2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto rose 0.4%.
AutoCanada was up 5.8% after "activist investor" Clearwater Capital Management released a copy of a letter that it sent to the AutoCanada Board basically requesting the company to put it...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
AutoCanada recovered 3.2%.
Dollarama recovered 3.5%
Toll Brothers was up 3.0%
The trade spat between Canada and the U.S. appears to be at risk of developing into a significant trade wa...

The report for Canadian Western Bank is updated and the stock is rated (higher) Buy at $37.05.
On Thursday, CWB reported strong growth in its Q2. In its 2017 annual report, the company very much emphasized that it intends to focus even more heavily o...

Thursday's action saw the SP&P 500 finish down 0.1% and Toronto was about unchanged with a 0.05% gain.
As expected, Canadian Western Bank released a strong earnings report for its Q2. Adjusted earnings were up about 19% year over year. Basically ...

Wednesday was mostly a positive day on the markets.
The S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
A report this morning indicated that U.S. exports reached a record high in April and the U.S. trade surplus fell modestly but remained at $46 bil...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
The seemingly unstoppable Amazon was up another 1.9%.
CRH Medical was down 2.2% but this gives back only a small amount of the recent gains.
Yesterday I doubled my small remaining posit...

Monday was a strong day in the markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.45% although Toronto was up only 0.5%.
Couche-Tard was up 2.3% but remains down about 15% this year. Based on past years, it will not report its results for the fiscal year ended April ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up a hefty 1.1% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
There were no particularly noteworthy moves in the stocks on out list.
The report for Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $192.23
Due to its insurance oper...

Thursday was mostly a negative day on the markets.
The S&P 500 was down 0.7%. Toronto managed a 0.1% gain.
Most of the stocks on our list were down. I started a small position in Canadian Tire today.
The trade war between Canada and the U.S. is b...

Markets bounced back on Wednesday with a 1.3% gain for the S&P 500 and 0.8% for Toronto.
With Kinder Morgan Canada down about 2% earlier today (finished down 0.9% at $15.95) I decided to double my small position. That is not based on my own analy...

Tuesday was a negative day on the markets as the S&P 500 declined 1.2% (and the DOW was down 1.6%) and Toronto was down 0.6%. Apparently the U.S. decline was linked to fears about the implications of yet another election in Italy.
U.S. financial ...

This morning's news about the pipeline nationalization was to me a pleasant surprise. Not a shock since the idea had been floated but a surprise. I think the alternative would have been that Kinder Morgan Canada would have announced it could not proc...

On Monday, the U.S. markets were closed for the Memorial Day holiday. Toronto was down 0.4%.
Our one and only penny stock, Ceapro bounced up 10%. They have their annual meeting tomorrow. This stock is highly speculative by nature. The company is curr...

On Friday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.2%.
Oil (West Texas) has declined about 5% to $67.14. Apparently this was due to rumors of OPEC volume increases.
Those holding various stocks are always waiting for positive news. Mostly we wai...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1% as Trump rattled markets by canceling the meeting with the North Korean leader and by looking into excuses for imposing duties on vehicle imports.
Linamar was down 1.8% to $67.24. I...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Couche-Tard was up 3.5%.
Linamar was down 1.9%.
AutoCanada was down 2.4%.
Markets are set to open moderately down on Thursday and Trump targets auto and truck imports.
...

Toll Brothers is updated and now rated (lower) Strong Buy at $39.58 (that was a price from earlier today, it closed at $39.91.
For those holding it, the recent price decline is certainly disappointing.
It's a cyclical industry and so projecting futur...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 1.6%. Perhaps the market is starting to give some credit for the higher oil prices.
Toll Brothers was down 9.6% after reporting earnings. Despite many...

Toll Brothers has fallen about 8% this morning after releasing earnings.
I though the earnings release had good points (revenues up 17%, home deliveries up 15% in dollars) but the bottom line earnings were down slightly (probably partly due to higher...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% while Toronto was closed.
FedEx was up 2.1%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.1% and will report earnings before the open tomorrow (Tuesday).
CRH Medical was up 2.9%.
...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.8% to $43.18 which came after it had slipped under $41 earlier in the week.
Constellation Software was up 1.5% to $997.68. The stock seems expensive in relatio...

Thursday's markets saw the S&P 500 down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
I did end up buying back half of the portion of my Linamar shares that had sold on May 10 at $74.90. I paid $70.32. I was tempted to wait ans see if Linamar drops again which...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Notable gainers include:
BHP Billiton (The BBL shares) up 1.7% to $47.05. These shares had trended down from $45 in February and bottomed at under $39 on April 9th. This is a case whe...

Tuesday's action in the markets saw the S&P 500 down 0.7% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
The U.S. 10 year government bond yield rose 8 basis points to 3.08% from 3.00%.
The 10-year Canadian government bond yield is at 2.42% as of yesterday. That rais...

The Boston Pizza Royalty units results for Q1 are out this morning and are weak and disappointing although not devastatingly so.
In this particular case GAAP net income means little and the value of the units is driven by growth (or decline) in same-...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.6%.
TFI International was up 2.2% to $37.81 and has risen nicely since it reported excellent Q1 results on April 25. It's been a growth-by-acquisition story that has worked very well.
I am...

Melcor Developments is updated and remains rated Strong Buy at $15.40 (That was the price earlier today although it closed at $15.70). Earnings are volatile so perhaps the attractive P/E of 8.6 is not all that relevant. But the fact that the shares t...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.15%.
Canadian Tore was down 2.0% as investors worry about its announced acquisition of Helly Hanson.
CRH Medical was up 6.6% to $4.49 in Toronto and 9.2% to $3.55 in U.S. trading. It has mad...

Thursday was a generally positive day in the markets.
The S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
BHP Billiton (BBL) was up 1.9%.
Stantec was up 1.9% after reporting earnings that were I guess reasonably good. They do still have some lingeri...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 1.0% while Toronto was up 0.4%.
BHP Billiton was up 3.1% (the BBL American Depository Receipts in New York).
The Enbridge pref share ENB.PF.A on our list was up 3.2% on news that Enbridge is selling some assets. I...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was up 0.2%.
AutoCanada was down another 3.2%. (See update in the post before this one).
Melcor Developments released Q1 earnings after the close. I will be looking at this very closely an...

AutoCanada is updated and rated Buy at $17.34. Based on trailing year earning it could easily be rated (higher) Buy. But Q1 2018 was quite weak and there is some danger that the weakness will continue. On the hand its recent  acquisition of 8 dealers...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 0.35% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Constellation Software was up 2.1%.
AutoCanada was down another 4.0%. I plan to post an update tomorrow. Q1 adjusted earnings were quite weak. In part this was due to the net impact of ...

Friday was a strong day in the markets although AutoCanada was a notable exception.
The S&P 500 was up 1.3% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
CN Rail was up 2.2%, Linamar was up 2.1%.
AutoCanada was down 10.4% after releasing earnings. The quarter was def...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% (but had been down more like 1.2% earlier in the day). Toronto ended the day about unchanged.
CRH Medical was up 3.0% to $4.08  in Toronto and 4.9% to U.S. $3.20 in the U.S. It has held onto the gains it ach...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Melcor was up 3.45% but it is very thinly traded and can be volatile for that reason.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was down 2.2%.
In the FedEx update this week I noted that the income...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.25% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
CRH Medical rose 13.5% in Toronto to $4.04 and 10.7% to $3.10 in U.S. trading. This was because it released Q1 earnings. It also announced another modest acquisition, acquiring 51% if ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Berkshire Hathaway was down 1.8% to $193.73 and might be worth nibbling on in advance of its Q1 earnings to be released on Friday which will be followed by its famous annual meeting ...

FedEx is updated ad rated Buy at $247. This stock is down 1% this year to date but that was after rising 34% in 2017. Given that large rise in 2017 I was predisposed to thinking this stock would rate no more than a Hold rating. But its earnings have ...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was up 3.6% to $56.91. This is a welcome increase but I am hopeful of a better recovery in this stock. It reached a a high of close to $68 early this year and it...

Further to yesterday's update of CN Rail, I have made a few minor edits to the report emphasize that a new risk in 2018 is the state of NAFTA negotiations given that one third of its traffic crosses the border. I also added a few details about which ...

CN rail, Canadian National Railway Company is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $100.65. The As detailed int he report, CN stumbled through this past winter and encountered operational problems when traffic was higher than expected and the weather was...

Thursday was a strong day for the markets with the S&P 500 up 1.0% and Toronto up 0.8%.
Most stocks on our list were up.
Stantec rose 3.9% (see previous post)
Amazon rose 3.9% and is set to rise noticeably on Friday after it released Q1 results t...

Stantec is up 4.6% this morning to $33.20 on news that it has put the construction company portion of its relatively recently acquired MWH division under strategic review (it wants to sell the division). This would be good in that it would get Stante...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.2%.
CN Rail was up 2.4%. I am in the process of updating the report for CN.
Toll Brothers was up 2.5%.
AutoCanada rebounded 7.8%.
Ceapro bounced up 9.1%.
My small position in VISA got sold on M...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.3% while Toronto was down 0.5%.
AutoCanada was down 4.6%. It looks like good value but the market is not yet convinced of that. We will know more when it releases earnings on May 3, after the close.
Amazon was down ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was about unchanged and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Couche-Tard was up 2.4%.
TFI Industries was up an additional 1.65%.
Penny Stock Ceapro bounced up 8.7% mostly recovering Friday's decline.
Statistics Canada reported a decline in...

Statistics Canada released figures for February sales at food service and drinking places. This is relevant to the prospects for Boston Pizza units and other restaurant stocks.
February sales in Canada were up 4.4% in February versus one year ago. On...

On Friday, Statistics Canada released retail sales figures for February which were up a strong 3.5% for Canada (year over year) driven by a 4.2% increase in Ontario which is likely related more to price increases related to the higher minimum wage as...

On Friday, I had a private tour of Amsterdam Stock Exchange for just myself (and three somewhat reluctant others traveling with me). They include a brief history lesson and a little trading simulation game and it was actually fun for everyone. Also t...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.85% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
WSP Global was up another 2.0%.
Penny stock Ceapro was down 6.1% after releasing earnings. Earnings for 2017 were weak but that situation had developed for at least a year and is no...

Thursday's session saw the S&P 500 down 0.6% and Toronto down 0.5%.
Most of our stock picks were down including Toll Brothers down 3.7%, AutoCanada down 2.7% and Alimentation Couche-Tard down 1.6%.
Meanwhile American Express was up 7.6% after rel...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% while Toronto climbed 1.1%.
West Texas oil is at U.S. $68.75 which is a three year high.
The Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged today.
BHP Billiton was up 3.5% to $43.00 for the BBL shares in New York...

On Tuesday, markets managed to rise for two days in a row which seems rare lately.
The S&P 500 was up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.35%.
Seemingly unstoppable Amazon was up 4.3%.
Boston Pizza Royalties was up 2.9%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard continued ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 shrugged off the firing of missiles into Syria that occurred Friday evening and rose 0.8% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Costco rose another 3.0% to $194.58. It had dipped to as low as $179 earlier this year and still looked ex...

Friday was a less volatile day in the markets as the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and Toronto was about unchanged.
Most stocks were relatively stable.
WSP Global was up another 2.2%.
Some smaller companies were more volatile including CRH Medical up 3.7%. A...

The horrible tragedy in Humboldt Saskatchewan took the lives of at least two kids from St. Albert, a suburb of Edmonton that has been my home for 23 years and where my kids were raised. I don't know the families but I suspect they were not too many d...

In what seems to be a bit of an alternating daily pattern, markets were up on Thursday as Trump clarified that when he told Russian to get ready for missiles "because they will be coming" he did not say when.
The S&P 500 was up 0.8% on Thursday a...

Sometimes it feels like the U.S. market is taking turns, one day up and one day down. Yesterday was up, today was down somewhat.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.55% while Toronto was about unchanged.
There were no particularly notable moves ...

On Tuesday, the volatility continues with the S&P 500 up 1.7% and Toronto up 0.2%.
Oil (West Texas Intermediate) is at U.S. $65.68.
Most stocks on our list were up. BHP Billiton was particularly strong rising 4.85% for BBL American Depository Rec...

On Monday, markets continued to be volatile. The DOW closed up 46 points but had been up over 400 points at the high point today. The S&P 500 ended the day up 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
Most stocks were up modestly on the day.
Kinder Morgan ...

Heineken is updated and rated (lower) Sell at 90.20 euros on the Amsterdam stock exchange or $55.20 on New York for the American Depository Receipt HEINY which equates to one half of a Heineken share.
Heineken is best known for its namesake beer bran...

Today, I am posting from the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Brilliance of the Seas on the fourth day of a cruise from Tampa. The first stop is in the Azores. Then three stops in Ireland (Cork, Waterford and Dublin).
We finish in Amsterdam where I will tou...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 1.3%.
CRH Medical was up 9.5% in a partial recovery of recent losses.
AutoCanada was up 4.9%.
Toll Brothers was up 1.8% to $44.62. A few days ago it had been down very close to $41.
Couche-T...

Markets on Wednesday recovered from initial big losses related to trade worries and the S&P 500 ended the day up 1.2% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Toll Brothers had a strong day rising 4.1%.
CRH Medical continues to slip back and was down 4.3% in...

The S&P 500 and Toronto are each down about 1% as the market continues to be concerned about escalating trade tensions and actions.
Obviously, with the U.S. market still trading at a high P/E markets could certainly continue to go down. I have ne...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
TFI International (formerly TransForce) was up 1.3% after announcing an acquisition of a Quebec trucking company with 300 tractors and 1000 trailers. This would seem to be a relativ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 2.2% while Toronto was down 1.0%.
Most stocks were down including:
WSP Global down 2.9%, Canadian Western Bank down 2.6%. Walmart down 3.8%, Costco down 3.0%, and Toll Brothers down 3.0%.
U.S. government treasury b...

The second quarter of 2018 has started off on a negative tone with the DOW currently down 492 points or 2.0%.
This appears to be due (at least partly) to escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Toll Brothers is down 4.7% at the moment t...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 1.4% and Toronto was up 1.3%.
WSP Global; was up 2.8%and BHP Billiton was up 2.2%.
Linamar was up 3.5%.
Thursday marked the end of the first quarter. The S&P 500 was down 1.2% in the quarter while Toronto was d...

Constellation Software is updated and rated (lower) Sell at Canadian $874. (The report has the price in U.S. dollars because it reports in U.S. dollars). Constellation is a great company and exceptionally well managed. Historically, selling this comp...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.30%.
But many stocks were up. Boston Pizza recovered some ground rising 3.3%. Couche-Tard was up 2.9% and Stantec was up 1.4%. Despite a poor start to 2018 I think these investments will do w...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.7% giving back a good portion of Monday's gain of 2.8%. Toronto was down 0.5%.
Most of the U.S. stocks on our list that rose yesterday gave back a good portion of those gains today.
Boston Pizza Royalty Income F...

On Monday, the S&P soared 2.8% as fears of a Trump trade war with China were reduced. Toronto was up 0.5%.
U.S. stocks that surged with the rally included FedEx up 4.5%, Berkshire up 3.6%, Costco up 3.5% and Amazon up 4.0%.
The Canadian stocks on...

My article on the valuation of the S&P 500 is updated. Based on actual trailing GAAP earnings the index looks over valued with a P/E of 23.6. But projections are that earnings will surge in 2018 due to the Trump income tax cuts. The article shows...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was down a hefty 2.1% and Toronto was down 1.1%.
Most stocks were down...
Canadian Western Bank was down 2.8% to $33.22. I grabbed a few more shares on Friday.
Couche-Tard was down another 1.7% and I added modestly to my po...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell a hefty 2.5% while Toronto was down 1.8%.
The spark was Trump's moves to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports. I don't think investors can claim to be shocked by this. Certainly Trump's anti-trade views have been a ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Linamar was up 2.5% to $73.52 after some positive news on the NAFTA front that the U.S.A was dropping its proposal that all cars coming into the USA under free trade arrangement wou...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.15% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Couche-Tard was down 6.5% (see the post just below this one for details).
AutoCanada was down 2.0%.
Oil (at least the West Texas variety) was up 2.2% to U.S. $63.42. That's about $83 C...

Alimentation Couche-Tard is updated and rated Buy at $59.60.
The stock dropped 6.5% today after it released earnings that "missed analyst expectations". I would say it is more accurate to say that its earnings came in lower than analysts incorrect fo...

Markets were down on Monday with the S&P 500 falling 1.4% and Toronto down 0.8%.
BHP Billiton was down 2.6% in New York. This and the recent declines partly due to currency fluctuations as the stock has not fallen much in Australia. But it is fai...

Linamar is updated and rated Strong Buy at $71.73.
There are always risks and Linamar's price reflects a certain amount of NAFTA fear and reflects the fact that auto production in North America slowed in the last half of 2018.
But looking at the valu...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.1%.
The Canadian dollar was down and is currently at 76.3 cents. I had been wanting to move some U.S. dollars back into Canadian dollars and have used this latest ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
TFI International (TransForce) was down 2.9%. Our last rating was only (lower) Buy.
After the close, AutoCanada released Q4 results that were very strong. I don't know what the exp...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% while Toronto was about unchanged.
Toll Brothers was down 1.6% and is worth considering as a U.S. investment.
See the post just below this for an update and comments on Melcor.
I no longer have Liquor Store...

Melcor Developments is updated and remains rated Strong Buy, now at $14.00.
Certainly, Melcor's stock price has been disappointing since 2014. Some of the decline was warranted due to the lower oil prices and the weak Alberta economy. But when oil pr...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% while Toronto was up 0.3%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard was down 2.8%. I would be tempted to add to this stock on dips.
CRH Medical continued to slip back from its recent gains and was down 4.9%.
Linamar was down...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% whole Toronto was up 0.2%.
Melcor Developments was up 3.6% but that is not very meaningful on this thinly traded stock.
Note the previous post to this which updates the Melcor REIT.
Many Alberta-based stocks a...

The Melcor REIT is updated and rated Buy at $8.07 to yield 8.4%.
This REIT is trading at a 30% discount to the book value of the equity or a 14% discount to the total value of debt plus equity. Presumably there is investor fear about vacancies and re...

Friday was a strong day for the U.S. markets with the S&P 500 up a hefty 1.7%.
Toronto was up 0.25%
Gainers included Visa up 1.9%, American Express up 2.6%, Berkshire up 3.7%, and FedEx up 3.0%.
CRH Medical retreated 4.7%.
My next update will be ...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Toronto were each up 0.4%.
Linamar was up 8.4% to $73.75 after releasing a strong Q4 report.
Melcor Developments failed to react to its strong Q4 / 2017 earnings report and closed up 0.5% at $13.97. This for a company...

CRH Medical is updated and rated Speculative Weak Buy / Hold at U.S. $3.15 or Canadian $4.07. Basically I would not buy at this price. This has been a disappointing investment over the past 17 months since it was first added to the site. After an ini...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was close to unchanged (down 0.05%) while Toronto was down 0.5%.
CRH Medical was down 4.3%.
BHP (BBL on New York) was down 1.9% an the company has spoken out against Tump's tariff plans for steel and aluminum. BHP's main...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was about unchanged.
CRH Medical was up 12.8% in Toronto and a similar amount in New York. Apparently the market and or analysts were pleased with its Q4 report and the analyst conference call this ...

With CRH up a little this morning, I took the opportunity to reduce my position by what amounted to 44%. I had added to my position at prices as low as U.S. $1.75 and some at about U.S. $2.35. So these shares were sold at a profit (based on a last in...

Monday's markets improved through the day and the S&P 500 closed up 1.1% and Toronto rose 1.0%.
CRH Medical released Q4 results after the close. The revenue gains seemed quite positive and the outlook for revenue for 2018 seemed somewhat optimist...

Stantec is updated and rated Buy at CAN $32.22 or U.S. $25.05 (It was analysed at the previous closing price, it closed today at $32.42 and U.S. $25.05). Stantec has been a prodigious creator of wealth over the years but the stock has been relatively...

On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% (although the DOW was down 0.3%) and Toronto as down 0.1%.
AutoCanada was down 2.0%. They will not release Q4 results until March 15. I am expecting improved results in Q4 and and an improved outlook for 2018.
C...

Toll Brothers is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $43.91. The last update was on October 9, 2017 at $42.81. After that it went as high as about $52 before sliding back after the middle of January. I had reported trimming my position somewhat but I s...

Markets fell on Thursday and Trump indicated he will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. I am not very familiar with the rules but for things subject to NAFTA the partners are allowed to impose anti-dumping or countervailing tari...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.1% and Toronto was down 1.5%. I don't know if there was any special reason. U.S. markets remain relatively close to record highs and seem somewhat jittery regarding higher interest rates. Lately a 1.1% move in...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 1.3% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Toll Brothers was down 5.1% to $45.10 even though it reported strong Q1 fiscal 2018 earnings. Apparently the market was disappointed with the full year outlook. I believe it is a go...

Monday was another strong day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 1.2% and Toronto up 0.5%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 2.5%.
CN rail was up 2.2%.
Berkshire Hathaway was up 3.9% after releasing Q4 earnings and the annual letter and after Buffett ...

Friday was another strong day in the markets. The S&P 500 was up a hefty 1.6% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
Stantec was down 1.8% and I added modestly to my position in that company.
Warren Buffett's annual letter came out on Saturday. I will comment ...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated Buy at $176.15.
This company has been extremely well managed and has set ambitious goals to keep improving and growing and has met those goals.
In the very long term it has created billion in value for shareholders....

Thursday's markets were surprisingly strong or at least the DOW was, especially earlier in the day. The S&P 500 ended higher by just 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
It was disappointing to see Stantec down 11.0% after it released earnings.  GAAP ...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.55% as FED meeting minutes apparently caused the market to be more concerned about rising interest rates. Toronto was up 0.55%.
TFI International was up 10.5% after releasing Q4 earnings.
CN rail was up 2.8%.
...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% while Toronto was down 0.1%.
Most of the names on our list were down.
Walmart was down 10.2% to $94.11 after reporting earnings. Our last rating was (lower) Sell in October at $86.22. It had then promptly soa...

BHP Billinton came out with earnings which were strong but were lower than analysts expected. It also raised the dividend but my understanding is that they essentially have a policy of having a dividend that floats up as well as down with adjusted ea...

Friday's markets saw the S&P 500 about unchanged and Toronto up 0.3%.
Fortis Inc. jumped 3.75% to $42.08 as the market perhaps decided that its recent slide was over done.
Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd was up 4.45% to $19.97 after it got some positive...

A report this morning headlines that U.S. housing starts soared in January (albeit some of related to bad weather in December) and that housing permits are at a 10 year high. Despite that Toll Brothers was up only 0.8% to $47.08 and remains well belo...

Stocks were mostly higher on Thursday as the S&P 500 rose 1.2% and Toronto was up 0.5%.
Canadian Tire surged 6.5% after reporting Q4 earnings. Costco was up 2.5%.
Constellation Software was up 3.1% after reporting Q4 earnings.
Dollarama was up 2....

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was up 1.3% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Notable gainers included BHP Billinton, up 3.2% in New York. Costco up 1.7% and Visa up 2.0%. Amazon up 2.6% (And they said trees don't grow to the sky).
Fortis was down 1.7% to $39.6...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
TFI International was down 3.1% to $29.75. This company has a strong history of growth by acquisition and is very well managed. But it is in a tough industry. The price decline may be...

Sometime around the end of this month, Warren Buffett will release his annual letter.
It's hard to predict what Buffett will write about, but here are my guesses in that regard.
The letter always starts by noting the percentage change in Berkshire's ...

On Monday, the S&P 500 was up 1.4% and Toronto was up the same amount.
In part this was due to Trump releasing details of an infrastructure subsidy plan.
The plan seemed to get mixed reviews with some pointing out that the $200 billion is over te...

On Friday, the U.S. markets once again were highly volatile and the DOW, at it low, was down 500 points before finishing the day up 330 points or 1.4%. The S&P 500 finished the day up 0.5% and Toronto finished down 0.2%.
A number of U.S. stocks r...

On Thursday, the DOW ended the day down 1033 points or 4.15%. The S&P 500 was down 3.75% and Toronto was down 1.7%.
The biggest decliners on our list included Toll Brothers down 5.0%, American Express down 5.6%, Visa down 4.8%, FedEx down 4.7%, a...

The Dow was down 680 at one point and 518 as I write this.
So, it seems that the days of wild swings and possible big down moves are continuing.
I never know where the market is headed short term. I imagine another day of headlines of losses could tu...

The results for Boston Pizza this morning were fairly weak. Not terrible, but weak. Distributable cash per unit declined 2.9% in Q4 and 0.6% for the year. Royalty-;igible same store sales which is the key performance number was negative 0.2% in Q4.
T...

On Wednesday, U.S. markets were mostly higher but ended the day down slightly.
The S&P 500 was down 0.5% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Canadian Western Bank was up 2/0%.
Canadian Tire was up 2.6%.
Statistics Canada released data for building permi...

There is widespread confusion about how RRSPs really work and whether they are a tax-avoidance mechanism or a mere tax deferral mechanism, or worse a "tax trap".
The following illustrates divergent views on the matter:
A tale of Two Attitudes Towards...

U.S markets were once again not boring today, opening down then bouncing around considerably and then closely strongly higher.
The S&P 500 finished up 1.7%, the DOW was up 2.3% and Toronto was up 0.2%.
Boston Pizza was a notable winner today, up ...

So, after falling 666 points on Friday, the DOW fell another 1175 today.
The S&P 500 was down 4.1%, the DOW was down 4.6% and Toronto was down 1.7%.
Many commentators are aghast. But they should really get a grip. The U.S. markets were roaring hi...

WSP Global is added to the list rated Buy at $58.75. Many Canadians may not be familiar with this company. I hope the "Description" cell of the report does a reasonable job of giving an overview of the company.
It's a growth-by-acquisition company. I...

As of about 6:45 eastern the futures markets have the DOW down about 200 points. This often changes vastly over night so we will see where it opens.
In the last half of 2017 I had increased my cash position. As the U.S. market continued to soar that ...

There was nothing boring about Friday's markets.
The S&P 500 tumbled 2.1% and Toronto was down 1.6%.
Despite the scary headlines of the DOW being down 666 points or 2.5%, this drop is not large in the context of the way the U.S. market roared ahe...

At minus 20 or so here in the Edmonton area any talk of an early end to winter is certainly premature.
Stocks are down today. In the case of U.S. markets that seems like a bit of overdue sanity.
Boston Pizza Royalty is down 4.7% to $19.55. That may b...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1%. The Dow was up 0.1% but had been down earlier in the  day. U.S. markets have been gyrating a little. Tomorrow we will see how the market has reacted to several big earnings reports after the close today.
To...

On Wednesday, the U.S. markets initially rebounded from Tuesday's losses but were volatile. The indexes were negative in the afternoon before closing at a modest gain with the S&P 500 up 0.05%. Toronto was about unchanged.
CN rail was up 1.2%. Bo...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.1%. Despite the headlines, this is minor decline in the context of recent gains.
Toronto was down 0.9%.
Canadian Western Bank was down 2.7%.
Stantec was up 1.3% which was a nice gain on this negative day.
Boston Piz...

Well, the U.S. market decided not to rise on Monday. Well, markets don't rise everyday. (And normally they don't rise 9 out of 10 days either, but that seems to be about the recent situation).
The S&P 500 was down 0.7% and Toronto was down 0.9%.
...

Ceapro which is the only true penny stock on our list and which we have considered speculative for that and many other reasons announced this morning that it has lost a court judgement which appears to total $724,000 plus interest. (There a was anoth...

BHP Billiton is added to the site rated Speculative Buy at $U.S. 25. As noted in my post of Han 26 at 12:50 I bought the slightly cheaper BBL. See the report for more about the stock tickers. This company depends heavily on commodity prices so is inh...

UP, UP AND AWAY!!
On Friday, the S&P 500 surged another 1.2% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Most stocks rose including Walmart, up 1.6%, Berkshire up 1.0%, Dollarama up 2.0%, Amazon up 1.75%.
Bombardier (no longer on our list)  had a great day, up 15...

I am going to add BHP Billiton to the site probably rated Speculative Buy with an emphasis on Speculative. I usually don't look at commodity stocks but I am making an exception here. This is a huge and complex company and its value depends very heavi...

On Thursday, the DOW surged ahead another 0.5% but the S&P 500 was only up 0.1%. Toronto was down 0.5%.
Canadian Tire was up 1.5%. Costco was up 1.9%. Dollarama was up 1.6%. Amazon was up 1.5%.
Toll Brothers was down 3.3%. It's always been somewh...

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
CN rail was down 2.1%. Stantec was down 1.5%, Toll Brothers was down 1.5%.
CRH Medical has continued to recover and was up 3.0%.
U.S. stocks have kept going up despite P/E ratios ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up another 0.2% while Toronto was up 0.1%.
AutoCanada was up 3.0% and Amazon was up another 2.6%.
Boston Pizza Royalties was down 1.5% to $21.18 and yields 6.5%. Despite somewhat higher interest rates this is an attrac...

On Monday, as the partial government shut-down looked to be a short-lived situation the S&P 500 rose 0.8%while Toronto was about unchanged.
Berkshire was up 1.3%, Costco up 1.1%, Toll Brothers 1.3%, Visa 1.3%, Amazon 2.5%... The good times roll o...

The U.S. Senate has adjourned until tomorrow and so the U.S. government partial shutdown will last at least part of Monday. But it did appear that a vote on Monday morning might resolve matters for a few weeks.
Futures markets had been down only marg...

Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated Buy at $40.55. It has already made a strong recovery from the lows it experienced in 2016 due to (apparently unfounded) fears that it might experience problems with sub-prime mortgages similar to the Home Ca...

On Friday, the U.S. markets were unfazed by the impending (partial) U.S. government shutdown.
The S&P 500 was up 0.4%. Toronto was also up 0.4%.
CRH Medical was a notable gainer, up 6.7% in Toronto to $3.85. It's still down 32% from the price at ...

On Thursday, the markets had what seems to be a rare down day.
The S&P 500 index was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
Our biggest gainer was Constellation Software, up another 1.6%.
A number of large U.S. financial companies have reported big...

U.S. markets continue to be on fire. At the moment, this is a market that knows no fear.
The S&P 500 was up 0.9% on Wednesday and the DOW was up a scorching 1.25%. Meanwhile, Toronto was up 0.2%.
CRH Medical was up 6.5% to $3.44. The company cont...

I didn't intend to take yesterday off from posting (It was Martin Luther King Day and U.S. markets were closed) but due to some other distractions that is how it turned out.
On Tuesday, U.S. markets first posted new within-day highs as the DOW burst ...

U.S. markets soared again on Friday.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and the DOW was up 0.9% to 25,803. Toronto was up just 0.1%.
There appears to be a great deal of optimism that the Trump corporate income tax reductions will fall straight to the bottom l...

Wednesday was a rare negative day in the markets.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% and Toronto was down 0.4%.
Canadian stocks were likely negatively affected by the announcement that the U.S. is imposing countervailing duties on newsprint imports from C...

Another day and another set of records in the U.S. markets.
S&P 500 up 0.1% while Toronto was about unchanged.
With the recent strength in markets, especially the U.S. markets, reasonably diversified equity portfolios and balanced portfolios have...

I notice Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. has an offering this morning (still open at TD Direct as I write this) that pays a minimum 5.0% on a rate reset preferred share. This seems tempting. Even with interest rates rising, 5% does not seem like a...

On Monday, the S&P 500 ended the day up 0.2% while Toronto was down 0.2%.
Toll Brothers was up another 1.3%. Walmart, which we last rated (lower) Sell, was up 1.5%.
The rate reset preferred shares are generally still edging up and that's because ...

Friday's action had the S&P 500 up another 0.7% and the Dow up 0.9%. The gains have continued to come fast and easy on Wall Street. Toronto, however, was down 0.4%.
Toll Brothers was up another 2.2% to $51.21. This company has worked out as a dec...

Thursday was yet another wonderful day for stock investors. Especially U.S. stock investors.
The S&P 500 was up another 0.4%. The Dow was up 152 points or 0.6% as it cruised through the 25,000 point milestone without even slowing down to acknowle...

Markets were up fairly strongly again today. The S&P 500 was up % and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Toll Brothers was up 4.3% to $50.42.
TFI Industries was up 3.2%.
I don't know any specific reason for these two rising today. But I do know that, like virt...

The market is off and running for 2018 with the S&P 500 rising 0.8% and Toronto rising 0.6% on this first trading day of the new year.
FedEx was up 3.2%.
CRH Medical was up 4.8% on Toronto to Canadian $3.47. This has been quite a volatile stock w...