I presume it's because of the drop in gold and the slow recovery of the oil price.
05-07-10 - QUESTION ASKED, QUESTION ANSWERED
6:30 AM 'Peg time. Back on March 16 when the TSX had been above 12,000 for three whole days I asked the question. What will we see first...12,500 or 11,500...again? Well, yesterday's wild ride provided the answer. In a massive panic sell-off which began on Wall Street the TSX crashed over 400 points in seconds, all the way to an intraday low of 11,422. Yikes! Wall Street fared far worse with a drop of nearly 1,000 points. The largest one day drop ever. Happily, when someone realized that the world had not ended both markets clawed their way back up in the remaining hour of the trading day.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED?
On the high tech side, one theory blames algorithmic trading starting with one computer followed by thousands of others as the automated systems detected the sell-off.
On the low tech side, a fat fingered Wall Street trader hit the B for Billion rather the M for Million on a sell order. My keyboard has an N between the B and the M. Just how fat are this mutt's fingers?
Lot's of theories. Lot's of excuses. When over a trillion dollars evaporates in seconds, methinks there's going to be lots of investigating followed by lots of law suits.
A BIT ABOUT GOOGLE - ANOTHER REASON I WISH I HAD SOME SHARES
I've been doing some reading about various browsers. Decided to download and install Google Chrome. It's like lighting. Unbelievable page load speed. Going to have to play with it for a while but based on speed alone, it may become my browser of choice.
08-03-10 - GOODBYE JULY
5:00 AM 'Peg time. And good riddance! TSX hit a new low for the year on the 5th but did manage a choppy recovery as the month wore on. That being said, I'm still under water on a YTD basis as per the CHARTS.
It's not uncommon that our Canadian holidays, Thanksgiving and August Civic work against us as was the case yesterday. The US and other markets had a tremendous day with gains in the 2% range and we were closed in Canada. This morning, futures are down indicating a lower opening as they taking a breather after yesterday's run up, so the TSX will open just in time to get in on the breather day after missing the rally...but who knows, with oil back up over $81 we could have our own bounce today.
07-29-10 - VoLaTiLiTy CONTINUES
Since the 116 point dip on July 21 we've had three days up, two days down followed by a tick up today. On a positive note, the up days are outnumbering and have been bigger than the down days. The result is that the TSX is up over 200 points since the 21st and a remarkable 600 since the low point for the month on July 5. I wonder how we'll end the week and the month tomorrow. Another uptick would sure be nice.
Bye the way, I sent the link the Monday's post on Pension Reform to my MP, my MLA and my City Councilor. Did you?
07-28-10 - EARNINGS & OIL
6:30 AM 'Peg time. We're in the thick of Canadian earnings season. The TSX should take it's direction from corporate earnings reports but undoubtedly the price of oil will have it's usual effect when US inventory figures come out in three hours.
07-27-10 - MUST HAVE BEEN FATE
6:05 PM 'Peg time. Twelve hours ago at 6:00 this morning I prepared a predictive post noting that oil, gold, European markets and US futures were all up overnight. Then, the fickle finger of fate, my finger actually, accidentally dragged across the super sensitive touch pad of my laptop and blew it away. I checked to see if the post had been saved as a draft but no such luck. Realizing that I was out of time I hit the shower and didn't get back to TPCI until now. Yup, fate intervened and prevented me from making a Pollyanna prediction in advance of what would turn out to be a down day. Just down a tick, but still down, after three nice days of gains.
Who knew that both US and Canadian consumer confidence would take a kicking today? A better question...who are these consumers they're always surveying? Me, I feel just about as good about things today as I did yesterday. How about you?
07-21-10 - QUARTER POINT
Yesterday's quarter point increase by the Bank of Canada was welcome news for those of us who still have some cash outside of the equity markets. Old Guys aren't getting rich, but every little bit helps. I wonder when the financial institutions will move their deposit rates up. There was little or no change after last month's quarter point increase.
As usual, for Wednesday, the TSX will be all about the price of oil after inventory figures come out at 9:30 AM 'Peg time.
07-20-10 - THIS ALONE SHOULD DRAG ENERGY PRICES HIGHER
4:45 AM 'Peg time. Even with the very slow recovery in the US, the China story bodes well for energy prices. There's some very interesting numbers here. (Globe & Mail) Some huge percentage gains!
US EARNINGS SEASON
All the good news seems to belong to the tech companies. Texas Instruments triples! (Forbes)
07-16-10 - TWO PROBLEMS SOLVED
5:30 AM 'Peg time. British Petroleum (BP:NY) stops the leak (Canadian Business). Interesting that BP shares have already bounced even though the 3.5 Billion spent to date on the cleanup is only the beginning. On the other hand, BP does earn over 25 Billion annually and, they've already set aside 30 Billion.
Goldman Sachs (GS:NY) settles with the SEC agreeing to pay fines of 550 Million (BBC)...and their shares have already been upgraded as it looks like they may have dodged any criminal charges. (Market Watch).
07-15-10 - MIGHT BE A DECENT DAY
7:00 AM 'Peg time. South of the border, JP Morgan (JPM:NY) cranks out a 4.8 Billion profit for the second quarter. (Bloomberg) Oil is holding over $77 and gold is up about 6 bucks. The JP Morgan thing could spill over and give our Canadian banks a boost.
STRANGE DAY
3:30 PM 'Peg time. Down substantially in mid morning, then sideways for pretty much the rest of the day until the last half hour then a huge pop of 121 points. Don't know what happened but I'll sure take it.
07-14-10 - AM I ACTUALLY GETTING AHEAD OF THE CURVE?
In Friday's post I asked if you still love finance guy and showed a comparison between the TSX and a GIC. Referenced this again on Monday and Tuesday and then this morning the Free Press comes out with this. (Winnipeg Free Press) I'm not sure that a savings account is the answer but I'm not at all surprised to see this reduction in risk appetite.
I don't generally recommend a given supplier but if you're thinking GIC, you really should check out Ally Bank as mentioned on this page on May 31. Today's rate for a 60 month GIC with interest payable monthly is 4%. The best of 28 quotes from my discount broker is 3.375%. Not sure why or how, but Ally pays the same for monthly payment of interest as they do if you allow it to compound. See (ally.ca).
07-13-10 - IT MAKES YOU WONDER
Friday's post to the HOME page continues to create discussion about why we're staying with our funds. Aging boomers who stay with funds must be convinced that the next ten years will look more like the ten years of the eighties or nineties. If, on the other hand, you think the next years will look more like the last ten, all logic says get the heck out! RFN! Me, I'm on the fence but leaning toward an exit strategy withing the next 12 to 18 months.
STUFF I'M READING THIS MORNING
Good news. Alcoa (AA:NY) kicks off US earning season on a positive note...for a change (Bloomberg).
Not good news. Moody's downgrades Portugal's rating (Globe & Mail).
The CHARTS are looking pretty sad. Hit new low for the year on July 5 but have since clawed it's way back a bit.
07-12-10 - FOND MEMORIES...
Nothing produces feedback like Friday's post on the HOME page about the GICs we all used to hold before finance guy introduced us to the world of mutual funds. A reader wrote in to relate his story of regular calls from finance guy back in the day. Finance guy tracked the maturity dates of his GICs and contacted him prior to each maturity to roll the money into fund du jour. Apparently, he hasn't heard boo from finance guy since the meltdown. When is the last time you heard from finance guy?
06-30-10 - APPLE SHINES
8:20 AM 'Peg time. Apple sells 1.7 million iPhones in first 3 days. (Newsden). And, this is a weak economy?
HOLY CRAP! IT'S A BLOODBATH!
5:20 AM 'Peg time. Rumors or fears, fears of rumors, slowing recovery, more trouble in Europe, possible double dip recession, US consumer confidence at record low. Take your pick...all reasons for current sell off. Markets unlikely to stabilize until earnings season begins in a couple of weeks and then only if there's some decent numbers.
Overheard yesterday. An Asian man telling a guy that he used to work with a large local company but lost his job when the company outsourced his department...you guessed it, to Asia. Go figure.
06-28-10 - TOO DEPRESSING TO WRITE ABOUT
Nearing the end of the second quarter and what a quarter it's been. Strong April but it's all gone away in May & June. As of Friday I'm actually down on a YTD basis. See the CHARTS.
06-18-10 - HMMM, I WONDER...
8:00 AM 'Peg time. Gold up $11.00 overnight from yesterday's record high close. Now $1,260.00 an ounce. Oil off a buck and a half from earlier in the week but still holding at $76.00, a level which usually indicates neutral at worst, or a tick up, for the TSX Energy Sector. Asia up overnight, Europe pretty much neutral swinging between up a tick and down a tick. US futures down a tick. Real good Canadian financial data out a couple of hours ago. Might we get a seventh straight increase for the TSX? Might we see 12,000 today?
Apple (AAPL:NY) keeps on rockin' (Yahoo! News).
Had BNN on since it went live at 6:00 AM 'Peg time. They've now 'covered' the Moody's downgrade of BP about 28 times. They mention it leading into the news. They report on it while reading the news and then they introduce Paul Bagnall for an in depth discussion of the downgrade...over and over and over again. I've got more news on my various Home Pages than BNN has. They really need to subscribe to some more services.
8:31 AM 'Peg time. TSX first tick up 1 point. Second tick up 42. Happy Friday to you too!
9:35 AM 'Peg time. TSX up and hit 12,000! Since the things I'm wondering about are coming out so well, might I win Lotto Max tonight?
06-17-10 - ASPER OUTRAGED???
5:30 AM 'Peg time. This is the guy that took the value of the shares from $18.00 to 15 cents. (BNN video) I wonder why he has "a lot of people" who would join him in an auction when he couldn't get anyone to come to the party to save the sinking ship?
5:30 PM 'Peg time. Twelve hours later. TSX up for sixth day. Be still my beating heart.
06-16-10 - WOW!
4:25 PM 'Peg time. Market closed. TSX up for fifth consecutive day albeit Monday was up only .42 of a point. The big gain was yesterday at plus 240 points. Total for 5 days plus 470. Gotta do some thinking and come up with a revised strategy for my trading account. The ups are good the downs are worse and it's not going anywhere all told.
06-15-10 - THINGS I WONDER ABOUT...
The price of gold. Why is gold so valuable? I recently found an article that helps put it perspective. This is one of those Believe It Not things. All the gold in the world for all time would fit into a 66 foot cube. Yup, ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD would fit into a smallish six storey office building or would cover a Canadian football field to a depth of 3.27 feet.
The price of oil. Compared to gold at about $1,200. an ounce, what is the value of an ounce of oil? Well, Professor Google tells me that a barrel of oil weighs about 305 pounds, give or take for purity. That's 4,880 ounces. At the current price of $77. per barrel, an ounce of oil is valued at just a tich over 1.5 cents.
The volume difference. Another bit of math for gold is that all the gold in the world would fit into 8,187 cubic meters. That's all the gold for all time. By comparison, the world's daily consumption of oil at 80 million barrels would fill 12,718,400 cubic meters. That's every single day! ...just in case you were wondering too.
06-14-10 - A LITTLE WEEK END BOUNCE
The tick up on Thursday and Friday were sufficient to produce a wee gain for the week. We'll take it.
12:55 PM 'Peg time. TSX up FOR THIRD DAY IN A ROW! WOW! Been as much as 115 points but has settled down to plus 58 just as oil has settled down from plus 2 bucks to the present $1.05.
06-11-10 - THIS IS JUST SO EXCITING!
1:30 PM 'Peg time. TSX has been up all day. Could we actually have two plus days in a row? An hour and a half 'til close. We'll soon know.
06-09-10 - AAAGGGHHH!
Up overnight in Europe based on surge in China's exports in May (Yahoo! News). That means we're all buying more stuff. Right? If we're buying more stuff, that means the economy really is recovering. Right?
06-04-10 - HERE WE GO AGAIN!
7:30 AM 'Peg time. Huge drop on the first, bounce back on the second & third. Another month, another roller coaster ride. So, what's new?
Great Canadian jobs date out just a few minutes ago (Yahoo! News) This might lead to a positive day for the TSX...might.
8:40 AM 'Peg time. Lousy US jobs report (Yahoo! News) trumps Canada's good data. No surprise there...the markets head south.
06-02-10 - A CRAPPY START FOR THE MONTH
Yesterday's sell-off kept the skids under things as the markets continued the downward slide of May. You'd think the TSX would disconnect from the gloom and doom when Canadian GDP growth doubles expectations. Alas, it's not to be. No matter how well things are here at home our market continues to reflect the fears and doubts about US recovery. We really need our American friends to jump in their Hummers, SUVs and giant RVs and DRIVE! When they get back to sucking up oil at a normal pace the recovery will be firmly established. Come on America. Get back on the road! Please.
05-31-10 - BEST ONLINE EXPERIENCE EVER!
I've never recommended a product or service on these pages but this one is worth a mention. While reading a Canadian Banking blog last week I clicked on an ad for Ally Bank. You've all seen the ads with the guy, representing traditional banks, shafting little kids. One little girl gets a toy pony, because she failed to read the fine print, while the other gets a real live pony.
Well, I followed the link to Ally Bank and what a great experience. Within minutes I set up a new account with the help real time, live chat with an Ally rep.
Why, would I open a new account so quickly with something a new as Ally? Four reasons. Firstly, their published GIC rates are by far the best I've seen and I have access to quotes from over 30 institutions through my discount brokerage account. Secondly, they pay the same rate when you elect to take the interest monthly. This is unheard of. Generally, there is a reduction of anywhere from 10 to 50 basis points when choosing monthly payment of interest. Thirdly, they make it possible to link your accounts with other institutions with your Ally account. This is something that I've said forever should be possible, given the facilities of the Interac network which we all use with our debit cards. One click to transfer funds both to and from. Finally, it's fully insured with CDIC. By the way, Ally is the old GMAC which has turned itself into a bank.
Interest rate announcement. Bank of Canada sets the rate June 1. The consensus is that us Old Guys are finally going to get a raise. Here's hoping!
05-28-10 - IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE MARKETS...WAIT A WEEK
6:45 AM 'Peg time. Last Friday things looked pretty bleak at the opening. TSX was down over 200 in the first 6 minutes. Today, we're looking back at a week of gains and the news is all good in advance of the opening.
Stuff I'm reading this morning;
Oil back up over $75. (Reuters) World markets on a roll. (Reuters) Apple(Yahoo! News)
05-27-10 - THE BANKS ARE ROCKIN'
6:40 AM 'Peg time. Yahoo! News (CIBC), (RBC), (TD).
Oil is back up over $73. Today's word....RALLY!
05-26-10 - OIL BOUNCES OVERNIGHT
6:30 AM 'Peg time. Up two bucks in advance of inventory figures at 9:30. Two contradictory stories just 13 hours apart. Oil down 15 hours ago (Yahoo! News). Oil up 13 hours later (Yahoo! News). Do I hear VoLaTiLiTy?
7:00 AM 'Peg time. BMO beats. All of the big five report in the next two days. Could the banks pull us out of this slump?
05-25-10 - OIL DOWN + GOLD DOWN = MARKETS DOWN
6:15 AM 'Peg time. After a surprising comeback on Friday things aren't looking so hot for this week. More concerns in Europe. This time it's Spanish banks. No real surprise there.
Here at home, BMO kicks off the bank earnings season tomorrow. Great expectations (Globe Investor).
05-21-10 - AN UGLY END TO AN UGLY WEEK
8:25 AM 'Peg time. Markets open in five minutes and it's not looking good. My stuff is down over 5% this week! Wishing for some stability today but there's nothing in the wind to suggest that it'll happen. The free fall is likely to continue.
8:30 AM 'Peg time. First tick for the TSX is down over 100.
8:36 AM 'Peg time. TSX now down over 200. UGLY!
Me, I'm going to stop watching, pack the car and head to the lake for May long. I'll update the CHARTS on Tuesday. Have a good one!
05-19-10 - NEWS FLASH!
OPEC chief Ali El-Omar was quoted as saying they'd rather scuttle the fleet than sell at this morning's price of $68. We'll have to wait and see. Market opens in two hours, inventory report in three.
05-17-10 - A LITTLE MORE ABOUT OIL
Down another $3 since Friday. Under $71. Now needs a 20% bounce to get back to the April 30 price of $85. TSX back well under 12,000. Lousy start to the week!
05-14-10 - WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FORTNIGHT MAKES
5:15 AM 'Peg time. When speculating what direction the TSX may take on a given day I often mention the overnight change in the price of oil. If it's up or down a buck or two the TSX often takes the same direction at the opening. The last time I mentioned the actual price of oil on this page was April 30 and it was over $85. This morning it's $73
SOME VERY BIG NUMBERS
So why is oil so important to our markets? The world's daily consumption of oil is 86.4 Million barrels. At today's $73 price the indicated value is over $6.3 Billion. Daily! The drop from $85 to $73 shaved over $1 Billion from this daily value!
05-13-10 - SEEMS LIKE A DISCONNECT
Between the commodity prices and share prices. Oil dropped off yesterday and the shares of Canadian energy companies popped. Gold soared to an all time high and gold miner shares went sideways. In fact, the biggest of the all, Barrick (ABX) saw a drop in their share price. TSX opens in 2 minutes and it's not looking good. (Yahoo! News)
MISSED MY ANNIVERSARY!
No, no, not the one that causes trouble at home and can only be fixed with long stem roses. I just realized that it was a year ago last Saturday that the story of The Passive Canadian Investor began with the Investing 101 post.
GREEK TOURISM IN TROUBLE...
No surprise here (Yahoo! News) εκ νέου στον ελαιώνα Δημήτρη!
05-12-10 - WE'LL TAKE IT
8:32 AM 'Peg time. On Monday, I noted that the TSX, which was up about 2%, lagged behind other markets most of which were up in the 4% range. Yesterday, while other markets settled back the TSX continued to climb. Up over 100 points intraday before settling back to a end the day with a 50 point gain. First tick this morning plus 95 now over 100. Today's direction will be decided by US oil inventory figures out 58 minutes from now. As usual, the crystal ball guys have already made their calls and, if they're right, it won't be great as the guess is that inventories will be up. Inventory up...price down. Nice to be back up over 12,000.
MONDAY EUPHORIA, TUESDAY DOUBTS, WEDNESDAY FEARS EBB
(Yahoo! News). 1:30 PM 'Peg time. Four trading days after the fat finger fiasco and we have it all back and then some. In fact, the TSX at 12,180 is only 100 below the high for the year of April 26.
05-11-10 - EUPHORIA ON MONDAY - DOUBTS ON TUESDAY
(Yahoo! News) The word for the month is VOLATILITY...crazy volatility! This might have been the year to join the Sell in May movement...too late now.
05-10-10 - AN UGLY END TO AN UGLY WEEK!
Even after the near recovery from Thursday's sell-off, the TSX continued the downward trend on Friday by dropping another 150 points. The CHARTS say it all. Actually down for the year...just a tick but still down. Disappointing after reaching a new high for the year only nine trading days earlier.
TOUCH WOOD...THEY SAY THE GREEK THING IS OVER
The weekend deal in Europe to settle the Greek thing and stop it from spreading to other countries bodes well for this week. Maybe, just maybe the markets will begin a steady climb out of the hole...at least until the next goofy crisis screws thing up. Too bad the Greeks don't get it. Their country was on the verge of bankruptcy and they don't want anything to do with the required cutbacks. If these people don't get with the program they'll soon be back to picking olives and living a third world existence.
MARKETS ARE RECOVERING...TSX NOT SO MUCH???
European markets gained 3-5%, US markets are up in the 4% range and the TSX is lagging at plus 2%. I presume it's because of the drop in gold and the slow recovery of the oil price.
05-07-10 - QUESTION ASKED, QUESTION ANSWERED
6:30 AM 'Peg time. Back on March 16 when the TSX had been above 12,000 for three whole days I asked the question. What will we see first...12,500 or 11,500...again? Well, yesterday's wild ride provided the answer. In a massive panic sell-off which began on Wall Street the TSX crashed over 400 points in seconds, all the way to an intraday low of 11,422. Yikes! Wall Street fared far worse with a drop of nearly 1,000 points. The largest one day drop ever. Happily, when someone realized that the world had not ended both markets clawed their way back up in the remaining hour of the trading day.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED?
On the high tech side, one theory blames algorithmic trading starting with one computer followed by thousands of others as the automated systems detected the sell-off.
On the low tech side, a fat fingered Wall Street trader hit the B for Billion rather the M for Million on a sell order. My keyboard has an N between the B and the M. Just how fat are this mutt's fingers?
Lot's of theories. Lot's of excuses. When over a trillion dollars evaporates in seconds, methinks there's going to be lots of investigating followed by lots of law suits.
05-06-10 - I'M SPEECHLESS!
Over 500 points from the top to the bottom. I was out of touch today and thought it was an error when I heard the TSX was down over 400 points. Gotta get BNN on to see what the heck happened!
05-05-10 - WELL, WE SURE BROKE OUT OF THAT PATTERN!
After greeting the first four months of the year as I described here, we Canadians welcomed May on a sour note of pessimism, profit taking and sell-offs. A slight tick down on Monday followed by a huge sell-off yesterday. South of the border, the DOW took an even worse kicking and DOW futures are down overnight. With oil down another buck this morning, I doubt that there's anything that can save this day...unless there's a totally unexpected drop in US oil inventories...report out at 9:30 AM 'Peg time.
05-03-10 - STILL BEATING THE TSX!
To the end of April the TSX is up 3.79% YTD, my stuff 5.42%...and, better yet, my trading account is 5.96% to the good! I'll take it. Wondering if the drop at the end of last week was the the early arrival of the 'Sell in May' crowd. Hope not.
WHAT WOULD IZZY THINK?
8:15 AM 'Peg time. Just out on BNN. Shaw (SJR.B) to take over ALL Canwest (CGS.V) TV assets instead of just the specialty channels as previously announced (Reuters). Torstar (TS.B) likely buyer of ALL newspaper assets (Torstar). Asper family out...nothing left but an office building and blueprints for a football stadium.
05-01-10 - MAY DAY! MAY DAY!
Welcome to the month of May. We’ll have to wait to see what May will bring. But for my crappy April Fool's Day trade, April was an okay month.
04-30-10 - HAPPY INCOME TAX DAY!
Deadline for tax filing, end of a bit of a roller coaster week and all in all a pretty good month. If March is the end of the quarter, is April the end of the third? Interesting to think that one-third of 2010 is done. Have you reached one-third of this year's goals?
GOLD & OIL GAIN OVERNIGHT
Gold is up $8. to $1,176. New high for this year...it did touch $1,200 in November/December. Here's a cool site for historical metal prices (Kitco). All the way back to 1833 if you're interested in ancient history. Oil back up over $85. Just might be a good finish to the month.
NOT ABOUT INVESTING BUT IT SURE CAUGHT MY EYE
This is kind of freaky, but I guess it's a good thing??? (Yahoo! News) I wonder if they'll extend it to rotten teens???
GEEEZ...
Up 50 to 75 all day long and then in the last half hour someone pulled the plug and it all went away. At the close the TSX was down almost 10...then came back to plus 10 as the final trades of the day were booked. All-in-all, April was a pretty good month. Both the TSX and my stuff hit new highs for the year on the twenty-sixth and we're just off a tick as of today.
04-28-10 - IT'S BAAAACK!
The Greek story just won't go away. Amid very positive earnings reports from both sides of the border, the Greece story knocks the heck out of world markets... (Reuters) and, it's all Germany's fault (Yahoo! News), as Europe's largest economy, if they don't come to the party, there ain't gonna be a party.
TSX JOINS THE SLIDE...
I'm never surprised to see the TSX drop after 6 days of gains but yesterday was crazy bad. Great earnings reports in today. Shell (RDS.B), Rogers (RCI.B), Barrick (ABX) all up. Turnaround day...maybe?
SAME QUESTION???
6:00 PM 'Peg time. Markets are closed. Thank goodness! The question I asked on this page on March 16 is still up in the air...and, I for one am not inclined to make a guess...especially after the last two days.
04-26-10 - HMMM...COULD BE A PRETTY GOOD DAY
6:45 AM 'Peg time. Oil is up over $85, gold is over $1,150 even the big loser nat gas is up a few pennies. Overseas markets are way up as are the DOW futures. Whirlpool (WHR:NY) beats (Reuters), all is good with Canon (CAJ:NY) (Reuters) and just in from BNN, Caterpillar (CAT:NY), (Yahoo! News) a key indicator of economic recovery, had a blow out quarter and raises guidance for balance of year. Looking good for today!
STILL BEATING THE TSX!!!
On Friday both the TSX and my portfolio hit new highs for the year. TSX up 4.04% for year, my stuff 6.44%.
INVESTORS LIKE EARNINGS
10:20 AM 'Peg time. Whirlpool (WHR:NY) up 14%, Canon (CAJ:NY) up 2% & Cat (CAT:NY) up nearly 5%
04-23-10 - STORY JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER & BETTER!
Sounds like I'm pumping, which I'm not. I don't own the shares but the Apple (AAPL:NY) story gets better...nearly every day. Passed Microsoft (MSFT:NY) to take over the number two market cap spot. (Marketwatch.com)
BOUGHT A MINER YESTERDAY
Finally put that Cenovus money back in the market. Bought Lundin (LUN) on a dip
04-21-10 - AAAGGGHHH!
BoC held the rate at .25% but nearly guaranteed and increase for June 1 by removing commitment to keep rates down 'til end of June. (Yahoo! News) Old Guys have to wait a bit longer.
GM TO REPAY LOANS
(Globe & Mail) With what??? (Reuters) I don't get it. They've made no money but are repaying loans???
APPLE KEEPS ON ROCKIN!
(WSJ) Shares up $15 this morning. $260 up from $223 when I first mentioned them on March 10!
04-20-10 - BOC RATE THIS MORNING
6:30 AM 'Peg time. Bank of Canada interest rate announcement at 8:00 AM. We'll see if my prediction (wishful thinking) of March 2 was correct.
04-19-10 - THE WEEK ENDED UP AND DOWN
Last week ended on a low note. Big drop on Friday. Down for the day...but my portfolio value was up for the week. The CHARTS are looking pretty good.
MAN & MOTHER NATURE HURT THE MARKETS
(Yahoo! News) Just can't go more than a day or two without something throwing a wrench into the markets. Goldman Sachs' (GS:NY) fraud, Iceland's volcano...what's next?
BYE, BYE 12,000 HELLO ???
The TSX dropped below 12,000 with the first tick this morning after holding above that level since March 29. The TSX simply cannot defy the pull of gravity as oil drops toward $81 from $86 a week ago. NY is looking better, likely because of the news of Citigroup's (C:NY) $4.4 Billion earnings which came out at 7:00 AM 'Peg time. (Reuters)
04-14-10 - ONE EARNINGS MISS & THE WHOLE WORLD DROPS
5:45 AM 'Peg time. Yesterday was all about Alcoa's (AA:NY) earnings miss. (Yahoo! News) I thought the world revolved around oil. Aluminum, it seems, is a bellwether for many things. Of course, it didn't help the TSX that oil fell off as well. The BIG single news story which should set the direction today is Intel (INTC:NY) blew the doors off with their after hours earnings report. (Yahoo! News)
6:00 AM 'Peg time. J P Morgan (JPM:NY) just out. Beat
04-12-10 - QUIET TODAY...
Waiting for opening of US Earnings Season. As usual Alcoa (AA:NY) leads off with results after the market closes tonight.
After dragging down world markets for many weeks, finally (hopefully), the Greece story has a happy ending. (Bloomberg)
04-09-10 - SHAW GETTING INTO WIRELESS
(Globe Investor) I for one can hardy wait. I have Shaw (SJR.B) cable, Internet & phone along with MTS (MTB) cell service. There's no comparison. A call to Shaw gets you to a real live customer service rep in seconds. A call to MTS gets you caught in a loop of press 1 for this, 2 for that blah, blah, blah.
04-08-10 - DOLLARAMA (DOL) POPS!
$1.57 today. (Yahoo! Finance) And, they finally got Dollarama.com up. It wasn't working at noon today.
04-07-10 - A BUCK IS A BUCK!
7:30 AM 'Peg time. The Loonie has touched par with the Greenback several times this morning. .998 right now but what the hay. Sure am happy I opened a US Funds bank account last year. NOT!
04-06-10 - TSX SLIPS ON OIL...& GREECE
(Reuters) Speaking of Greece grease, my little grease collector company, Organic Resource Management (ORI.V), went crazy. Over 7% of the company's shares changed hands today. 315,800 shares compared to the 90 day average daily volume (before today) of 1,200. 100 shares yesterday, 315,800 today! Do I think something is up? Am I going to hold? You bet!
04-05-10 - NEW HIGH FOR THE YEAR!
The TSX up another 35 points today...pretty much on the back of energy as financials dropped off (for no apparent reason) and the market is still punishing RIM for missing top line estimates last week...despite a 37% increase in profit. Go figure?
LOOKS LIKE APPLE HIT ANOTHER HOME RUN!
300,000 iPads on day one! (Yahoo! News) I'd love to have some, but at $238 per share, it's a little rich for me.
04-02-10 - NO APRIL FOOLS YESTERDAY
Real nice start to the month. As I said on March 10, we Canadians greet each new month with unbridled optimism. Yesterday was no exception. TSX up 113. I'm thinking we're going to be sorry the TSX is closed today. Gold up, oil flirting with $85. We're missing a good day.
03-31-10 - MARCH IN LIKE LION, OUT LIKE A...
6:30 AM 'Peg time. Started the month off well. How will we finish? Oil up overnight to $83+, gold on the rise after a few down days and BIG new IPO in the energy sector. So big, it'll be Canada's largest since Manulife (MFC) in 1999 and so new that I only know about from BNN...no link to the story yet.
8:35 AM 'Peg time. Here's the IPO story. (Globe & Mail) It's a BIG one! First tick of the TSX in the right direction. US oil inventory figures out at 9:30 AM could set the direction for the day.
03-29-10 - LOOKING GOOD AT THE OPENING
8:35 AM 'Peg time. Oil and gold up overnight. TSX first tick up 33...now 30 about 5 minutes in.
03-27-10 - KIND OF A NOTHING WEEK...
TSX up 10 points for the week, not much, but better than down. The YTD Chart is looking pretty good. Hope it holds up for the month.
03-26-10 - NOBODY'S BUYING...
My stuff. I've had four sell orders in all week, but prices aren't coming up to my levels. Trouble with doing this and not paying attention, you can get taken out on the way up on BIG news.
IS THIS GREECE THING FINALLY OVER?
Stocks rise after Greece gets aid package. (Yahoo! News)
03-24-10 - OIL UP - TSX FOLLOWS
Oil rose a couple of bucks yesterday and the TSX followed along with a nice 77 point pop. Oil down $1.50 overnight...doesn't bode well for today. US oil inventory figures out at 9:30 'Peg time.
Portugal joining the Greece story...not good! For each bit of positive news there always seems to something to screw things up!
03-22-10 - GETTING REAL TIRED OF THIS GREECE STORY
Germany got Hungary for Turkey, slipped on Greece and broke all the China. Reached back about 50 years, to elementary school days, for that one. Seems the whole world is slipping on Greece these days. (Yahoo! News)
03-18-10 - DOW UP, TSX DOWN, NOT MUCH HAPPENED TODAY
These two things caught my eye. Canadians need to save more for retirement. (Globe & Mail) Americans, it seems don't care about saving or the cost of of gas. (Globe Investor)
03-17-10 - THINGS I'M WATCHING THIS MORNING
6:00 AM in the 'Peg...Canadian Dollar at 98.91, Oil back up over $82 and Gold up nearly ten bucks over night. Should be a good day for the TSX...depending on oil inventory numbers at 9:30 AM my time. ♣
THIS AFTERNOON I'M READING
Tales of two auto companies. Government Motors may make a profit. (Reuters) Ford (F:NY) shares reach five year high. (Globe Investor)
03-16-10 - HOLDING OVER 12,000
TSX over 12,000 for third day in a row. Will it hold? Short term? I say yes, as oil is back near $82 after falling off for a couple of days. Inventory figures out tomorrow...we'll see.
LOVIN' MY TD BANK SHARES!!!
Up over 10% since my post about Canadian Banks on March 3.
QUESTION?
The TSX has been over 12,000 for three days. What will we see first...12,500 or 11,500...again?
03-14-10 - EXACTLY WHAT I SAID...
I've said it any number of times on this blog, "this investing stuff is not for the faint of heart". Here's the proof... (Yahoo! News)
03-13-10 - COULDN'T KEEP 'ER GOING
All that great news before the markets opened yesterday morning and then a report out at 10:00 AM indicating a tiny drop in US consumer confidence and it all went to South. Still, a positive week. The CHARTS are looking better.
03-12-10 - STILL GOING UP?
7:00 AM 'Peg time. Strong Canadian jobs data. US retail data at 7:30 could set the direction for the day.
7:00 AM 'Peg time. Strong Canadian jobs data. US retail data at 7:30 could set the direction for the day.
03-10-10 - COFFEE WARS!
Rollin Up The Rim at Tim's (THI), freebies at Mickey D's (MCD:NY). Does it matter? You bet it does. There's millions at stake. Definitive, blind taste test later this morning on BNN. The truth will be revealed at last.
AND THE WINNER IS...
Both of the guest Coffee Aficionados, who looked for all the world like Toronto street people, preferred coffee B. They agreed that B was fruity compared to nutty for A and lively compared to flat and generally tasted like the beans were more freshly roasted. At the same time, BNN viewers, with nothing to do, were voting by email and came in nearly 2 to 1 in agreement with the two guests. The clear winner...Micky D's!
STOCKS I WISH I HAD
Apple (AAPL:NY) tops my hindsight wish list. Read this and do the math; (Globe Investor) $8 to today's $223 with two 2 for 1 splits along the way. Pretty amazing. Canadian National Railway (CNR) is constantly referred to as the best run railway in North America. This one tops my current wish list and I hope to buy soon. As per my most recent HOME page post, I wish I'd never sold RBC (RY).
SOMETHING I WONDER ABOUT
Dollarama (DOL) Five months after the IPO company web site Dollarama.com still under construction. No contact info, no Investor Relations link. Very strange.
03-08-10 - THE CANADIAN WAY - sell low, BUY HIGH
We did it again! We sold off in mass a year ago when the markets were at their worst. Now that they're way up we're pouring money back into funds. (Globe & Mail)
Scotia Bank (BNS) results tomorrow. Here's hoping for a big win to keep the bank stocks going in the right direction.
03-05-10 - END OF AN ERA
Yesterday's resignation by Leonard Asper ends the era of the Asper family at Canwest Global (CGS.V). Looking waaaaaay back I see that I bought and sold Canwest shares several times in the $7 to $18 range between 1997 and 2004. I sold my last shares in October, 2004 for $12.20. Canwest shares closed yesterday .09 (Yup, 9 cents). All that's left is for Gordon Sinclair to write the book...just kidding...sorry, that's a Winnipeg joke.
03-03-10 - DO YOU REMEMBER THE EXPLODING PINTOS?
Didn't think so...and how long has it been since you thought about Rolling Over Explorers or Shredding Firestone Tires. All these Ford (F:NY) problems are now distant memories and Ford is arguably the most exciting car company on the planet for a few reasons. Firstly, they solved their design and quality control issues and then they avoided both Bail Out & Bankruptcy in the past couple of years. This, I predict is what will happen with Toyota's (TM:NY) current woes. In fact, Canadians have either already forgotten or simply don't care as they piled into Toyota showrooms last month. (Yahoo! Business)
03-02-10 - ALL ABOUT THE BANKS
6:30 AM in the 'Peg. BMO (BMO) beats, RBC (RY) tomorrow. Central bank in Australia raises key rate again. Bank of Canada key rate announcement at 8:00 AM 'Peg time...best bet, it'll hold until next date, April 20 then look for .25% to be followed by .50% on June 1. Old Guys are finally going to get some back!
03-01-10 - BACK TO THE REAL WORLD!
Spent most of yesterday traveling home from D.R....including a short marathon run in the Toronto Airport to make the connecting flight to Winnipeg. WestJet (WJA) held the flight for us. Thanks WestJet!
STUFF I'M WATCHING TODAY
Canadian banks. Going up today in anticipation that BMO (BMO) reporting tomorrow & RBC (RY) on Wednesday, will repeat last week's performance of CIBC (CM) & National (NA) which both beat estimates.
The price of copper. The quake in Chile is bound to effect copper's price as Chile is the world's largest producer
02-28-10 - JUST HOW SMART IS THIS GOOGLE THING ANYWAY?
Freaky smart if you ask me. Google (GOOG:NY) owns this whole (Blogger.com) thing which enables a one finger typist like me to create this snazzy blog site...for free. I'm really intrigued by Google's AdSense. That's the facility for placing ads on a blog or web site. Again, for free, but interestingly not compulsory. The choice to include ads is totally optional. When you choose to monetize your blog Google crawls through the blog and intuitively includes ads which relate to the topic. When I first saw this on my HOME page I was impressed when only ads relating to Canadian investments and investing populated my AdSense panels, which, incidentally, I place where I choose. I was blown away when I added this page yesterday with a note from Cabarete, D.R. and the AdSense panels filled with ads relating to Cabarete real estate, banks etc. Yes. Google, freaky smart...I sure wish I'd bought shares when they came out at $108 (now $526)
02-27-10 - FROM CABARETE, D.R.
I've been on vacation for the past two weeks. Sun, sand, surf and cerveza in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. It's A Beautiful World! Haven't taken the time to write a post but have been peeking in on the markets on a daily basis. Nothing to write home about! I decided to add this page for quick, brief daily comments as I'm generally looking at things but don't always have the time or the creative juices to prepare a full post to the HOME page.
