http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/index.html en-us Copyright 2007 Daily Buy-Sell Adviser. All rights Reserved. Daily Buy-Sell Adviser webmaster@iproduction.com Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:04:03 GMT Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:04:03 GMT IPS - www.iproduction.com There aren’t many companies that reflect the corporate history of America more fully than General Electric. And there aren’t many executives who made themselves better known to the public than the former CEO of that firm.General Electric (NYSE-GE) is the last survivor of the 12 companies on the first Dow Jones Industrial Average of 1896. Mr. Jack Welch was CEO of the company for 20 years, from 1981 to 2001, the author of no less than four books on corporate success, and now a vocal critic of his successor. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Intelligence_Report399-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Something’s got to give. Prices are going up, but the amount of money we take in for our exports is going down. Food prices keep rising. And we don’t have to remind anyone about the price of crude oil or gasoline.For the first time since the great inflation wave of 1970s, says Mr. Gordon Pape, the price of oil is making a big difference in our daily lives. Things can’t go on like this, he writes in The MoneyLetter. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/MoneyLetter398-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Everybody’s got an opinion. In the investment world, some opinions count more than others. Yours is the one that counts in the end, because you’re going to pull the trigger on the investment. But when you go out looking for informed opinion, it’s comforting to know that the experts do their homework.One of Canada’s leading advisories for income investors, the Money Reporter, likes to balance its ratings on income trusts with another independent point of view. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Money_Reporter397-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Being conservative and being careful aren’t always the same thing. Investors can sail into what looks like a safe haven for income and find themselves in a perfect storm of danger.Bob Carlson’s Retirement Watch puts it this way. “Conservative income investors look for low risk ways to increase their yield. Too often, the solutions they find end up costing them money.” Mr. Carlson makes the point with several examples. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Retirement_Watch396-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS We take you to Monte Carlo. On a hill above the town sit two ornate mansions, the Hotel de Paris and the Grand Casino.Below in the harbour, impossibly opulent yachts glisten in the setting sun. On the heights across the water rises the royal palace of the Grimaldis. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Growth_Stock_Outlook395-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS We have nothing against brokers. We have some very good friends who do it for a living. We have nothing against bank machines or credit cards, either. We use them regularly. But wouldn’t it be nice to do the odd financial transaction without worrying about the damn fees?Welcome to Dividend Re-Investment Plans. DRIPs, as they’re called, “can turn even small savings into serious money, thanks to a dozen attractive benefits,” says The Investment Reporter. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/The_Investment_Reporter394-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It’s an old saying on Wall Street. When the markets are floundering, someone will say wistfully: “There’s always a bull market somewhere.”Somehow, we doubt that many Wall Streeters would be thinking of Canada when they utter the phrase, even if the S&P/TSX Composite Index has outpaced the big U.S. benchmarks this year. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts391-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Here’s the problem in a nutshell. “As oil prices soar to record highs, investors wonder whether this is great because they are invested in oil stocks, or nerve wracking because oil might be in a bubble.”This is the observation Mr. David Chapman shares with readers of Investor’s Digest of Canada. There is no cut-and-dried answer to this problem, he adds. “In some respects, they are both right.” http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada389-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Base metals may sound drab compared to precious metals, but they can turn into a precious commodity for investors. As the bull market in commodities has chugged along, copper, aluminum, nickel and zinc have all in their turn yielded excellent results.But surely there's a limit to this good news. That's the contention of an U.S. advisory that follows the mining game as closely as anyone. Doug Casey's International Speculator keeps a close eye on the junior mining stocks that populate the Toronto exchanges. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/International_Speculator388-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS "We had a wild idea." With that opening shot, one advisory editor set off in quest of the dragon.The editor is Mr. Max Bowser, editor of The Bowser Report, an advisory that prides itself on being "the only newsletter for stocks $3 a share or less." http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Bowser_Report387-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The S&P/TSX Composite Index was up again yesterday, and four of the top five gainers were commodity stocks.No kidding, you may be saying. What else is news? Almost half of the exchange is taken up with commodities, or what are often called energy and material stocks. 48 per cent, to be exact. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/The_MoneyLetter386-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Next time you walk up to an ATM, you might reflect that you had a better quarter than the firm with its logo on the machine. They’ve still got more money than you, but you may have handled yours a little better lately.Here’s the scorecard for Canada’s big banks. Five made money in the second quarter. One didn’t. None showed a profit increase from the same period a year ago. Only one of them raised its dividend. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Money_Reporter385-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Spanning the globe to bring you the widest possible range of investments, we touch down on the coast of Brazil. Not on the beaches at Copacabana or Recife, but out in the ocean.We’re here for oil. Our guide is Mr. Randy McDuff, who takes us down to Rio (sort of) in the pages of Investor’s Digest of Canada. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada384-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Both U.S. presidential candidates support a CO2 emissions control plan that is being promoted as a “free-market thingamajig.” But it’s not, says The KonLin Letter. It’s another piece of tinkering that will do more harm than good. (“Thingamajig” is the advisory’s term, of course, it won’t be found in any campaign literature.) http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/KonLin_Letter383-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS We’re not among those Canadians who get all worked up about what Americans know or don’t know about Canada. But for purely practical reasons, we really like it when U.S. experts recommend a Canadian stock.In this case, it’s an income trust. The recommendation comes from Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street, a name that continues to carry a good deal of weight on the Street. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Louis_Rukeysers_Wall_Street382-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS A century and a half ago, Canada West was what we now call Ontario and Canada East was Quebec. Now Canada West is where the economy is booming and Canada East is where it’s not.As experts pore over the state of the Canadian economy looking for signs of recession, that distinction is crucial, say the editors of KeyStone’s Small-Cap Stock Report. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/KeyStones_Small-Cap_Stock_Report381-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Canada’s big benchmark index has broken through to new highs in recent weeks. How good is that? Well, it’s not bad, but it’s not cause for a flag-waving celebration, either.Canada’s smaller index, the TSX Venture, is nowhere near new highs. That certainly is not cause for cheering, since it tells us that emerging Canadian commodity stocks are not getting a lot of love. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Emerging_Growth_Stocks380-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS In troubled markets, dividend stocks look better than ever. But don’t just settle for dividends, says this advisory, look for growth as well.The last few days we’ve had some gloomy tales to tell. Everything from exploding real estate bubbles to swirling tornados to markets headed into still more stormy weather. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts378-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Meteorologists are trying to determine whether or not a tornado struck southwestern Ontario this past weekend, or just very high winds. It’s supposed to be too early for tornados in these latitudes, but the weather just doesn’t seem to behave like it used to.What about seasons for investors? Are they out of whack? Does the timeworn phrase “Sell in May and Go Away” still apply? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Street_Smart_Report377-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS There’s a consensus growing in many quarters that “the worst is over.” The markets have rallied from their winter lows and the U.S. recession has been a bumpy but brief one. By August or September things should be back to normal. (Of course, there are places around North America where normal won’t be coming back, as in Oshawa, Ontario, which will have a big hole where its GM truck plant used to be). http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Yamamoto_Forecast376-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The biggest deal in Canadian history is turning into a cliffhanger. Everybody’s headed to court to try and sort it out before the June 30 deadline. We can’t wait for the thrilling conclusion. But the conclusion will be less thrilling for some than for others. When it comes to BCE Inc. (TSX-BCE), nothing ever seems to be simple. In a moment, we’ll give you the investor’s guide to the situation from an advisory that’s been covering BCE and other Canadian stocks much longer than most, The Investment Reporter. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investment_Reporter375-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS If you want to know how consumers are feeling about the economy, who do you ask? Well, you could go to the local grocery store, but you’d probably just be in the way (and if you’re anything like us, chances are you’re in the wrong aisle anyway). And everybody’s got to buy groceries, whatever the price. There are more fruitful ways of measuring these things, at least as far as one U.S. advisory is concerned.Ask the people who deliver things, says Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report. They have their fast-moving fingers on two pulses — consumers and businesses. And they have some good news to go along with the bad news. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Intelligence_Report374-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Sometimes it’s good to go where other investors fear to tread. Real estate, for instance, has not been at the head of most investors’ must-buy list since the subprime mortgage crisis begin draining the blood out of the credit markets last summer.Look at the income trust market, for example. While income trusts as a whole have been up more than 14 per cent so far this year, the REIT sector has fallen into the basement with a negative return. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Money_Reporter373-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS This just in — history is going to repeat itself. The history we’re talking about here is one that has cropped up in the business media countless times of late. It’s about oil and gasoline. It’s about the oil shocks of the 1970s and whether or not we’re going through the same thing today. And it’s about the role Canadian crude has to play in all of this. Mr. Grant Campbell says that things may not be quite as dramatic as they were in the 70s, but the end result will be about the same. Writing in Investor’s Digest of Canada, he tells his readers to get ready to adjust to higher gasoline prices. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada372-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Everyone knows that supply and demand is keeping commodity prices high. Even with a slowing U.S. economy, all those developing nations are crying out for oil, copper, fertilizer and other commodities. Right?Yes, but … there’s another hidden stream that’s feeding the commodity bubble. It’s happening in the trading rooms of Wall Street and other world markets, but it’s not common knowledge on Main Street. It’s a fairly obscure offshoot of commodity futures trading and it’s pushing prices above the normal laws of supply and demand. That’s the conclusion we find in Ian McAvity’s Deliberations on World Markets. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Deliberations_on_World_Markets371-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS You don’t have to turn left. That’s not a political statement, it’s a new driving strategy. And it contains an interesting lesson for investors.So does the direction of the stock market, according to Bob Carlson’s Retirement Watch. Many investors in the U.S. seem to think that the economy and the markets are getting better. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Retirement_Watch370-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Here’s one way to profit from globalization you may not have thought of before. Buy a port. A container port. In fact, buy one in Germany.Before you ask us whether we took an early trip to the wine store today, let us inform you that this idea comes from a very successful investor. Mr. Randy McDuff quit the brokerage business in Winnipeg after just 14 years and runs his own portfolios on a leading market web site, Marketocracy.com. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada369-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Sorry if this is beginning to sound like a broken record (or a CD with some dirt on it), but dividends are good for you. Not only do you get regular dividend cheques, the stocks that pay dividends tend to do better than the stocks that don’t.Look closely at equity markets in Canada and you’ll see that a relatively small group of stocks have pushed it to its recent highs — and most of those are dividend payers. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts368-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Ten years ago, the price of crude oil was $11.91 a barrel. Really. In America, drivers were paying about $0.91 a gallon for gas. Canadians were paying more, at $0.65 a litre, thanks to higher taxes. No wonder big vehicles were all the rage.Last week, gasoline prices pushed past $4.00 in the U.S. In Canada, prices per litre ranged from $1.23 in Edmonton to $1.42 in Labrador. Oil was “down” from earlier highs at $132 a barrel. How did things get so crazy in such a short time? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/MoneyLetter367-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Mr. P.E. Trudeau quipped that Canada was like a mouse lying in bed with an elephant. And we all know that if the American economy sneezes, Canada is supposed to catch a cold. But is it true? If it happened before, will it happen again this time?Doug Casey’s International Speculator wants to know. Mr. Casey, an American, has a portfolio chock full of Canadian junior mines. And he firmly believes the U.S. economy will get worse before it gets better. So it is of obvious importance to him to determine whether a slumping U.S. economy will pull Canada down with it. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/International_Speculator366-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS In the investment world, decision-making usually gets down to one basic proposition — buy or sell. But when the companies we buy begin to remake themselves, the decisions get a little more complicated.We have the example of two big Canadian companies staring us in the face. EnCana Corp. (TSX-ECA) is dividing itself in two. Thompson Reuters (TSX-TRI) is doubling up with a large acquisition. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investment_Reporter364-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS When you buy a blue chip, dividend-paying stock you don’t have to be ruffling through the paper or jumping online every day to follow the progress of the company. Any big news that affects the stock will come to your attention soon enough.It’s a different story with a small cap stock. You need to know what’s going on. Small caps run on information — not just quarterly reports but press releases, analysts’ reports and any other scraps of news that pop up. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Bowser_Report363-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Commodities are in uncharted territory these days. Some say they are overpriced and ready to tumble. Others contend that the demand from developing economies has changed the rules — commodities can sustain a longer and stronger bull market than ever before.And not all commodities flourish at the same time. Base metals haven’t been all that brilliant lately, but that may change. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada362-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The U.S. stock markets are up 12 per cent from their lows in March, so things must be getting better. The all-important Dow Jones Transportation Average is up.Up is good, right? It’s good if the foundation is solid. But this is all happening on top of a U.S. economy that’s getting worse, not better. So watch out below, says The KonLin Letter. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/KonLin_Letter361-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS What would you like first, the good news or the better news? Actually, we’re not sure which is which, so we’ll start out in the middle. Canadian income trusts are doing very well. Canadian common shares may be doing even better.That’s the word from one of Canada’s leading experts on the trust market, the Income Trust Guide published by the Money Reporter. And it doesn’t feel slighted that stocks have been doing a little better lately. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Income_Trust_Guide360-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Maybe there should be an Oil Channel on TV. We could get constant updates on the prices of West Texas Intermediate, Brent Blend and Dubai crude, panel discussions on the political machinations of OPEC or Peak Oil Theory, and eyewitness reports on new discoveries around the globe. All oil all the time.The fact is, you cannot exaggerate the importance of oil, Mr. John Stephenson writes in the latest edition of The MoneyLetter. We see the rising value of energy every day at the gas pumps, but that’s just one expensive drop in the bucket of the worldwide thirst for oil. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/The_MoneyLetter359-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS As a rule, big picture or “top-down” investing means finding a sector with a bright future, then deciding which stocks in that sector are going to reap the greatest benefits.Mr. David Chapman gives a much-bigger-than-usual picture — the whole world. Three concerns are going to have a lasting impact on our daily lives, the chain of supply and demand and the actions of nations. They may well lead to war … in one sense, they already have. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada358-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS April is the cruellest month of all, a poet said. But this year it was reasonably compassionate. In this part of the country, the last part of April felt like summer. And the stock market emerged from a dreary winter with a bit of a bullish run.But there may be some cruelty ahead, say the editors of KeyStone’s Small-Cap Stock Report. “Father Market,” they say poetically, “delivered a rather flowery April, which could set the table for a showery May.” http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Small-Cap_Stock_Report357-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Whenever we’re wondering just how bad things could get in the markets, we know we don’t have long to wait for the most pessimistic possible answer. Once a month, we hear from Hawaii, whose sun-swept beaches are home to one of the great American bears.Mr. Irwin T. Yamamoto hasn’t had anything good to say about the markets or the economy for over a year. And you can’t really say he’s been wrong. The one thing he is happy about is the performance of his portfolio — it’s kicking the stuffing out of stock markets around the world. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Yamamoto_Report356-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS There are no Canadian teams left in the Stanley Cup playoffs (in case you hadn’t noticed), but we have a comeback for that. The best foreign stock for U.S. investors is Canadian. This may be no consolation to fans in Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal, but it’s good news for a group of Canadian shareholders. A prominent American advisory, Dow Theory Forecasts, has released a list of the 25 best foreign stocks trading in the U.S. A dozen of them are Canadian, including the advisory’s most highly rated foreign stock for U.S. investors. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts355-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Wall Street has been the scene of daylight robbery this year. Some critics might say that’s exactly what the bigwigs on the Street have been doing to Shareholder Nation for decades. But we’re not here to argue that point.The thievery in question is technically legal, but scarcely ethical according to Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report. Referring to the now-notorious bailout of failing investment bank Bear Stearns, Mr. Young says flatly: “The initial $2-per-share offer was theft. And to top it off, the Fed opened up a $200 billion line of credit to the investment banks just after forcing Bear into the hands of JP Morgan.” http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Intelligence_Report354-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Remember Bre-X Minerals? The story had all the elements of a best seller — intrigue, bluff, fraud, mysterious disappearances and ultimately, tragedy. There was one thing it didn’t have. Dividends.Not every stock that doesn’t pay dividends is a Bre-X, of course. And some dividend-paying stocks have taken pratfalls in the market and had to cut their dividend payments. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investment_Reporter353-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS If you’re looking for a way to illustrate the problems in the economy and the markets, movies are a great place to start. That’s the word we get from a man who’s an expert on the markets, and an unrepentant film buff.Mr. Raymond DeVoe, a market strategist for a securities firm in New York, brings us his rather unique perspective in the DeVoe Report. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/DeVoe_Report352-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It’s easy to be mesmerized by oil and gas. They fuel our vehicles and heat our homes, and the rise and fall of energy prices is front-page news more often than not. Apparently, we can’t get enough of it. Yesterday, we heard from a leading Canadian advisory that explained why rising energy prices have been so beneficial to the leading oil and gas royalty trusts. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts351-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It’s over. Tax returns have been filled out, sworn over, signed and sent on their way (except, apparently, for some Net filers). Now we can all start thinking about how to save on next year’s tax bill.Of course there is one very prominent tax saving vehicle that is open to you for two and a half more years — income trusts. And there happens to be one group of income trusts that is gushing over with good news. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Money_Reporter350-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Things change. They’re changing right now and if investors don’t keep pace with those changes, they’re liable to wind up with the wrong assets at the wrong time. That’s the word from Mr. Bob Carlson, who has two very straightforward questions on the future ahead of us.What can we expect? And when can we expect it? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Retirement_Watch349-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The story is so familiar, many investors could probably recite it in their sleep (and maybe some do, to the greater consternation of their spouses). Financial wizards rake in big fees with collateralized debt obligations and other “special investment vehicles,” all kept conveniently off the balance sheet. Subprime mortgage market implodes. Bad credit is splattered everywhere. Giant investment bank Bear Stearns falls to it knees. Stock markets go down, then up, then down. Where will it all end? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/MoneyLetter348-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Seeing both sides of an argument can be taken several ways — incredibly broad-minded or just plain wishy-washy. But it can also be good for your financial health.If you can see a question from all sides, you may be able to make some useful and profitable decisions. And few questions are bigger than the future of Canada’s commodities. Mr. Louis Paquette can actually see more than two sides to this puzzle. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Emerging_Growth_Stocks347-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS This is the first time we have seen a parallel drawn between the credit crisis and Harry Potter. “Like the feared guards of Azkaban, the Debt Dementors arrive with little warning and suck the happiness out of their victims, who thought making money was the inevitable result of their financial acumen, perhaps because they were confusing a bull market with brains.” (For those who have managed to avoid both the books and the movies, Azkaban is a prison for wizards.) http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Contra_the_Heard346-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS We hear today that the province of Ontario is in a recession, in at least one economist’s opinion. No such pronouncement has been made about the rest of the country, and it’s certainly not the case in the west. But in these unstable times, nothing should surprise us. With the economy and the markets facing the drip, drip, drip of erosion from the credit crisis, it may well be time for investors to take some very conservative steps. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investment_Reporter345-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It was less than five years ago that General Electric (NYSE-GE) finally abandoned its long-familiar slogan “We bring good things to life.” But then things tend to go a long way with G.E., including its recent stock market plunge.Founded in 1878 by Thomas Alva Edison, it is the last survivor of the 12 companies on the first Dow Jones Industrial Average of 1896 (which also had such staples as American Cotton Oil, Distilling & Cattle Feeding and American Lead). http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Street_Smart_Report344-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS We have the impression that the income trust market is turning into a sort of game show. The host — who bears a strong resemblance to the finance minister — keeps adding new challenges for those who are chasing the big prize.With over two and a half years to go before the final challenge — the income trust distribution tax of 2011 — yet another obstacle has been added. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Money_Reporter343-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Everybody remembers Enron. It was the scandal that wouldn’t quit. But we’re not here to rake Enron over the coals again. Instead, we find Enron held up as an example of how one simple piece of evidence may be all you need to make an investment decision.In the latest issue of The Complete Investor we read the following: “Over the years we’ve learned that common sense can go a long way when it comes to making investment decisions. You can spend hours digging through financial statements, but often the best clues are right in front of you.” http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Complete_Investor342-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS We know that Charles Dickens visited Wall Street (as well as the Bowery and the notorious Five Points slum) on his trip to New York in 1842.That may not seem strictly relevant to today’s markets, except that Mr. Sam Stovall, who calls himself a “stock market storyteller,” thinks Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities best describes the outlook for the market in 2008. It will be a tale of two halves. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Louis_Rukeysers_Wall_Street341-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Nothing in the markets is quite what it seems — or what many commentators insist it must be. In a time when uncertainty rules, all kinds of forecasts that seem to make sense keep skidding off in odd directions.For Mr. John Kaiser the greatest frustration is the unfair punishment meted out to junior mining stocks, his area of interest. And this leads him to some penetrating comments on the markets in general. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Bottom-Fish_Action_Report340-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It’s fairly obvious that the outlook for the economy isn’t great. But can we really tell the difference between a recession and a slowdown? If we knew the TSX and the Dow Jones were going to be down three days next week and up two, would it really make a big difference to most of us?Probably not, is the answer of at least one seasoned observer. “As a money manager,” says Mr. John Sartz, “I am often asked to provide a forecast for the stock market. Although many of my colleagues may not admit it, the usefulness of such exercises can be considered on a par with party tricks at a social gathering.” http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/339-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Today we find an editor who thinks he’s falling in love. The object of his affection is a writer, or at least that writer’s ideas. Because she’s sticking up for the average investor.Mr. Max Bowser, editor of The Bowser Report, is a small cap specialist who writes for small investors. “We get so emotional when we discover anyone saying anything good about Mr. Six Pack buying stocks himself.” In this case, Ms. Janet Paskin, writing in Smart Money, has very good things to say. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Bowser_Report338-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The word recession is getting tossed around regularly by columnists, analysts and other market followers. OK, but what exactly is it going to mean? What can America — and its neighbours and trading partners — expect if recession sets in?First, it’s when not if we have a recession, says Mr. Irwin T. Yamamoto, an analyst whose bearish outlook far pre-dates this crisis. You’ll be hearing that word a whole lot more, he writes in The Yamamoto Forecast.The analyst adopts the most commonly used definition of recession — two consecutive quarters of negative growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). That means no real growth in the economy for over six months. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Yamamoto_Forecast337-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The other day, we were reminded of one of those signs you used to see in roadside general stores: “We don’t take credit for anything — so don’t give us any. Cash only.” Maybe they should have hung one of those signs in the traders’ room at Bear Stearns.With the credit markets apparently getting worse before they get better, it’s not easy to decide where to turn for income. At the beginning of this week, we relayed the advice of a leading U.S. advisory that income investors were liable to get more from utilities than from bonds. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada336-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Oh boy! More obscure debt instruments! You’ve probably had your fill of ABCPs, CDOs and the whole alphabet soup of SIVs (structured investment vehicles). But we’ve got another one for you: ARS.This acronym stands for Auction Rate Securities. These are defined as debt securities (what else?) — municipal bonds, corporate bonds, preferreds — for which the yield is reset on each payment date by auction. Brokers bid on behalf of clients and the winners get the same yield — i.e., the lowest yield that triggers the sale of the entire amount. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/KonLin_Letter335-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS We’re just as tired as you are of watching the markets scramble up, then tumble back down. We’re equally appalled at the apparently bottomless pit of poisonous credit that lies in wait for more victims.But we are determined to look for the silver linings that are out there. There are always winners in the market. It’s just a matter of knowing how to look for them. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/KeyStones_Small-Cap_Stock_Report334-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It was just three years ago that crude oil surged past $50 a barrel, prompting all kinds of excited comment about how high it was going to go. Try $109.09. That’s where it stood when the dust settled yesterday.Oil has always been the source of larger-than-life expectations. So what expectations should investors have for energy stocks in light of these booming prices? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investment_Reporter333-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It may not be true that all investors become conservative when the markets start misbehaving, but conservative investments certainly get more attention in times like these. And at a time when financial stocks are the chief culprits when it comes to misbehaviour, utility stocks would seem to be the number one choice of equities in the conservative camp. Thus the competition for income investors’ dollars is between utilities and bonds. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts332-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS When gold hit $550 an ounce in 2005, there was a great deal of buzz about whether it might return to its all-time high of $850 an ounce — that exalted figure had been reached in 1980. In January of this year, gold futures breached the $1,000 mark. In fact, the 1980 high still stands if you account for inflation. That $850 ounce of 1980 gold would be worth about $2,477 in today’s U.S. dollars. But that doesn’t make the recent high any less spectacular. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Deliberations_on_World_Markets331-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board now admits that a recession is “possible.” Many of the newsletter editors we survey were telling him that months ago… and not always in the kindliest terms.But it is not the debate between Mr. Ben Bernanke and his critics that is our chief concern, entertaining though it may be. Our concern is how to invest when you’re not sure what tomorrow will bring, or when another Bear Stearns may tumble down to blaring headlines and panicked markets. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Money_Reporter330-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The word infrastructure has been around since the 1920s, when it was coined to describe the roads, bridges, buildings and transportation systems that were needed to make industry run. It also came to stand for the military installations needed for a nation’s defense.But it’s only recently that infrastructure has become a hot investment term. A whole lot of the infrastructure that has been built since 1920s is starting to wear out. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/329-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS As a rule, when an advisory devoted to “growth stocks” comes across our desk, it frequently equates “growth” with “small.” The stocks often trade at five dollars or so with an eventual target price around ten. There are biotechs creating new drugs, high-tech companies that “provide solutions” to any number of technological quandaries and other such upwardly mobile firms.And there’s nothing wrong with that. Getting it right with one of those small fry can be a very lucrative proposition. But bigger stocks can grow too. (The stock market would be a stale place, indeed, if all the movement took place among the bottom feeders while the big fish simply spit out dividends.) http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Growth_Stock_Outlook328-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS As far back as the eighteenth century, travellers took note of bitumen seeping into the 250-foot high “cutbanks” of the Athabasca River. Of course, since they weren’t travelling in SUVs or even Model-T Fords, the fact that this could be converted into synthetic crude didn’t mean much to them.Nor would they have worried much about the cost of getting the stuff out. Today everybody worries about the costs. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada327-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Watching those up and down arrows or the indexes that track the charts every morning is not good for one’s peace of mind. Even when things are looking up for a day or two, it’s easy to get the sinking feeling that it’s only temporary and that more bad news is just around the corner.Of course, there is a very persuasive school of thought that says patient long-term investors need not be frightened by this turn of events. Holding a strong stock portfolio through thick and thin will bring prosperity. And you can scoop up good stocks at bargain prices during the general selloff. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Fleet_Street_Letter326-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Takeovers can be unsettling. If a store that you like is taken over by a big chain, will it change beyond recognition? Will you get the same choice? Will you get the same service? Will you even see the same people when you walk in?Unfortunately, your chances of being disappointed are pretty high. Maybe Mr. Big doesn’t understand what made the store successful in the first place and wrecks the chemistry of the place. Or he just wanted the location and could care less about the character of the store. Or he’s just out to smother the competition. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Canadian_Mutual_Fund_Adviser324-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS With much of Canada in the grip of a long winter, a false spring or two is to be expected. The temperature goes up, a few stalks poke through, then winter jumps up and slaps them down again, like one of those movie villains who’s supposed to be dead but isn’t.The same thing happens in Virginia, says Mr. Bob Carlson. Writing in Bob Carlson’s Retirement Watch, he describes how a few warm days brought people out in T-shirts and shorts, and daffodil stalks out for an early peek. A few days later, it was back to heavy coats and no flowers. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Retirement_Watch323-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS “Did you ever feel like you were a passenger in an out-of-control bus that had just lost its brakes on a mountain road?” That’s the sensation Mr. Gordon Pape got from just one day’s worth of headlines. Such as: “Warren Buffett says U.S. is in recession.” “Bank of Canada slashes rates; says situation deteriorating.” “Bank profits slump.” http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/MoneyLetter322-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS When a small stock starts to move, it moves fast. The profits can be spectacular. There may not be a better investment than a small company that is bursting through into the ranks of the big ones.The question is: how often does it happen? An advisory that has been tracing Canadian stocks for decades puts it this way: “The trouble is that we have an all-too-human tendancy to overestimate the chance that this will happen.” http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investment_Reporter321-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Since we’re in the business of studying investment advisories of all kinds, it seems a good idea to go straight to the horse’s mouth. What does a man who starts up a market letter think you, the investor, should get out of his publication?We have an opportunity to do that because we have one editor of a market letter interviewing the editor of another. The interviewer is Mr. Max Bowser of The Bowser Report. The interviewee is Mr. David Robinson, whose publication is called The Bull & Bear Financial Report. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Bowser_Report320-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The idea couldn’t be simpler. Companies that depend on a strong economy aren’t going to do as well when the economy is weak. According to many experts, that doesn’t mean you should ignore them entirely. You’ve undoubtedly heard over and over again that a good company whose shares are down is a great bargain. Buy low and wait for the stock to go marching back up. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Louis_Rukeysers_Wall_Street319-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS There’s a chill on Bay Street and Wall Street these days — or is it a fever? Now they’re not just worried about investors’ money, but about their own futures. But there’s not much to be gained by dwelling on this uninspiring picture. It’s time to look at a brighter picture, which we find in the world of income trusts.What’s going on is not the worst news you will find in the financial pages these days. Income trusts did very well last month. Even yesterday, the S&P/TSX Income Trust Index finished the day in positive territory. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Income_Trust_Guide318-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS On Friday, our report came from an unhappy advisory that claimed the powers in Washington were prepared to bail out the big guys at the expense of the little guys. No kidding. Before the day was over, failing investment bank Bear Stearns was thrown a lifeline by the Federal Reserve Board, backed by credit from JP Morgan Chase. Even many street insiders aren’t too happy about this one. Bear Stearns, which has a reputation for sharp practice, was an aggressive promoter of subprime mortgages, and was less than candid about its growing financial woes. (A decade ago, when a bailout was organized for the Long Term Capital Investment hedge fund, Bear Stearns refused to contribute.) http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts317-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Maybe this can be written off as special pleading. Some parts of it may even sound a bit like a left-wing harangue (although we assure you that could not be further from the truth). But this advisory is mad as heck and it isn’t going to take it anymore. Not in print, anyhow. This U.S. advisory believes that small and medium-sized businesses are being left stranded in the wake of the spreading credit crisis. It also believes that the powers in Washington bail out their corporate buddies before they think of the little guy. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/KonLin_Letter316-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Many people have tried to turn investing into a science, with greater or lesser success. Yet there are times when it looks like little more than a series of emotional outbursts of high anxiety, or unbridled enthusiasm. But of course no science has yet been found that can remove the emotion from human nature. There are certainly abundant reasons to be anxious in today’s markets. The affects of the credit crisis are all too real, and investors have some hard decisions to make in the months ahead. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Small-Cap_Stock_Report315-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Yes, we have one energy stock for you today. It’s not really the focus of our story, but it seems appropriate to mention it in light of this morning’s headlines. Since it appears we may to have to take out loans to fill our gas tanks for the summer vacation, the least we can do is extract some investment dollars from the oil industry in the meantime.The real theme of our story today is how to build an investment portfolio in the midst of a market that has fed on instability for more than six months. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/The_MoneyLetter314-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Commodities have been much on our mind lately. Yesterday we heard from one Canadian analyst who believes that Asian demand will more than offset an anticipated U.S. slowdown in maintaining the general health of commodity prices. Today we visit an analyst with a slightly more sinister interpretation of high commodity prices. Supply and demand is doing its job, all right, we read in Ian McAvity’s Deliberations on World Markets. But there’s more to the story. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Deliberations_on_World_Markets313-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Canada is rich in natural resources. That’s a pretty obvious statement, but it’s not a complete one. Canada’s natural resource firms don’t just draw their wealth from our own soil but from around the globe. In short, the experience and expertise bred of generations of exploring, digging and drilling is one of the main reasons Canada stands at the forefront of the global commodities trade. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada312-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS You can hardly enter the investment pages without tripping over an acronym. RRSP. RRIF. TSX. ABCP (that’s a nasty one — asset backed commercial paper). Sometimes an acronym completely takes over the identity of a company. When’s the last time you heard the name Bell Canada Enterprises used?TFSA is the latest acronym in Canadian investing. The Tax-Free Savings Account has entered the investor’s lexicon in the latest federal budget. It looks like a great idea. It is, with some reservations. That’s the opinion of one of Canada’s leading advisories on income investments, the Money Reporter. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Money_Reporter311-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS He predicted trouble, and it came. He predicted things would get even worse, and they did. He doesn’t think the economy is anywhere close to getting out of the woods yet. No one we’ve reported on in these pages has been a more consistent bear than Mr. Irwin T. Yamamoto. Throughout the past year, his portfolio has not changed: 90 per cent cash in money market accounts and 10 per cent in the Rydex Ursa Fund which shorts the S&P 500. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Yamamoto_Report310-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Here’s an investment argument that never seems to run out of gas. Do you look first at the big picture? Or just at individual stocks?Are you better off looking to see which parts of the economy are bound to do well and picking stocks accordingly? Or is it preferable to just search for good individual stocks that look like they’re going to grow? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investment_Reporter309-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Making money on money may once have seemed like the kind of thing only hot-shot international traders could really do successfully. But there are so many funds tracking so many different things these days that currency investing can be done pretty easily.It’s just a matter of picking the right currency and the right time. This requires a bit of homework and an idea as to what makes currencies tick. Why was the Canadian dollar a 67¢ weakling for so long before it turned around and started kicking sand in the face of the greenback (and into the machinery of Canadian exporters as well)? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Intelligence_Report306-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS You can have it all: the thrills and profits of stocks, the tranquility and certainty of bonds. Step right up. You can get it all in a balanced fund.Or can you? Is a mutual fund that offers you a “one-size-fits-all” solution really able to give you the best of both worlds? If so, how come everybody’s not in one. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Canadian_Mutual_Fund_Adviser305-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS During the Cold War, the occasional report would surface indicating that Soviet defectors wanted to return to the U.S.S.R. for one reason: too much choice. After having just one type of bread on the shelves, they were overwhelmed by the assortment of a dozen or more brands.Well, it’s been almost twenty years since the Berlin Wall fell (hard to believe it’s two decades already), so we assume folks in eastern Europe have gotten used to comparison shopping. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Retirement_Watch303-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS If investment analysts were nutritionists, they’d keep recommending one source of financial health — dividends. In the rather grim markets we’ve had this winter they’d tell you to step up your intake of dividends, like taking your flu shot or increasing your doses of Vitamin C. So we’re doubling up on dividends. Yesterday, we recounted Mr. Gordon Pape’s prescription of five Canadian stocks with high dividend yields, delivered to an audience of U.S. investors. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Dow_Theory_Forecasts302-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS You could have picked up some great advice on investing in Canada this winter in Orlando, Florida. And not at Snow White’s Scary Adventures, either. This happened at the modestly named World Money Show.There, one of Canada’s best-known analysts was telling a largely American audience that Canada continues to have some very solid investments to offer. If you couldn’t be there, we can still take you there through the pages of The MoneyLetter. The speaker was Mr. Gordon Pape. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/The_MoneyLetter301-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It would be nice if we could toss the word “recession” out of our vocabulary for a while. Not to mention “subprime,” “slowdown” and other terms that stare glumly out at us from the financial pages.But it’s there, like a tree fallen across the highway. If we don’t deal with it, we’ll never get anywhere. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada300-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Whatever the stock markets do, whatever the economy does, the energy problem is not going to go away. For all of the sincere resolutions to cut down on consumption, the world’s thirst for energy is getting larger, not smaller.This raises a question for investors: with the price of crude oil bumping up against and occasionally exceeding $100 a barrel, isn’t the most obvious course of action to buy up the shares of oil companies? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Louis_Rukeysers_Wall_Street299-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The simpler the story, the deeper the truth contained in it. We’re not sure if we came across that somewhere in the works of a renowned philosopher. If not, we’ll take credit for it. You can quote us if you want.This story stems from the big story we’ve all been following: the sharp downturns in the market that kicked the year off so dismally. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Bowser_Report298-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It has always been our contention that investing and gambling are not the same. Putting your money into a stock you’ve carefully considered and drawing to an inside straight with a large pile of chips on the table are two fundamentally different activities.(On the other hand, if you got a great tip from somebody at a party and called your broker before giving it a sober second thought, we take it all back.) http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Small-Cap_Stock_Report297-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS It seems we can’t get away from the bear market these days. More and more observers are convinced that the bear is here and that the only question is: for how long?This is certainly the opinion of Mr. Louis Paquette, writing in Emerging Growth Stocks. He has seen the bear emerge from a long hibernation and is taking a long look at history to see just how long it might be with us. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Emerging_Growth_Stocks296-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS The loonie is coming home to roost. The high Canadian dollar is taking its toll on businesses across the country. So is the credit morass in the United States.In fact, the whole thing is a bit of chicken vs. egg (or loon vs. egg, if that seems more appropriate). The rise of the Canadian dollar mirrors the weakness of the American dollar. But it was also spurred on by foreign takeovers of big Canadian companies. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Deliberations_on_World_Markets295-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS You have exactly two weeks, in case you hadn’t noticed the unusual volume of ads, billboards and other assorted promotions from financial firms in recent weeks. Your RRSP deadline is coming up.You’d almost think that not making an annual contribution to your RRSP was akin to not filing a tax return. You become a sort of fiscal outlaw overnight. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/TaxLetter294-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS Investors are always full of questions — or ought to be. No doubt you should ask as many questions in good markets as in bad, but times like these do seem to lend themselves to a multitude of inquiries. Today, we have questions and the answers to go with them.We’ll sit in as investors fire questions at the editor of a leading U.S. advisory, Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report. In his latest issue, Mr. Young publishes a series of queries from his readers along with his detailed answers. We’ve selected the Q & A exchanges that should bear the greatest interest for Canadian investors. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Intelligence_Report293-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS This may seem to be an odd time to talk about global warming, in the midst of a winter in which the handle’s practically worn off the snow shovel, it’s been used so often. On the other hand, the Environment Minister has been in Nunavut getting a first-hand glance at the fate of our polar bears, so the topic never really seems to rest these days. http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/Investors_Digest_of_Canada292-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS If everybody knew that a recession was on the horizon, how come it took five months for the markets to panic? And if we are now entering a U.S. recession, and all that might mean for Canada, when will it end?And what should investors be doing about it? http://www.dailybuyselladviser.com/news/blank/The_MoneyLetter291-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS