Loading ...Economics:
The US ISM (a manufacturing index) in May showed some slight improvement, but still showed the sector was contracting with a reading of 49.6 up from 48.6…any reading less than 50 indicates contraction. Not surprising, the employment sector had another weak reading of 45.5 and the prices paid component hit an 87% which is […]
Should North American investors be investing based on an economic environment that is recessionary or inflationary?
As mentioned previously, the US economy seems to be in a bull market as bad news (such as housing or employment stats) results in rising stock markets. If the market responds to bad news by pushing up the stock […]
Interest Rates:
The FOMC did as expected and cut short term interest rates by 25 basis points and as you would expect they also signaled their concern about inflation even though fighting inflation isn’t their priority.
Economics:
Stagflation from the US might be spreading to Canada as monthly GDP in February dropped 0.2% and the industrial producer price […]
Stock Portfolio:
Today I bought call options on BCE Inc (T-BCE, N-BCE) with a May expiry when the stock was trading at $36.10 USD. BCE is the object of a friendly takeover at $42.75 Cdn, which means it trades at a fairly steep discount of around $6.00. The stock was down on news that a filing […]
Interest Rates:
Bank of Canada did as expected and cut interest rates by 0.50% Analysts are still expecting at least another 25 point cut at the next meeting.
Commodities:
Crude oil was up again setting another record high at $119 a barrel. China reported that Angola overtook Saudi Arabia as the top supplier of oil in the […]
Recap:
Wow, another big day in the market with the Dow up 228 and the TSX up 121. Citigroup posted another loss of $5 billion after writing down another $15 billion of assets. Oddly enough the markets were happy with the results, as they were neither as bad as the previous quarter $-10 billion, nor as […]
Recap:
The TSX was up 55 and the Dow Jones was down 23 after another big bank (Wachovia) reported a quarterly loss and cut its dividend. It’ll be interesting to see how many more write-offs are coming and how many banks report lower earnings or even losses. I expect there will be many more.
Economics:
Retail sales in […]
