08 Jul
Economics:
Stock markets in North America have been taking a beating recently especially the oil and gas sector. Oil has dropped about $10 in 2 days and oil stocks have sold off to much lower levels than when oil was last back at this level. It’s not just oil and gas stocks that are selling […]
Posted in Economics, Investor implications, Oil by: arnie
No Comments
04 May
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 […]
Posted in Agriculture, Ben Bernanke, Commodities, Economics, Energy, Fertilizer, Housing, Inflation, Inflationary Policy, Manufacturing, Oil, Portfolio, Stagflation, interest rates, natural gas by: arnie
No Comments
24 Apr
Economics:
The Bank of Canada reported that it doesn’t see credit conditions returning to normal until 2010. Growth in 2008 is expected to be weak but still positive 1.4%; 2009 should see strengthening to 2.4% and 2010 should see growth of 3.3%. Given the weakness forecasted, expect the BOC to continue cutting interest rates at […]
Posted in Commodities, Economics, Housing by: arnie
No Comments
23 Apr
Canadian retail sales decreased 0.7% in Feb, still up 5.7% y/y. This is another sign that Canada could be heading for a rough patch and might be an indication of the more conservative nature of Canadians compared to Americans when it comes to spending.
Commodities:
Weekly oil inventories (all grades) showed a drop of […]
Posted in Commodities, Oil, Stock Watch, natural gas by: arnie
No Comments
22 Apr
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 […]
Posted in Commodities, Housing, Oil, Portfolio, Stock Watch, interest rates, natural gas by: arnie
No Comments
21 Apr
Recap:
Another US bank reported poor earnings, as Bank of America’s profits fell 77% on $6 billion of write downs. So far this quarter most of the poor earnings have been restricted to the companies with financial exposures i.e. banks.
Commodities:
Interesting stat by the International Energy Agency (EIA) that shows oil consumption by the emerging markets […]
Posted in Agriculture, Housing, Oil by: arnie
2 Comments
18 Apr
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 […]
Posted in Commodities, Housing, Inflationary Policy, Oil, Portfolio, oil sands by: arnie
No Comments