2017

December 31, 2017: TFI International is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $32.86. I am comfortable holding this company at this price and will be inclined to add to the position on dips. It’s a very well managed growth-by-acquisition company. It is fa...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
RioCan was down 2.8% to $24.69 and is an investment that I would consider for income particularly in non-taxable accounts since REITs are not eligible for the dividend tax credit.
Fort...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% and Toronto rose 0.2%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.4% to $38.97
RioCan was up 1.7% to $25.41. Despite fears about the retail sector, this REIT seems likely to continue to pay its distributions and generally ...

U.S. markets were open and the S&P 500 was up 0.1%.
Oil (west Texas Intermediate) is at $59.80. With oil at or near this level, I suspect the  Alberta economy will continue to improve. This should bode well for Melcor Developmensts and the Melcor...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged (down 0.05%) and Toronto was down 0.1%.
CRH Medical was down 5.1%.
AutoCanada was down 2.2%
TFI International was up 1.6%.
It appears that we are set to close out 2017 with the S&P 500 up about 20%, ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
CRH Medical was up 7.1% to $3.33 in Toronto.
Wells Fargo was up 2.4% to $61.61. This bank bottomed out at under $10 in early March 2009. There was a massive spike in volume as some inv...

Costco is updated and rated (lower) Sell at $187.51. (corrected from the original posting that said (lower) Buy
I hesitate to rate this exceptionally excellent company in the Sell range. But it does look somewhat over-valued at this time. I probably ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
The U.S. income tax reduction bill has been passed.
While the market seems to expect all of the income tax savings to fall to the bottom line, that will not necessarily be the case....

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was about unchanged.
The republican's income tax reduction bill is expected to be signed by the President tomorrow.
Costco was down 2.1%. I will be updating my report on Costco very soon.
CRH Medi...

Today, one week before Christmas, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.6%
The U.S. markets rose yet again on optimism that the income tax reduction Bill will be passed.
The top gainer on our list was Linamar, up 2.6%.
It should continue t...

Royal Bank is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $101.92
Note that, as an experiment, I have opened this post to comments. Click to comment. I am thinking that once in a while it might be useful to allow comments on a post.
Large banks tend to very pr...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.2%,
Linamar rose 11.5% to $72.50 with the news of its acquisition (see yesterday's comment.
Costco was up 3.3% after releasing earnings. I will update the report very soon. I suspect it will...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
Linamar was down 2.7% and then, after the close, revealed that it will acquire an Agricultural equipment maker for $1.2 Billion. It is acquiring privately held MacDon of Winnipeg i...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about flat while the DOW was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
With the Democrats grabbing the Senate seat last night, I had expected U.S. markets would likely fall today due to a somewhat lower probability of the Inc...

On Tuesday, markets were once again setting record highs. In round numbers, the Dow is now 25,000.  The S&P 500 was up 0.15% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
CRH Medical bounced down 4% in Toronto. I had understood from this company that they were going ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up less than 0.1%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.1% to $38.35. That puts it 51% higher than when it was rated a Strong Buy back on June 3. Not only was that a good return but it seemed like quit...

How to profit from (correctly) predicting a lower Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar closed on Friday at 77.88 U.S. cents.
Exchange rates are notoriously hard to predict. But, let's say you are relatively confident, for whatever reason, that the Can...

Note: I am now sending out the occasional tweet under @InvestorsFriend, and those who use twitter can follow me there.
On Friday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up about 0.5%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 2.2% as the market further digested it...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 3.3% to $37.12 after releasing a strong earnings report. This stock is now up 22% in 2017. It's also up just over 50% since hitting lows under $25 in May. ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 ended the day about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Dollarama was down 2.1%, apparently due to lower-than-expected same-store sales figures and in spite of another large increase in earnings. Results compared to e...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Toll Brothers was down 7.4% to $46.93 after releasing Q4 earnings and 2018 outlook that "missed analyst expectations". At a quick look the Q4 results look pretty strong to me and I ...

On Monday, U.S. markets opened sharply higher reflecting the Senate approval of the income tax reduction plan over the weekend. The excitement died down by the end of the day and the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.4%.
I reviewed m...

Melcor Developments has announced it is selling 5 commercial rental properties to the Melcor REIT for $80.9 million. The properties are fully leased and are mostly retail but one of the properties is Industrial.
There was no disclosure by Melcor Deve...

What, me worry? (said the market)
On Friday, the S&P 500 ended the day down 0.2%. But at one point in the day it was very briefly down 1.5% probably due to Flynn's guilty plea. Toronto also ended the day down 0.2%.
Linamar was down 3.0% and Dolla...

As November came to a close, the good times continued in the markets.
The S&P 500 was up 0.8% and the DOW surged 1.4% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
This came as it appears more certain that the Senate will pass the corporate income tax reduction bill ...

There are some things to like about Bombardier as a company. It makes great and exciting products. (Top of the line business jets, great commercial jets including the new C Series, fast trains and subway cars). The company employs many thousands of p...

Never a dull moment... Wednesday was another interesting day in the markets. The S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was down 0.4%. But there were certainly some stocks with bigger moves.
FedEx was up 3.4%. Costco was up 2.2%. Wells Fargo and...

Well then, Party On!
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 1.0% and the Down Jones Industrial Average was up an attention-grabbing 255 points or 1.1%. The jump was fueled by optimism that the corporate income tax reduction bill is closer to getting pass...

Amazon.com (Is it the only company left that actually has dot com in its official name? There used a bunch of them.) is updated and rated Sell at $1,196.
I can't deny that my rating performance on this stock has been very poor. I first added it to th...

On Friday, the S&P 500 and the Toronto stock index were each up 0.2%.
The Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund units were up 1.6% to $22.48. These units should be a good investment for the 6.5% yield. The price does fluctuate and the units have bee...

Dollarama is updated and rated (lower) Sell at $162.03. For a number of years I have described Dollarama as a great company and one of the best managed companies in Canada. But it has always seemed expensive and I believe the highest I have rated it ...

On Thursday, U.S. markets were closed for Thanksgiving while Toronto was unchanged for the day.
There was no movement of note in any of the stocks on our list.
Oil rose a bit more and is at $58.37. That's good except that part of the reason for the i...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.7% to $36.73. This bank is benefiting from the strong recovery in Alberta. The recession in Alberta bottomed out around November of 2016. Wh...

Markets were up "bigly" on Tuesday with the S&P 500 up 0.65% and Toronto up 0.45%.
There appears to be a lot of optimism in U.S. markets based on recent earnings growth and projections for continued robust earnings growth. GAAP earnings on the S&...

The report for Linamar is updated and rated Strong Buy at $68.50. The price has declined from about the $80 range after the release of Q3 earnings. Earnings per share were down 12% in Q3 whiles revenues per share were up 6%. The company indicated tha...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Home Capital was up another 7.0%.
Melcor was down 1.6% to $14.70. It is possible that there is some tax loss selling involved. With the shares trading right around half of book...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.4% Oil prices rose and West Texas Intermediate is at $56.68.
TFI Industries was up 1.4%.
Home Capital was up 3.8% to $15.67. It's not on our list but I bought a small amount as mentioned...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.8% as the House of representatives passed a proposed income tax reduction bill. The Senate republicans hope to pass their different version of the bill in the next couple of weeks. If that occurs the two bills woul...

Visa Inc. is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $111.25. The previous rating was Buy at $78.02 on January 1 of this year. It's up about 43% since then. The gains were very steady all year. It remains a power house of course. But at 32 times trailin...

I notice that Ceapro released Q3 earnings yesterday morning before the open, The report has positives and negatives. Moderately higher sales but significantly lower profit. But keep in mind that when profits are low, the percentage swings can easily ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Recent experience notwithstanding, the S&P 500 index does decline sometimes. Warren Buffett suggests that most Americans simply invest in the S&P 500 index and they will d...

Tuesday's markets saw the S&P 500 down 0.2% and Toronto down 0.7% (as commodity prices fell).
Toll Brothers was up 2.2% to $47.05. It's now up 52% this year to date. Our last rating was (higher) Buy at $42.81 on October 9th. The 10% price increas...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
AutoCanada was up 2.8% adding to Friday's 9.2% gain which was in response to its Q3 earnings release.
Constellation Software was up 1.4%.
FedEx was up 1.5%.
CRH Medical was down 1.0%...

I just now came across this link which allows users to rate investment "newsletter" services.
The rating part of this site might be new since not many of the 697 newsletter listed have any rankings yet.
I don't know anything about this ranking site b...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
A big winner was AutoCanada up 9.2% after releasing earnings. Some observers predict hard times for auto dealers as the industry moves to more reliable electric cars and ride-sharing...

The Melcor REIT report is updated and remains rated Buy at $8.73 yielding 7.7%.
This REIT was added to the site on September 25, 2016 rated Buy at $8.63.
Since then, the units have done their job paying an annual yield of 7.8% of the $8.63 and with t...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Canadian Western Bank was down 1.9% to $34.37. With oil having recently risen to the $57 level I suspect that they will report good results for their Q4 which ended October 31.
Can...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Stocks that rose today included Stantec, up 1.0%, Couche-Tard up 1.7%, Costco, up 1.7%, and Toll Brothers up 1.5%.
Spoiling the day, was Linamar down almost 14%. The company claim...

Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $186.21 which was the closing price yesterday. At the moment the price has dropped slightly to $185.04.
With earnings down somewhat in the past year and with the price up about 30% in the last 12...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.25%.
Wells Fargo and Bank of America were each down 2.0%.
RioCan was up 1.7% to $25.35. It had released earnings late last week.
Linamar was down 1.9% and then released earnings a...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1%.
Toronto was up 0.45% as oil (West Texas Intermediate) rose to $57.24, up 2.9%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.1%.
Stantec was down 1.8%. It reports earnings on Thursday.
CRH Medical fell another 7.6% in Toronto. Perhap...

Melcor's Q3 results were strong (in my opinion) with a year-over-year increase in funds from operations of 25%. The number of single family lot sales was up by 58% and the average price was relatively stable but it appears that somewhat more of the l...

I have updated the composition of my personal total portfolio. I wanted to see in particular what my cash position was. It's 19% and I would not mind seeing it go somewhat higher. I have no fixed income. With no fixed income, a reasonable allocation ...

CRH Medical is updated and rated Speculative (lower) Strong Buy at U.S. $1.85 or Canadian $2.37. This one has been a huge disappointment as it is down 57%  since it was added to the site on October 9, 2016 rated Speculative Buy at U.S $4.32. And it i...

CRH medical is down a further 12 % in Toronto trading this morning. And down 17% in U.S. trading.
This is due to finalization of government-mandated fee reductions for 2018 which included an additional reduction, not previously anticipated.
The compa...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged (though the DOW was up 0.35%) and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard jumped 3.1%. There was no news so this may have been due to an analyst recommendation.
Toll Brothers fell 6.1% to $43.7...

Wednesday saw the S&P 500 rise 0.2% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Canadian Western Bank retreated 1.9% which was not surprising after its 4.8% gain of Tuesday which did seem a bit overdone.
Linamar was up 1.7%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.3%.
I m...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.1%.
Our big mover was Canadian Western Bank up 4.8% to $36.34 after it announced the acquisition of a $900 million dollar portfolio of equipment loans and leases. This will add 10 cents per share...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.3%.
TFI Industries was down 3.2% and I think it represents good value.
After the close, Canadian Western Bank announced an acquisition that they say will add ten cents per share to earni...

I was just reading some blog comments about RRSPs. Lots of people are adamant that RRSPs are a bad way to invest. There was a complaint that the tax rate on death of the last surviving spouse was 50%. Truly that is a a heavy tax rate. But the complai...

Visiting Tampa (and nearby areas including Sarasota) Florida this week I have a few observations about business and the economy:
Overall, this area of Florida has a mix of affluent, middle, and more than a few low income people judging by the housing...

Statistics Canada recently reported sales for food service and drinking places for August. The numbers look strong which bodes well for Boston Pizza's Q3 report. Unless BP has lost market share it should show an increase in same store sales which is ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose another 0.8% and Toronto was up 0.4% finally reaching a new record high close.
In the U.S. in particular it starts to seem like stocks only ever go up. Obviously, this is wrong but with gains almost every day for the l...

TFI International, TransForce is down about 6% on its earnings release. Adjusted earnings down a little. But overall the report shows growth in revenue and a gain on an asset sale. I am adding to my position this morning at just over $30.
Amazon is u...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Stantec was up 2.2%, FedEx was up 1.6%, American Express was up 2.3%.
Ceapro, which is a risky penny stock was up 11.9% which only takes it back to 66 cents. This was after it announce...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Linamar was up 0.8% despite the down day in the markets and seems attractive although its not clear to me how it might be affected by any failure of NAFTA.
The Canadian dollar was...

The report for American Express is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $93.86.
American Express lost the Costco branded cards in 2016 because they were not willing to cut the merchant fee down as low as Costco wanted. That caused a drop in earnings but ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.3%. And the DOW was up 0.7% after strong earnings reports from Caterpillar and 3M.
CN Rail was up 1.9% but may decline tomorrow as its earnings report after the close was disappointing due ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was about unchanged.
Boston Pizza was down 2.3% to $21.63. It will be interesting to see their Q3 report to see if same store sales were up or down.
Melcor was up 3.5% but given its thin trading vo...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up another 0.5% to yet another record high. Toronto was up 0.2%.
The S&P 500 is now up 15.0% this year to date. That is impressive especially considering it entered 2017 already at a record high and trading at 23.7 ...

Walmart is updated and rated (lower) Sell at $86.22. (Yesterday's closing price, today it closed at $86.40) As always, the report gives the rationale for the rating. Under the rating system that I have always used a (lower) Sell is between a Sell rat...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.2%.
CN Rail was up 1.6% to $102.64. It's interesting how some blue chip type companies like this seem to go on rising year after year. In an article I wrote in 2003 called Do As ...

This morning I have sold the rest of Bombardier preferred shares Series 4. I have wanted to raise cash to provide stability to my portfolio and for possible other opportunities. Bombardier's latest move has given away half of the C Series project for...

Wednesday was another strong day for U.S. markets with the S&P 500 up 0.1%. The DOW surged 0.7% because IBM was up 9% after reporting better than expected earnings. Toronto was down 0.2%.
It's worth thinking about which companies on our list woul...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average crested the 23,000 level for the first time ever and closed just under that round number.
Bombardier had a good day up 15.7% and its preferred shares that are...

I am in a mood to trim a few positions today because my cash position is low and it is always good to have some cash for opportunities or withdrawals and because U.S. stocks have been going up quite steadily for almost a full year now and are up 22%....

So, Bombardier is selling half of its C Series jet project to Airbus for umm zero dollars.
What an indictment, what a testament to a colossal failure of management. Bombardier spent , as I indicated in 2016, at least $5.4 billion on the program befor...

Monday's markets saw the S&P 500 up 0.2% and while Toronto was about unchanged.
Ceapro was down 4 cents or 6.3%. I have been very disappointed with what I view as poor disclosure at this company. It was always a speculative pick. When first added...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
AutoCanada was up 4.0% with no news during the trading day. But after the close, the company announced it was acquiring a large established Mazda dealership near Montreal. The family tha...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
AutoCanada rose 3.8%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was up 3.9% to $61.24. That surprised me given the announcement on Wednesday that Metro was selling 11 million shares in a public off...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up yet another 0.2% and Toronto was also up 0.2%.
Bombardier was up 4.4% to $2.35 after Delta Airlines said it would not be paying a 300% duty. Why is this news? Of course no one is ever going to buy a plane that com...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Walmart was up 4.5% to $84.13 after announcing that it will buy back $20 billion in shares. That would represent about 8% of its shares which is quite substantial. It also announced tha...

On Monday the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was closed.
Costco was down 1.6%. It's not cheap but may be worth nibbling at due to its recent decline.
Stock futures are up this evening.
Big insurance company AIG (American International Group)...

Toll Brothers is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $42.81.
This stock is up 38% in 2017 and is up 55% since it was rated (lower) Strong Buy on February 27, 2016. It was rated Strong Buy 13 months ago on September 11, 2016 and is up 46% since then. It...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Stock markets, especially in the U.S. have been very strong indeed this year. But I would say that Donald Trump could do something at any time that would drive markets down. It's not...

Linamar is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $77.93.
Linamar was added to the site on November 27 last year rated Strong Buy at $51.09. At that time it looked very cheap. It's up about 53% since then. But it still looks quite cheap with a P/E of 9.4....

On Thursday the S&P 500 was up yet another 0.5%. Toronto was up 0.3%.
Ceapro was up 12 cents or 21%. I don't see any news to explain that. And it was only on a relatively few trades later in the day. I would not read anything into that. This is a...

Wednesday's markets saw the S&P 500 up another 0.1% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Canadian Western bank was down 2.0%. Linamar was down 2.6%.
RioCan was up 1.7%.
The Globe and Mail reports that auto deliveries (I believe this is to dealers a...

FedEx is updated and is rated (lower) Buy at $223 (yesterday's closing price).
FedEx has achieved strong earnings per share growth in the past few years. I focus on earnings adjusted for certain one-time or acquisition-related costs. The shares are w...

Tuesday was another positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.2% and Toronto up 0.1%.
Linamar was up another 1.5%.
The Canadian Western Bank series 5 preferred share was up 2.0% to $23.77.These shares were issued at $25 in 2014 yielding 4...

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and Toronto was also up 0.4%.
The U.S. markets were apparently unaffected by the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Sadly, the general public is mostly no longer all that shocked by such an event.
Canadian Western Bank w...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
TFI International was up 2.2%.
CRH Medical bounced up 12.5% on Toronto and 10.6% in U.S. trading.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was down 1.2% to $56.90. I would be inclined to use this dip to...

Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated Buy at $33.71. This stock is up 11% this year. It's also up 42% from the low it reached in May when it was dragged down by concerns about sub-prime residential real estate lending when Home Capital suffered ...

Last Saturday, I sent out  an edition of the free newsletter and I followed up yesterday with a link to a new article on exactly how Canadians can put together a low-cost diversified portfolio using Exchange-Traded-Funds. This may be useful for less ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% to yet another record high and Toronto was also up 0.1%
The Bombardier pref shares recovered 6.2%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.8%, FedEx was up 1.9%, Canadian Tire was up 1.4%, Andrew Peller was up 2.2%.
Canadian Wes...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% while Toronto was up a hefty 0.9%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 4.9% to $33.56. Just four months ago it had briefly dipped to just under $24 at the time that Home Capital looked to be circling the drain. It's...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.3%
Bombardier ended the day up 6.1% but that was before a very negative (albeit preliminary) ruling came out in which the C Series jets could face a 220% duty in the U.S.
The Bo...

I have updated the article that lists some global ETFs and includes P/E ratios and dividend yields as well as the management expense ratios.
It would be nice if there were some regions of the world that looked like clear bargains. But I did not find ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
CRH Medical had another weak day, down 7.1% on Toronto and 9.4% in U.S. trading. This was after announced several things in a press release on Friday.
The press release updated expec...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was unchanged.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.2%.
Linamar was up 1.5%.
Stock futures are slightly positive on Sunday evening perhaps relieved by Chancellor Merkel's win in Germany.
The markets cont...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.5%.
Canadian Tire was up 2.2%.
AutoCanada was up 2.2%.
Statistics Canada reported on investment in new home construction in July which as up 6.4% nationally from the prior year. I pay ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.6%
AutoCanada was up 3.4% to $23.96. Apparently some investors like the company at about $24. I wonder what they were thinking in late Spring, early Summer when it was available for $18?
Fe...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Toys R Us declared bankruptcy. This has been expected. This will not be much of a concern to RioCan since Toys R Us was not listed in its top 30 tenants and therefore likely represents ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.9% to $31.80. That is an increase of 25% since I rated it a Strong Buy on June 3. On the other hand it remains below the prices of around $40 and in the mi...

RioCan is updated and rated Buy at $23.84. The company provides a huge amount of detail on its various properties and growth initiatives. The bottom line however is a 5.9% distribution that seems very unlikely to be curtailed and which will likely in...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2%, closing at 2,500. Toronto was about unchanged.
The next update will be for RioCan. The rating will somewhere in the Buy range. It pays a 5.9% distribution and that distribution seems likely to rise over time. T...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.3%.
CRH Medical was up 11.6% to $3.47 in Toronto. It appears that some of the recent plunge in this stock was overdone.
Today I am looking at the reports from RioCan in preparation for...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Costco rose 1.8% which is relatively large increase for such a large company.
I no longer have Liquor Stores N.A. on the list but I keep an eye on its price. It was up 2.5% today....

Stantec is updated rated Buy at CAN $34.25. This has been an exceptionally well managed growth-by-acquisition company for many years. Its share price is up 2,642% since I first added it to this site way back in September 1999. Its growth strategies a...

Costco is up another 1.9% this morning to $163.10. This great company always seems expensive but it did dip to the $151 level a couple of times this Summer, including July 10 when I noted I bought some. It's a company I would be interested in adding ...

The Enbridge rate reset preferred share on our list is updated and rated Buy at $21.16.
These shares are similar to the Canadian Western Bank preferred shares updated yesterday. The Enbridge shares fell sharply in 2015 as interest rates declined and ...

The report for the Canadian Western Bank rate reset preferred shares Series 5 is updated and rated Buy at $22.50 yielding 4.9%.
Given the the two recent Bank of Canada rate increases the projected dividend at the reset date of April 30, 2019 has incr...

Monday was a strong day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 1.1% and Toronto up 0.4%.
CRH Medical was up 10.1% in Toronto after announcing another acquisition. My view was (and is)  that despite the recent government-mandated reduction in the reve...

Couche-Tard is updated and remains rated Buy, now at $60.25
I have been following this company since it was added to this site rated (lower) Strong Buy at $5.80 (split adjusted) on March 31, 2005. The gain has been 939%. It would have made a great bu...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Dollarama was up another 3.6% to $139.50. Usually I have said this is a fantastic company but looks too expensive. On November 2, 2014 I had it as (lower) Buy at $49.51 (adjusted for...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Ceapro was down 4 cents or 6%. This is going to remain volatile and its ultimate future depends on its research panning out. Their CEO invited me to meet with them after I ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Couche-Tard rose 2.6% after releasing its fiscal Q1 earnings. AutoCanada rose 2.9%.
CRH Medical slipped 3.1%.
My road trip across most of Canada continued today from Ottawa to Waw...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
Melcor is showing a bit of life, up 3.3% to $15.70
Wells Fargo down 1.7% and Bank of AMerica down 3.2%
AutoCanada was down 3.0%.
My road trip continues, Ottawa last night, stopped i...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.1%
Canadian Western Bank was up 3.4% to $29.99 in further reaction to its strong earnings report. It appears to me that this bank will continue to recover and remains good value at this ...

Thursday was a positive day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.6% and Toronto up 0.5%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.1% to $29.00 on its strong earnings release and remains a good investment that is likely to continue to recover towards past h...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 2.1% to $28.69. This morning it has reported a very strong Q3 with adjusted earnings per share up 15%. The only negative I saw was gross impaired loans ha...

Tuesday saw the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Toronto up 0.2%. So the markets have shrugged off the North Korean missile shot.
Penny stock Ceapro bounced up 6 cents or 11%. But I would not read much into that as there was no news. The company does have cas...

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each about unchanged.
Markets are forecast to be down on Tuesday due to a missile launched by North Korea that flew over a part of Japan. It's anyone's guess how markets will react and how far Korea will go...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.1%
As of Sunday night, oil prices have not reacted much to the Texas hurricane and shutdown of some offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Canadian Weste...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Costco was down 5.0% on news that Amazon will close its acquisition of Whole Foods on Monday and intends to lower prices. For the same reason, Walmart was down 2.0%.
Costco has alw...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto was up 0.5%.
Constellation Software was up 2.0%.
Royal Bank rose 1.1% after releasing a good earnings report and raising its dividend. I am optimistic that Canadian Western Bank will also have...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 1.0% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Toll Brothers was down 2.6% to $37.27 after reporting earnings. In may ways the earnings were strong, but the market found some aspects disappointing. I continue to view Toll Brothers...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was unchanged.
CRH Medical was down 4.3%. There were no other particularly noteworthjy moves in the stocks on our list.
News reports today indicate that Warren Buffett / Berkshire "lost out" in its...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Ceapro, a tiny Edmonton biotechnology company was down 12.7% to 69 cents after releasing Q2 earnings. An d this decline is in addition to a steady slide in the share price. I had men...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $151.46.
I had last updated Canadian Tire on April 1, based on its December 2016 annual results and rated it Weak Buy /Hold at $157.98. Since then it has released Q1 and more recently Q2 earnings whi...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 1.5% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
While 1.5% is  a sizeable one day drop I don't really consider it to be that significant in light of how much the U.S market is up since November. When these dips happen, I never k...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Boston Pizza Royalties was up 2.7%.
Costco was up 2.1% even after being ordered to pay $20 million to Tiffany's for selling (very real) diamonds but using the Tiffany name which t...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
It certainly seems possible that the market could react negatively to the fiasco that is the Trump presidency. The chances of Trump getting much legislation passed seems slim.
Melco...

AutoCanada is updated and rated Buy at $21.96. Many aspects of its Q2 report were positive and it now appears set to resume earnings growth.
On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 1.0% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
AutoCanada was up 5.8% as the market continue...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% (despite Trump / North Korea) while Toronto was down 0.3%.
AutoCanada had a strong day, up 10.4% after releasing earnings. This will be my next update. Reading through the report there were a lot of positives. M...

Our report on Boston Pizza Royalty units is updated and rated Buy at $21.12.
There has been modest weakness in same-store sales, which is by far the main driver of distributable cash per unit, in the past year due to weakness in Alberta and Saskatche...

Melcor Developments is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $14.50. Those of us who have put a material amount of our portfolios into this stock are no doubt frustrated by this stock. Despite posting what would appear to be good results in Q1 and ...

Thursday was a negative day in the markets with the S&P 500 down 1.5% and Toronto down 0.9%.
Canadian Tire was a notable bright spot, up 5.4% after releasing a good earnings report.
CRH Medical also managed a gain, up 2.3%.
Boston Pizza Royalties...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.3%.
I consider Trump's tweets (taunts) regarding North Korea to be dangerous and this could turn into a catalyst for a market decline. But there is always the risk of a market...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was flat
Linamar was up 2% after another auto parts maker reported strong results.
CRH Medical was down another 7% in Toronto and 10% in U.S.A. trading. At this point it is likely going down sim...

CRH Medical is updated and rated Speculative (lower) Strong Buy at U.S. $2.70 or CAN $3.42. $2.70 was the price earlier today in U.S. trading but it closed at $2.60, up 5.1%.
This stock has certainly been very disappointing recently. Therefore it see...

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% while Toronto was closed for the civic holiday.
 
...

The report for Constellation Software is updated and rated (lower) Buy at Canadian $704. That was the price I used in the analysis but it closed today at $698. The company reports in U.S. dollars. Therefore I do the analysis in U.S. dollars and conve...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.5%.
CRH Medical got pummeled down by 29% after releasing Q2 results. I have read the release and listened to the conference call. To me the stock reaction continues to look over-blow...

CRH Medical down 23% in early trading. Apparently the market focused on the negative aspects of the earnings release. The conference call has starts at 11 am eastern and may change the tone. I am not sure if the RBC or Scotia analyts have commented y...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was up close to unchanged while Toronto was up 0.4%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average breached the 22,000 point mark.
CRH Medical was up about 11% after announcing an acquisition and forecasting more acquisitions. It then...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.2%.
AutoCanada was down 3.6%. That was in spite of some news that July auto sales were very strong in Canada but weak in the U.S. However Chrysler sales were dow...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Costco was up a hefty 3.7% gaining back some recent losses. Looking on Yahoo Finance (which has become increasingly useless) I don't see any news to explain this. Not that the market...

Canadian National Railway Company is updated and rate Weak Buy / Hold. It's a great company and should be a good long-term investment. It had a blow-out quarter in Q2 with traffic and earnings up strongly. However they are projecting only very modest...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Fedex was down 2.9%.
Constellation Software was down 3.5% after releasing Q2 earnings.
CN Rail really had a huge Q2. Carloadings were up as follows: Metals and minerals 32%! Grai...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged (even though the Dow Jones was up 0.45%) and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Ceapro was down 4.8% to 78 cents. This is a very speculative stock. I expect a poor earnings report in Q2. Unless they can announce ...

Tuesday was a strong day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.3% and Toronto up 0.5%.
There will be a lot of earnings reports in the next few weeks to give direction to the market.
The yield on the 5 year Canada bond continues to rise and is now ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
CRH Medical had a modest bounce, up 10.6% in Toronto. They will report earnings a week from this Wednesday (i.e. August 2).
Constellation Software was up 2.8% after announcing anothe...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.5%.
Melcor was down 3.5% to $14.00. I am cautiously optimistic that they will report a decent Q2. Their views on the outlook may be more important than the Q2 numbers. It is alwa...

Thursday's action saw the S&P 500 about unchanged and Toronto up 0.1%.
Limamar was up 4.4% to $71.56.
CRH Medical was down another 2.6% to $4.06 on Toronto. Scotia Bank precipitated the big plunge of last Friday when it warned about government-ma...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up another 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
TFI Internaltional (TransForce) was up 2.9%.
After the close, American Express reported earnings that were apparently higher than expected.
Statistics Canada reported that man...

Tuesday saw the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Toronto down 0.1%.
CRH Medical was down another 10.5% on Toronto. It's doing a good job of making my opinion on that company look very wrong. Well, time will tell if this was just some big dip from which it wil...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto edged down 0.1%.
There were not any particularly noteworthy movements in the stocks on our list.
CRH Medical issued a press release explaining that it will face lower revenues in 2018 due t...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% to another record high. Toronto was up 0.3%.
CRH Medical was down a withering 28% on Toronto and 27% in U.S. trading. I understand this was precipitated by a negative report from Bank of Nova Scotia analysts. I ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Linamar was up another 1.8%.
AutoCanada was up 2.8%.
I drove through a large Melcor development in St.Albert, Alberta today. This is Jensen Lakes which they own half of in a joint ve...

On June 28th Berkshire announced:
On June 28, 2017, Bank of America Corporation announced that it plans to
increase its quarterly dividend to $0.12 per common share. When this occurs, Berkshire will exercise its warrants to acquire 700,000,000 shares...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% while Toronto was about flat.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was up 3.7% to $62.40 after releasing earnings prior to the open.
As expected, the Bank of Canada increased its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage poin...

Tuesday's action had the S&P 500 down a scant 0.1% and Toronto up 0.3%.
Linamar was up another 2.1%
Couche-Tard was up 1.2% after announcing another acquisition deal. They post earnings tomorrow, Wednesday.
The big news tomorrow is expected to be...

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.5%.
Linamar was up 2.2%. to $65.53 (Our report is out of date on that one as the stock is up 28% since we added it to the site in November.)
Toll Brothers was up 1.3% to $40.95. That's its h...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% while Toronto was down 0.3%.
I mentioned in the last post here that I liked Alimentation Couche-Tard under $60 and I added to my position in that on Friday. It's no screaming bargain but I like the management an...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.9% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Melcor was down 5.9% to $14.40. The Melcor REIT was down 3.2%. I did not see any specific reason for this. It could be related to fears about commercial rental property values in Alber...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up about 0.1%.
Canadian Tire was down 3.0% to $144, possibly due to a negative opinion from some major analyst. I rated it a Weak Buy / Hold in April at $158. With this decline it might be worth nib...

On Tuesday, American markets were closed for their holiday while Toronto was down 0.3%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.7%.
Constellation Software was down 2.3%.
Interest rates are on the rise. The yield on the government of Canada five year bond is u...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was closed.
U.S bank stocks rose.
Statistics Canada reported April GDP growth on Friday. It should always be remembered that this is an estimate of GDP growth and is subject to statistical error. G...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
No particularly big moves in our stocks. Toll Brothers was up 1.5% to $39.51. Hopefully back over $40 soon. This company had languished around $28 for much of 2016. We had it rated (...

Thursday saw the S&P 500 and Toronto both down 0.9%.
U.S. banks went the other way with Wells Fargo up 2.7% and Bank of America up 1.7%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was down 2.5% to $62.75. It is a stock that I would be tempted to add to at this pri...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
The Canadian dollar was up strongly to 76.8 U.S. cents as currency buyers and sellers reacted to predictions that the Bank of Canada might start to raise interest rates in July. My str...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.8% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Rate reset preferred shares were up as the yield on the government of Canada five year bond rose.
Couche-Tard was up 1.9% and after the close the Canadian competition regulator approv...

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each about unchanged.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was up 3.6% after the Competition regulator in the U.S. cleared it to close its latest huge acquisition. The deal will close on Wednesday.
Andrew Peller was up...

Every once in a long while I will take the liberty of posting a personal advertisement here. And today's the day.
I have a son who just graduated in Geology from St. FX University in Nova Scotia. He was a good student and (probably more importantly) ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
Stocks on the move included TFI Inc. up 2.0% and AutoCanada up 2.3%.
On Friday, Statistics Canada reported that inflation was running at only 1.3% and this cooled expectations for a Bank...

With Costco down to $157 from its recent peak of  $183 I thought it might be worth looking at. In addition it has reported stellar same-store sales of late. Unfortunately it still certainly does not look cheap and I am rating it a Weak Buy at $157.13...

Amazon is updated and rated Sell at $1004. Every time I look at it, it appears to be way over-valued but I have noted in the past that it can still keep going up. Which it has.  I continue to look at it and try to understand why investors are paying ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.5%
Canadian Western Bank was up 5.9% to $27.00 as all the smaller lenders went up after it was announced that Warren Buffett / Berkshire Hathaway would invest in Home Capital. Be...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was about unchanged.
There was not much movement in the stocks on our list. Bombardier was an exception, down 5.0%.
Statistics Canada reported the investment in new home construction for April. Giv...

Stantec announces that its CEO of the last eight years will retire at the end of this year to be replaced by another long-time Stantec executive.
This looks like business as usual. Stantec has always named its new CEO's from within. This is a sign of...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Ceapro, our one penny stock, was down 5.1% to 92 cents. This could easily continue to go down unless there is some positive news on the earnings or future products front. This was a...

Regarding TFI Inc. (TransForce) I see that the company bought back almost 900,000 shares in May at prices as high as $29.30 but mostly at closer to $28. This company has been very smart in the past about buying back shares at good prices. This buybac...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.8% while Toronto was up 0.5%.
Most stocks on our list were up today including TFI International (TransForce) up 3.0% and Stantec up 3.4%.
I notice Tim Hortons faces several lawsuits by franchisees. I followed Tim H...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Amazon was up 2.4% on the announcement that it would acquire Whole Foods.
Whole Foods increased 29% on the news to $42.68. But it remains below its peak of about $54 reached in...

Fortis Inc. is added to our list and rated Buy at Canadian $45.56 or U.S. $34.32. Headquartered in Newfoundland, Fortis has grown by acquisition into a huge North American utility company. It sticks almost 100% to regulated assets. It has basically b...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
TFI International (TransForce) was down 2.6% and I added to my position in this company today.
In the next day or so I will add Fortis Inc. to the list and it will likely be rate...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 closed down 0.1% while Toronto was down a hefty 1.4%.
Oil is down to $44.69 which pushed Toronto lower.
Toll Brothers was up 1.4% to $39.12.
AutoCanada was down 2.3%. Statistics Canada today reported the April new vehicle...

With the collapse in the share price of Aimia (owner of Aeroplan) which came after Air Canada announced it will cease its partnership with Aeroplan in 2020, it is worth taking a look at the value of the shares. (Particularly since it was on our list ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% to another record high while Toronto was about unchanged.
(Apologies as yesterday's post here did not get uploaded.)
Toll Brothers was up 1.5% to $38.57 and is up 24% this year.
Rate reset preferred shares have...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.3%.
U.S. financial stocks were strong while the big "tech" stocks were weak.
Bombardier was down 7.1% as Boeing's complaint against it passed a first hurdle. A U.S. trade body ruled in f...

North America stock markets are up about 0.4% this morning.
The U.S. banks are particularly strong.
The latest employment figures are out from Statistics Canada this morning and are very strong.
The unemployment rate in Quebec was down 0.6% to 6.0%, ...

Wednesday's action saw the S&P 500 up 0.2% but Toronto down 0.6%.
Our one penny stock, Ceapro was down 5.6%. Unless earnings turn higher in Q2 this stock could certainly go down a lot more unless earnings from existing products recover or there a...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
AutoCanada was up 4.2% after announcing it might buy back some shares. Buy backs are generally positive for share prices but the real driver has to be earnings. If the company has t...

Monday was a mildly negative day with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Toronto down 0.2%.
Toll Brothers gave back 2.0%. Ceapro which is a speculative penny stock was down 6%.
Canadian Western Bank ended about unchanged today. I see some articles talking...

CN Rail is updated and rated Weak Sell / Hold. It's a great company but seems expensive at this time (as it usually does). It had some weakness in carloadings in 2016 but carloadings have rebounded very strongly in Q1 and now Q2 as well. I expect it ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Bombardier has a strong day, up 3.6% $2.56.
Alimentation Couche Tard was up 2.0%. Toll Brothers was up another 1.4%. FedEx was up 2.4%. In general investors are optimistic and are bi...

The Canadian Western Bank rate reset preferred share on our list is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $21.16.
Similar to many other rate reset preferred shares that are trading well below their $25 issue price, the hope here has been that the yield on...

Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated Strong Buy at $25.37. In the December and March updates I was fairly lukewarm on it due to risks of loan losses. But now the stock has fallen down to only 105% of book value. The decline seems to be related ...

Thursday was a strong day in the markets with the S&P 500 and Toronto each up 0.8%.
FedEx was up 2.3%.  Toll Brothers was up 2.3%. Dollarama which we consider to be a great but expensive company was up another 2.5%. Similarly CN was up another  1...

Canadian Western Bank's earnings report is out and is quite positive. There are never any guarantees but it seems silly that this bank's shares have been pushed down quite close to book value. I grabbed a few more shares this morning at 3.5% higher t...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was a bright spot rising 2.3% to $63.58. This is an exceptionally well managed company and is likely to continue to do well over the years.
Costco reporte...

Toll Brothers is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $36.91. Earnings have been increasing relatively rapidly based expected based on home sale contracts signed last year. This should continue based on the higher pace of home sales in the past year whi...

Tuesday's action saw the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Toronto down 0.3%.
Bombardier was up 4.7% to $2.44 as it delivered the first CS 300 jet. This is good but the problem is that all of the early production run has apparently been priced below cost. It...

On Monday, with the U. S. markets closed, Toronto was about unchanged.
Ceapro recovered 4.6% while CRH Medical was down 3.7%.
AutoCanada recovered 4.6%.
The decision of the Green Party in B.C. to support the NDP and attempt to topple the Liberals see...

On Friday, the S&P 500 and the Toronto index were both relatively unchanged.
The stocks on our list were also relatively unchanged with no particularly noteworthy moves.
Monday is a holiday for the U.S. stock exchanges.
The Kinder Morgan IPO that...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% to a new record high, closing at 2415. Meanwhile Toronto was down 0.1% as oil declined to $49.50 after OPEC's agreed output limits were apparently not as low as hoped by the oil industry. (Oil consumers would ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% while Toronto fell 0.4%.
Canadian Bank stocks were lower which included Canadian Western Bank down 1.8%. AutoCanada was down 2.8%. With Oil at $51.77 I suspect the Alberta economy will continue to improve and I...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
U.S. markets have apparently become complacent about Terrorist attacks in other parts of the world.
AutoCanada was down 2.0% and appears to offer good value.
I bought some TFI Internati...

TFI International is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $27.50. Since our last rating (which was weak buy/ hold) at $33.15 the stock has declined and the earnings and revenue have increased.
This is a very well managed growth-by-acquisition company. W...

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.7% and Toronto was up 1.2%.
Most of the stocks on our list rose with the market. Ceapro bounced up 9.5%.
Canadian stock markets are closed on Monday but the U.S. markets are open.
...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was about unchanged.
AutoCanada was up 4.1%, and Constellation Software was up 3.5%.
It's hard to say if the issues Trump is facing will have much impact on stocks. There always seems to be some th...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.8% and Toronto was down 1.7%
Apparently, a (rather belated) realization that Trump is not going to be able to deliver on corporate income tax cuts anytime soon was the reason. Or maybe it was the fact that his...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
AutoCanada was down 2.3% and I grabbed a few more shares today. I always like to show the courage of my convictions when Buy-rated stocks decline. And, just as importantly, I like b...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 2.1%.
All in all, it was another day to be glad to be an owner of companies.
Oil was up 2% to about $49 U.S. dollars. While lower than peak prices, $49 is no...

Melcor Developments is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $16.50. (last trade as I post this was $16.25. As detailed in the report (see Recent Developments) the company had a surprisingly large increase in residential building lot sales in Q1. And the...

On Friday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down about 0.1%.
AutoCanada was down 3.5% to $20.06 I last rated the company a Buy at $21.80. It exhibits some volatility. As long as it is destined to grow in value eventually (and I believe it is) th...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Linamar was up 8.0% to $63.83 after releasing earnings.
Stantec was down 5.0% after releasing earnings.
AutoCanada was down 2.9%.
With stocks apparently sliding my strategy is to a...

With Stantec down 4.9% due to below expectation earnings, I added to my Stantec position just now. I believe its growth model is fully intact. Earnings are impacted in the short term by acquisition-related costs.
...

Wednesday's market saw the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Toronto up 0.4%.
I added to my position in Canadian Western Bank taking advantage of the recent slide. I have done quite well over the years by adding to positions in companies that I had confidence ...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.5%.
About the only notable move in the stocks on our list was Toll Brothers up 2.0% to $37.36.
Home Capital (which is not on our list) bounced up 30% on news of selling some assets. As...

Possibly out of bordom, I just added about half to my small Ceapro position at $1.22. I mentioned some concerns about their reporting and I am afraid they might be too promotional with their stock price and there is a risk that their products especia...

Monday saw the S&P about unchanged and Toronto up 0.4%.
CRH Medical was down 4.9% on Toronto.
Warren Buffett held Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday. There is a livestream archive of the meeting available and it is well worth listening to.  h...

I am traveling this week and was unable to post for a couple of days. Apologies. I am also behind on updates and plan to be active with updates soon. Meanwhile I am looking to slowly add to some positions such as Stantec and Canadian Western Bank and...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down O.1% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
AutoCanada was down 3.5%.
As stocks decline I will look to add to positions. But I don't want to get in a hurry doing that.
Regarding mortgage arrears the latest figures are for F...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% and Toronto rose 0.3%.
TransForce was down 2.3% to $28.70 and is worth considering at that price.
Constellation Software was up 2.5% to about $666. It's a wonderful company. It always seems expensive however. I h...

On Monday the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Constellation Software was up 4.0%. The CEO of Constellation writes a fairly lengthy annual letter. He is, by far, the most candid CEO I have ever come across. He is also one of the m...

Regarding CRH Medical. I have now taken a close look at the earnings release from last week and listened to most of the conference call. The stock, after rising rapidly to about $11 in Toronto (our analysis is based on the U.S. price since it reports...

On Thursday the S&P 500 rose 0.1% while Toronto fell 0.9%.
CRH Medical was down 6.9% in Toronto to $8.37. I'm tempted to add to my small position as I think the company has a good business including growth by acquisition.
Bombardier was down 2.7%...

Lots happening today...
Trump released a tax cut proposal that most say is entirely unaffordable and will add hugely to the deficit. Coincidentally? it included a couple of measures that would benefit Trump and his family hugely: The end of the alter...

I don't know if Home Capital is going to survive its current problems or if its shares are worth more than the $6.95 that they are trading at this minute. In theory I would think the shares should be worth more than that even is a distressed sale to ...

Tuesday... Another day and another 200 points plus up for the DOW...
S&P 500 up 0.6% Toronto up 0.2%.
At this rate, it starts to feel like investing is easy.
CN Rail was down 3.0% after releasing earnings. But that comes after big increases in th...

On Monday the S&P 500 rose 1.1% and Toronto rose 0.6%.
Bank of America rose 4.0%.
Reports tonight say that the U.S. will impose a 20% tariff on Canadian softwood imports. As on result, the Canadian dollar fell to 73.8 U.S. cents.
In terms of the ...

BNN reports that the reason CRH medical has dropped on Friday and again today is due to a short-seller issuing a negative report.
I hold a very small position in the company. While it would be more prudent to wait for the earnings report on Wednesday...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
CRH Medical was down almost 19%. I am not aware of any reason for it. It could be some bad news has leaked. Or perhaps some analyst report has come out suggesting that the stock has ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.8% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
American Express was up 5.9% after reporting Q1 earnings.
Stantec was down 2.4% and remains a company that I would Buy at this price. After the close SNC Lavelin announced a huge acqui...

Wednesday was an uneventful day for the stocks on our list. The S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Oil is back down to $50.77.
Statistics Canada reported on sales of new motor vehicles for February. Sales across Canada were up 3% in...

My reference article that details the percentage contribution of each industry to the GDP of Canada has been updated for the latest data. This article also shows the percentage of Canadian exports going to each major country. It shows graphically tha...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Toll Brothers crept up another 0.7% and is now up almost 20% year to date. This company has  required patience since it was first added to the site on June 5, 2011 at $21.03 as a way to...

On Monday, the S&P 500 shook off fears of world tensions and rose 0.9% while Toronto rose 1.0%.
My recent approach of holding about 30% cash has cost me gains. However, I feel that it's a good compromise. I benefit from a 70% exposure to equities...

My detailed analysis on the valuation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is updated. On a point estimate basis it appears to me that it is about 6% overvalued or not far from fair value. But the article shows that it can be considered 14% under-valu...

(Apologies as this post was meant to be published Thursday evening and I seem to have run into a technical issue)
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and on Thursday it declined 0.7%.
Toronto was down 0.5% on Wednesday and a further 0.7% on T...

On Tuesday, the S&P ended the day down 0.1% after recovering from somewhat deeper losses earlier in the day. Toronto was about unchanged.
Toll Brothers was up 3.5% to $36.58 after RBC Capital markets raised its outlook for the share price. Toll B...

On Monday, the S&P gave back back earlier higher gains and ended the day up 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
CRH Medical was up 5.0% on Toronto. AutoCanada was up 2.7%.
Boston Pizza Royalties was up 0.9% to $23.04 and yields 6.0%. Despite some dip...

Ceapro is updated and rated Speculative Buy. As an early stage bio tech company, it is not very well suited to analysis by means of looking at earnings and the balance sheet. A good portion of its value lies in products that it has in development and...

I am currently working on an update for Ceapro which is a small company that I introduced as a speculative pick on February 17. I am quite bothered by what I view as weak disclosure of a 29% revenue decrease in Q4. In addition I now realize that the ...

CRH Medical is updated and remains rated Speculative Buy at U.S. 8.55 and Canadian $11.49. This small medical services company was added to the site on October 9, 2016. Since then it's price is up 98%. Its earnings are still rising sharply and it sti...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Costco was up 1.8% after reporting relatively strong same-store sales growth in March.
Futures markets for the S&P 500 and DOW are down only modestly on the news of the U.S. attack o...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 ended the day down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.2%. Earlier in the day the Dow had been up 200 points.
As of this evening futures are indicating a moderately negative start to trading on Thursday.
I am maintaining a somew...

Tuesday's markets saw the S&P 500 gain 0.1% and Toronto gain 0.5% as oil was higher.
One of the smaller companies on our list, Ceapro, was up 6.4%. There was no news from the company. At this point I would wait for the 2016 earnings report before...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.2%. This evening, futures are suggesting that market will open slightly to the downside on Tuesday.
Linamar was down 2.1% This may have been due to weaker auto sales in the U.S. where re...

On Friday the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.2%.
On Friday, Statistics Canada released positive news on the growth of the economy.
I think Bombardier executive chairman and (not coincidentally) controlling family member Pierre Beaudoin did ...

Canadian Tire is update and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $157.98. Keep in mind that the ratings are always based on judgement after looking at the various financial and non-financial items in our report. A simple rating cannot convey all of the material ...

On Thursday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.5%
Dollarama was up 11.2% as this impressive company continues to do well.
AutoCanada was up 2.7%
Bombardier was criticized after raising executive pay by some 50%. It's a shame that th...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Melcor has once again renewed its share buyback plan. If the past two years are any indication, virtually no shares will actually be repurchased.
Rail car loadings in Canada are runni...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.6%. Most of the stocks on our list rose today.
Home Capital was the big topic of conversations in business news for Canada today. The stock fell 9.6%. If I owned it, I know it would be diff...

On Monday the S&P 500 was down 0.1% after recovering from deeper losses earlier in the day. Toronto was up 0.4%.
The U.S. markets continue to largely shrug off concerns about investigations into the Trump campaign and concerns that he will not be...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
About the only large mover on our list was Ceapro up 6.4% But this is a penny stock and so big moves are to be expected. Small companies are allowed more time to release earnings and...

Thursday's markets saw the S&P 500 down 0.1% while Toronto rose 0.5%.
Fedex was down 3.4% after releasing earnings.
It seems to be becoming more clear that Trump will not have an easy time getting legislation passed. Also, the investigations into...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto each rose 0.2%.
AutoCanada was down 2.4%. I find it interesting to see how negatively the market has reacted to the declines in its revenues in 2016. The company reports that the prices being asked when if of...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.2% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
While I don't ever claim any ability to predict short-term moves, this was not a surprise given that the S&P 500 seems over-valued and given the fact that the Trump Campaign is ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.3%
AutoCanada was down a further 2.0%.
Statistics Canada reported a strong increase in wholesale trade driven mostly by the motor vehicle category.
In another positive sign for the econo...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
AutoCanada was down 9.7% after reporting earnings and an executive departure.
Our report on AutoCanada is updated and remains rated Buy now at $21.80. I am a bit concerned about what...

AutoCanada is down 7.4% to $22 after announcing weak earnings and an executive departure.
(In trying to react to this news I had to change this post a few minutes after first publishing it as I had at first not seen the earnings release.)
Yesterday o...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
AutoCanada was up 4.6%. But then after the close it announced two things. One was a two year extension to its big line of credit. The second was the immediate resignation of its Pres...

So, on rate-hike Wednesday, the FED did raise as expected. But apparently it spoke of two more increases this year rather than the feared three. Interest rate increases are like gravity to stock prices but the market viewed today's announcement as a ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 1.1%.
Oil is down to $48.51.
Couche-Tard was down 4.8% to $58.85 after reporting weaker-than-expected earnings.  I have only a small position in this company. For about the past 10 weeks,...

Stantec is updated and rated Buy at $34.25 or U.S. $26.45. The company does not appear to be undervalued based on trailing earnings. However, it appears that earnings per share are set to increase sharply in the range of 25% in 2017 as the economic r...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was up 0.2%. CRH Medical was up 3.3% and Linamar was up 2.1%.
The next update will be for Stantec. It looks expensive on a trailing earnings basis. But it appears to be forecasting earnings g...

Our report on an Enbridge rate reset preferred share EB.PF.A is updated and rated Buy at $20.87. These shares are considered to be somewhat less secure than the Canadian Western Bank versions and also the reset yield is 0.1% lower. Still with the low...

Our report on the Canadian western Bank rate reset preferred shares CB.PR.B is updated with a rating of (lower) Buy at $22.95. These shares have done quite a bit better than I had expected when rating them a Buy on December 7 at $19.00. They rose par...

Our report on Canadian Western Bank is updated with a rating of (lower) Buy at $30.58. On its face, the chance to buy a well managed bank for only a 30% premium to book value is attractive. This bank is extremely simple compared to the large Canadian...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Most of the stocks on our list were up modestly.
I notice a couple stocks that we no longer follow have declined. Liquor Stores N.A. which I turned quite negative on some time ago was do...

I was not happy to hear earlier this week about accusations that TD Bank has been overly aggressive regarding selling goals for tellers. I was also surprised.
I have been a TD customer for almost 30 years and I have not experienced Tellers or other b...

Our Canadian Exchange Traded Funds list is updated to show the latest P/E ratios, yield and P/B ratios.
ETFs can be a quick way to get into or out of the market or a particular segment of the market. And many people use them as permanent parts of the...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was about unchanged.
Linamar was down 3.8% despite posting good earnings and raising its dividend. The stock certainly looks cheap on a trailing earnings basis but the market seems to fear that its...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
Oil declined about 5% and was down to $50.28.
Bombardier was down 5.8% to $2.10 Canadian (our report is in U.S. dollars because it reports in U.S. dollars) even though it announce...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.1%
Melcor has been strong lately and is now at $15.99, which is significantly higher than its 2016 lows of under $12.50. Melcor will report next week. It is likely to report quite weak ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
It was in the news tonight that an Alberta man had taken his own life after losing money in a "binary options trading scam". Most subscribers here are not likely to fall for that kin...

On Saturday I sent out the latest edition of my free newsletter. This particular issue would be of interest mostly to non-paid subscribers. If you did not get it by email then add your email address to the list (The system will indicate if your email...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto rose 0.5%.
Costco fell 4.3% to $170.26 after announcing it would increase its annual membership fees. Costco is a wonderful comp[any but the stock has seemed too expensive. I don't think th...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.6% and Toronto fell 0.4%.
I have just updated my comprehensive analysis of the valuation of the S&P 500 index. I may be in danger of being labeled some kind of doomer since my point estimate for what I believe ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 1.4% and Toronto was up 1.3%.
Apparently, the market quite liked Mr. Trump's speech.
Some of the more notable gains on our list included:
CRH Medical up 8.3% on Toronto.
Linamar up 3.1%
Canadian Western Bank up 4.9%...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Tomorrow we will see how markets react to Trump's speech.
There were certainly some positives for the market to consider (subject to getting them passed in the house and Senate):
A ...

For the tenth year in a row, following the release of his annual letter, Warren Buffett appeared for three hours on CNBC's Squawk Box:
Here are my few comments about his latest investments that he discussed this morning.
He has invested about $18 bil...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.5%.  And the DOW set its 12th straight record close as it rose 0.1%.
Stocks of note included Andrew Peller down 1.9% to $10.64.
Toll Brothers was up 2.0% to $34.40. I think this company ...

Warren Buffett released his 2016 letter on Saturday morning. He will also appear on CNBC's Squawkbox for 3 hours from 6 am to 9 am eastern on Monday morning.
I have followed Buffett very closely for quite some years and so there was nothing really ne...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% but Toronto fell a hefty 1.6%.
Reports were that Toronto fell because, with the closing Monday of its acquisition of Spectra Energy, Enbridge was becoming a much larger percentage of the Toronto indexes (the lar...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.3%.
CRH Medical was up 5.3% after releasing earnings.
Statistics Canada released the latest figures on operating profits by industry.
...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average however was up 0.2% marking the ninth day of increases in a row the longest stretch in 30 years!
Toll Brothers was up 6.1% to $33.93 after releasin...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 rose another 0.6%, for a total gain of 5.6% this new year, and Toronto rose 0.5% for a total gain of 4.1% this year.
Melcor was down 3.5% today $15.11. But it is so thinly traded that one or two trades can push its price up...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
The Canadian Western Bank preferred share (CWB.PR.B) was up a surprising 3.0% to $21.22. However, this appears to have been due to one tiny trade near the end of the day. It is basic...

The table showing the breakdown of my own portfolio has been updated. My cash position is at 22%. Given, that overall stock market indexes seem expensive I think having a substantial allocation to cash is appropriate. I may try to raise it. Note that...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Canadian Tire surged 6.9% to $154.51  after posting a blow-out Q4 with same-store sales increases of 8.1% in the Canadian Tire branded stores (recall they also own Mark's and vario...

Another day, another record high for North American stocks...
On Wednesday the S&P 500 climbed another 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Heineken was up 3.7% in Euros. Melcor was up 4.0% albeit on its usual tiny volume. Bank of America was up another...

I just set up a twitter account as @InvestorsFriend   I probably won't use it that much but it may be useful for things like pointing out any posts I make on InvestorsFriend.com during the day (but I usually post only in the evenings and weekends). I...

As of Valentine's day, the markets were still showing us the love.
The S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Linamar was up 2.5% to $60.43.
Wells Fargo was up 1.6% to $57.98. That is impressive considering it still has the "unauthorized ac...

North American markets on Monday added to the record highs of Friday.
The S&P 500 was up 0.5% for a total gain of 3.9% in the first six weeks of this year. Toronto was up 0.2% for a total gain of 3.1% in those same six weeks.
These are enjoyable ...

Ceapro Inc. a small biotechnology company that trades on the Venture exchange is added to the list as a Speculative Buy. It's not easy to get a good understanding of a company like Ceapro given that it is very research and science based. I have tried...

In the next couple of days I will add Ceapro Inc. to the list. It's a small and profitable biotech company. I consider it to be somewhat speculative due to its small size, its low share price and for various other reasons. But it looks to me like a r...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
With this latest gain, North America stock market indexes are at record highs. That does not mean that stocks are necessarily over valued, but it should be taken as a sign to be somewhat...

Markets rose to new highs on Thursday after reports that Donald Trump had indicated that his plans to lower taxes on U.S. businesses was progressing well.
The S&P 500 was up 0.6% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Andrew Peller was up 4.4% to $10.84.
U.S. ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Melcor was up 2.9% but this was on a tiny volume.
Linamar was down 2.1%.
Bombardier was up 2.0%.Details emerged today that the new government loan is interest free and repayable over ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.3%.
Heineken was up 2.1% (this is the Euro price as we analyze this stock in Euros)
Bombardier's CEO seemed almost giddy about the Canadian government lending it some $372.5 milli...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Melcor was up 6.0% on volume that was higher than normal but still small. Nice, but not likely the start of any kind of trend. We will see how their Q4 earnings come in and especiall...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Wells Fargo was up 2.7% on indications that Trump would attempt to move forward with  reducing certain regulations applicable to large financial companies. For the same reason, Bank of A...

Thursday saw the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Toronto about unchanged.
Costco jumped 3.9% due to its strong same-store sales results in January.
CRH Medical was up 3.7% on Toronto as the stock continued to react to an acquisition it  announced two days ag...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Constellation Software was down 1.8% to $577.28. I had placed an order about a month ago to add a few shares to my (sadly) small position if it gets down to $570.
Costco rep...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.1%.
Statistics Canada reported sales at food service and drinking establishments for November and sales were generally up marginally including in Alberta.
GDP was also up marginally in Novemb...

I am just watching Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who were on Charlie Rose a few days ago.
https://charlierose.com/videos/29774
I wanted to capture a few thoughts.
First in terms of Warren's annual letter I mentioned a few days ago some possible topic...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 1.1%.
The rate reset preferred shares have continued to recover.
I sold my small remaining position in the Canadian Western Bank preferred share today at $20.61. I had bought this in an RR...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Transforce was up 2.8%. Toll Brothers was down 2.5% and I believe offers good value.
My sense is that the market is going to decide that it does not like Trump quite so much after al...

Andrew Peller Limited, the wine producer and marketer is added to the list. It is rated only a (lower) Buy at $10.79. I may take a small position and then see if a better buying opportunity arises. It's a well managed company. Those who buy Andrew Pe...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
There were not many notable moves in the stocks on our list but AutoCanada was down 4.4%.
I await with some trepidation the next moves from Trump and the inevitable reaction.
HBO i...

As anyone, not living off the grid is likely aware, Wednesday was a strong day on the markets with the DOW surmounting the 20,000 level for the first time.
The S&P 500 was up 0.8% and the Dow was up 0.2%.
AutoCanada and Stantec were each up 5.5%....

I am in Hawaii, arrived today for a week (Maui, Kihei)
Business wise one observation was Costco very busy mid afternoon Tuesday.
S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
Toll Brothers was up 4.6% and FedEx was up 3.3%.
Very few stocks on our ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Linamar was up 1.8% recovering some of the ground lost recently.
Wholesale trade for November was reported and was up marginally.
What will Buffett say?
In about five weeks, Warren B...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.9%.
Canadian National Railway, which looks expensive to me, was up 2.0%.
The December inflation numbers were reported and inflation remains tame.
The investment in new home construction for ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto was up 0.1%
American Express released earnings that were lower than expected. But that was due to a 35% increase in marketing spending which could benefit future earnings. And the company revis...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while Toronto fell 0.3%.
The stocks on our list were "mixed" with no particularly noteworthy movements.
Statistics Canada reported the change in "Employment Insurance" for November.
Alberta was up 3.4% and in...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.3%.
The Canadian dollar rose to 76.5 cents on Trumps remarks that the U.S. dollar is too high.
The Canadian Western Bank Preferred shares Series 5 have risen to $20.24. In the past week or two ...

On Monday the U.S. markets were closed while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Linamar was down 3.5% to $55.65 on concerns that Trump's protectionist policies will be harmful to non-U.S. based auto parts companies. That is a risk. However, I am not changing my ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
AutoCanada was up 4.1% to $26.62. I am not aware of any particular "reason" for this (which is not unusual as stocks move every day for reasons that may sometimes be known only to the bu...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Most of our stocks were down today although none by a particularly notable amount.
I am pretty much biding my time and waiting to see if any of the below market bids I had placed t...

Wednesday's markets saw the S&P 500 up 0.3% and Toronto up 0.4%.
Bombardier had another strong day, up 4.9% to $2.59. Welcome news for long-suffering share owners.
And AutoCanada was up another 2.5%.
The market reaction to Trump's news conference...

Tuesday's session had the S&P unchanged and Toronto up 0.2%.
CRH Medical was up 6.2% in Toronto.
Bombardier had another positive day, up 4.2%. I own a preferred share which has also been rising though not as much as the common.
Statistics Canada ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
Linamar was down 4.9% (probably based on some analyst downgrade given that the company did not release any news).
Melcor was up 2.5% but that was on its typically very thin volume.
S...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.6%.
Toll Brothers was down 2.0% to $31.24. It seems that home builder stocks are out of favor at this time. But I expect Toll Brothers to continue to grow its earnings this year and to b...

Thursday's action saw the S&P 500 decline 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
Amazon was up 3.1%. Costco was up 2.0% after reporting strong December same-store sales growth.
Bombardier was down 2.9%. There was a story today about one of its component...

On Wednesday the good times in the stock market continued. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and Toronto rose 0.7%.
Markets do not rise in straight lines and we should always be prepared for "corrections" at any time. Trimming any stocks that seem over-value...

On the first trading day of 2017, the S&P 500 rose 0.8% and Toronto was also up 0.8%.
Bombardier had a strong day, up 5.6%. I left it rated Sell for the start of this year. It is so far down that it does have potential but it remains a very poorl...

Most of the stocks on the list are now up to date. The ratings as they stand along with the final prices for 2017 will be used to track performance in 2017.
...

Our report on the Enbridge Series 9 preferred shares is updated with a rating of Buy at $18.80 to yield 5.85%.
Last year at this time they were also rated Buy at approximately the same price ($18.67). At that time I did not think there much chance th...

Heineken is updated and rated (lower) Buy at 71.26 euros on the Amsterdam exchange. It can be bought more conveniently as two shares of the America Depository Receipt HEINY at U.S. $37.41 per share. I had added Heineken to our list last July 28. The ...

On the final trading day of 2016, the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was down 0.9%.
Amazon was down 2.0%.
For 2016, the S&P 500 was up 9.5%, and Toronto was up 17.5%.
Our four strong Buys were up an average of 26.1% and the 24 stocks that ...

Visa Inc. is updated and rated Buy at $78.02. It looks to be poised for strong growth in the next year. I intend to buy a small position and then enter a bid to perhaps double the position if the shares decline. I may set the buy for that around $67....