In the glass-half-full department, Warren Buffett, the CEO of investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., recently said, “American companies look very cheap compared to investment alternatives,” and promptly took a US$10 billion (5.4%) stake in International Business Machines Corp. In all, Berkshire, led by Buffett and his...
It’s tempting, when big business and big politics do the waltz, to bet on some outcome or other. Trouble is, it’s often impossible to see behind the veils and curtains, to say nothing of smoke and mirrors, that obscure the true picture of events. It’s even more difficult when what’s at stake is counted in the billions...
Allow me to begin with some background about what we know and think we know. Which is really another way of asking what is being priced into the market? It would seem from recent stats out of the US and Canada that a double dip recession is unlikely. Replaced by a prolonged period of slow growth which the US Fed estimates to...
Back in our September 26th blog (Copper Oversold?) we discussed the outlook for copper. Our view at the time was that copper was oversold and that negative sentiment had taken mining stocks down. At the time, I suggested buying a couple of the junior down and out copper stocks (Copper Mountain Mining Corp. (TSX: Copper...
For the past five years, the S&P/TSX Capped Consumer Discretionary Index has ended December higher month over month from November. It’s a basic seasonality pattern that sees companies in the sector grow in sales and profitability during the peak Christmas spending season. Companies in this sector include an eclectic mix...
How quickly sentiment can change. Global markets have rallied despite little concrete evidence of a solution to macro uncertainties facing the global economy. Which is to say; Europe? The optimism reflects a view that a broad solution will soon be implemented. And to that end, we have European leaders and large European banks...
Canada’s S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index slumped 38% from its March high to last week’s low, as the price of Nymex crude oil for future delivery collapsed from US$114 per barrel in late April to US$76 per barrel this past week. The principal reason cited, and there are many points of view as to what is actually driving the...
After weeks of speculation, parliamentarians in Berlin last week voted to increase German taxpayers’ exposure to worthless Greek sovereign debt by approving a near-doubling of the lending capacity of the eurozone bailout fund. Stock markets around the world rallied early in the week in giddy anticipation of the vote, while...