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POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $97.21 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares.com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index, which consists of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap.

The Nasdaq 100 Index contains shares of companies in a number of major industries, including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. The fund’s expenses are about 0.20% of its assets.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Cisco Systems, Intel, Amazon.com, Gilead Sciences, Comcast Corp. and Facebook.

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Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

Tennant has risen steadily over the past few years. But even though it fell back slightly during the recent market slump, the outlook remains very positive for its environmentally friendly products.

TENNANT CO. (New York symbol TNC; www.tennantco.com) makes industrial floor-cleaning equipment, including scrubbers, sweepers and polishers. It also manufactures cleaning gear for garages, stadiums, parking lots and city streets.

In 2008, the company started selling equipment featuring its ec-H20 technology, which uses electricity to turn tap water into a chemical-free cleaning solution. This helps cut the machine’s operating costs.

Strong demand for this equipment increased the company’s sales by 9.4% in the three months ended June 30, 2014, to a record $219.1 million from $200.2 million a year earlier. Sales of ec-H2O gear rose 7.6% and account for about 20% of Tennant’s overall revenue.

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SPDR S&P 500 ETF $194.35 (New York symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. companies that are chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, J.P. Morgan Chase, Chevron, General Electric, Berkshire Hathaway, Wells Fargo, IBM, Pfizer, Verizon and AT&T. The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets.

If you want exposure to the S&P 500 Index, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF is a buy.

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DIVIDEND INDEX FUND $25.38 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds 30 of the highest-yielding Canadian stocks. Its selections are based on dividend growth, yield and payout ratio. The weight of any one stock is limited to 10% of its assets. The fund’s MER is 0.55%. It yields 3.8%.

The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 7.4%; National Bank, 6.9%; TD Bank, 6.7%; Bank of Montreal, 6.0%; Bonterra Energy, 6.0%; Royal Bank, 5.3%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.6%; BCE, 4.1%; Trans- Canada, 3.9%; and Laurentian Bank, 3.8%.

The ETF holds 53.0% of its assets in financial stocks. The top Canadian finance stocks have sound prospects. However, if you invest in this ETF, be sure to adjust the rest of your portfolio so it won’t be overly concentrated in the financial sector.

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ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $21.54 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange....

TELUS $38.35 (Toronto symbol T; Shares outstanding: 615.0 million; Market cap: $23.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.telus.com) continues to expand its health care division, which helps doctors, pharmacies and hospitals convert patient records and other information to
electronic formats.

The company recently paid an undisclosed sum for ZRx Prescriber, an app that lets doctors write prescriptions through their tablet computers and smartphones. The app can also access a patient’s drug-insurance information, which speeds up claims and cuts down on errors.

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H&R REIT $21.86 (Toronto symbol HR.UN; Units outstanding: 272.4 million; Market cap: $6.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.2%; www.hr-reit.com) owns stakes in 41 office buildings, 112 industrial properties and 168 shopping malls across Canada.

In March 2013, H&R finished building the Bow, a $1.33-billion, two-million-square-foot office complex in Calgary. Encana Corp. has leased the entire building for 25 years.

In April 2013, H&R completed a $3.1-billion purchase of 27 properties from Primaris REIT. These assets include the 567,000-square-foot Dufferin Mall in Toronto’s west end.

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RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $25.67 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 306.7 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.5%; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT), with interests in 340 shopping malls containing over 81 million square feet of leasable area. That total includes 47 U.S. malls with over 13 million square feet.

In the three months ended June 30, 2014, RioCan’s revenue increased 8.5%, to $295 million from $272 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit rose 5.0%, to $0.42 from $0.40.

RioCan continues to see growth opportunities in Canada and the U.S. In 2013, it spent $849 million on 32 properties. In the first half of 2014, it added four more for a total of $45 million.

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ENCANA CORP. $23.88 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 741.0 million; Market cap: $17.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.3%; www.encana.com) has agreed to buy Athlon Energy (New York symbol ATHL) for $7.1 billion U.S.

Athlon produces 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent (80% oil and 20% natural gas) a day from 1,138 wells in Texas’s Midland Basin. To put that in context, Encana produces 491,700 barrels (86% gas, 14% oil) a day.

Encana recently completed the sale of its remaining 54% stake in PrairieSky Royalty (Toronto symbol PSK) for $2.6 billion. The cash from this sale will help it pay for Athlon.

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VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ETF $40.01 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Transitions Index, which is made up of common stocks of companies in developing countries. The fund’s MER is just 0.15%.

The Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF’s top holdings include Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), China Mobile (China: wireless), Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Brazil: oil and gas), Itau Unibanco Holding SA (Brazil: banking), China Construction Bank, Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Naspers Ltd. (South Africa: media) and Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics).

The $59.3-billion fund’s breakdown by country is as follows: China (20.6%), Taiwan (13.7%), Brazil (13.7%), India (9.9%), South Africa (9.7%), Mexico (5.7%), Russia (5.4%), Malaysia (5.2%), Indonesia (2.9%), Thailand (2.8%), Turkey (1.9%), Chile (1.7%), Poland (1.7%) and others (5.1%).

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VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $98.25 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index, a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of large U.S. companies. The fund’s MER is just 0.09%.

The $42.4-billion Vanguard Growth ETF’s top holdings are Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Oracle, Schlumberger, Comcast, Qualcomm, Gilead Sciences and Walt Disney Co.

The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology (23.8%), Consumer Services (19.7%), Financials (12.3%), Health Care (12.2%), Industrials (11.8%), Consumer Goods (9.9%), Oil and Gas (8.1%), Materials (1.6%), Utilities (0.3%) and Telecommunication Services (0.3%).

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VERESEN $17.25 (Toronto symbol VSN; Shares outstanding: 220.6 million; Market cap: $3.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.8%) has agreed to pay $1.43 billion for Global Infrastructure Partners’ 50% interest in the Ruby pipeline system. Ruby is a newly built natural gas line that runs 680 miles from Wyoming to Oregon. Right now, it can pump 1.5 billion cubic feet a day, but that could be increased to 2.0 billion. Partner Kinder Morgan will operate the system.

The Ruby pipeline will benefit Veresen in two main ways:

First, the company is buying its interest through preferred shares that it can convert into common shares whenever it chooses. That means it will receive steady preferred dividends that will immediately add to its cash flow per share.

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CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $126 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 78.1 million; Market cap: $9.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) continues to add new locations and renovate older stores. It’s also benefiting from its 2011 purchase of the Forzani Group of sporting goods stores, including the popular Sport Chek banner. These moves are helping it compete with U.S.-based retailers like Wal-Mart.

In the quarter ended September 27, 2014, Canadian Tire’s earnings rose 18.4%, to $172.2 million from $145.5 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 21.2%, to $2.17 from $1.79, on fewer shares outstanding.

Overall sales rose 3.9%, to $3.1 billion from $3.0 billion. Same-store sales at the 493 Canadian Tire outlets gained 3.2% on strong demand for summer goods, like garden tools and patio furniture, and automotive products and services.

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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investing advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “If you consider charitable donations an investment in a good cause, be prepared to look into them as carefully as you would your investments to ensure that your money is going to the right place.”...

Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You’ll read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in one of our three newsletters featuring Canadian stocks—The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest and Canadian Wealth Advisor.

BCE is facing regulatory hurdles, but the company is improving its services while keeping its operating costs down. That should let it maintain its high dividend yield.

BCE INC. (Toronto symbol BCE; www.bce.ca ) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone services, with 5.0 million customers in Ontario and Quebec. It also has 2.2 million high-speed Internet customers and 2.3 million TV subscribers.

BCE also sells wireless services to 7.8 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations.

The company recently offered to buy the 56% of Bell Aliant (Toronto symbol BA) that it doesn’t already own. Bell Aliant sells phone and Internet services to 2.3 million clients in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE.

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Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in the stock at this time. Domtar Corp. (symbol UFS on Toronto; www.domtar.com), is among North America’s largest producers of paper (sold in huge rolls), with an annual capacity of about 3.4 million tons....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific investment advice, as well as questions on investment strategy and the economy. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week we offer you a report on one of the stocks profiled in these Q&A sessions. We give you Pat’s buy-hold-sell recommendation as well as his analysis of the stock. This is part of the specific buy, hold and sell advice we offer you in our daily posts. Every week you get “A Stock to Sell” on Monday, “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday, and “Our Top U.S. Stocks” on Thursday. Last week we had a question from an Inner Circle member about one of North America’s leading big-box retailers. Costco has built a growing business on the membership fees it charges and its policy of buying directly from manufacturers, which helps keep prices low. Pat balances the company’s rising revenues, international expansion plans and high membership renewal rate against the intensely competitive market in which it operates. Q: Pat: What is your advice on Costco? Is it a buy right now? Thank you....

Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

More consumers are shopping online instead of in stores. That trend has forced some book and music stores to close and is putting pressure on electronics chains and sellers of office and computer equipment.

Even so, most consumers still prefer to shop for clothes in stores, where they can try them on before buying. That’s a plus for Nordstrom. Moreover, the company continues to invest heavily in e-commerce and make it easier for shoppers to pick up their online orders in stores.

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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “The best way to stay ahead of the market—and all the people who manage to underperform it—is to avoid going in and out trying to buy low and sell high.”...

Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You’ll read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in one of our three newsletters featuring Canadian stocks—The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest and Canadian Wealth Advisor.

CGI GROUP INC. (Toronto symbol GIB.A; www.cgi.com)is Canada’s largest provider ofcomputer outsourcing services. CGI helps its clients automate routine functions, like accounting andbuying supplies. That makes them more efficientand lets them focus on their main businesses.

CGI follows what it calls a “Build and Buy” strategy. The “Build” part refers to expanding relationships with existing clients and attracting new ones. The company’s long-term outsourcing contracts give it steady, predictable revenue streams. They also let CGI sell these clients other services.

The “Buy” part of the strategy involves making acquisitions. CGI tempers the risk of buying other companies to fuel its growth by targeting firms that enhance its expertise or geographic presence.

For example, in August 2012, CGI completed the largest purchase in its history when it paid $2.7 billion for U.K.-based outsourcing firm Logica plc. As a result, Europe now accounts for 35% of CGI’s revenue, followed by the U.S. (25%), South America (20%), Canada (15%) and Asia (5%).

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Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in the stock at this time. Virtus Oil and Gas Corp. (symbol VOIL on the OTCQB market; www.virtusoilandgas.com), began trading in June 2014. The OTCQB market, formerly called the U.S. over-the-counter bulletin board, has no minimum financial standards and includes shell companies and penny stocks with minimal operations....

3M COMPANY $139 (New York symbol MMM; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 648.0 million; Market cap: $90.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.3m.com) started up in 1902, when it was called the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company.

It now makes over 55,000 different products, including pressure-sensitive masking and packaging tape, air purifiers, medical device components and reflective highway signs. Top brands include Post-it notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard protection and Thinsulate insulation.

3M’s wide variety of products cuts its reliance on a single industry or customer. Sales from outside the U.S. account for two-thirds of its total.

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YUM! BRANDS INC. $69 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 437.5 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.yum.com) earned $404 million in the three months ended September 6, 2014, up 165.8% from $152 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings rose 169.7%, to $0.89 from $0.33, on fewer shares outstanding.

If you disregard unusual items, including last year’s writedown of Yum’s investment in the Little Sheep restaurant chain in China, earnings rose 2.4%, to $0.87 a share from $0.85.

Sales declined 3.2%, to $3.35 billion from $3.5 billion. That’s mainly because a food-safety scare has cut traffic at Yum’s KFC outlets in China. As a result, the China division’s same-store sales fell 14%. However, same-store sales rose 3% at the company’s other KFC locations and 3% at Taco Bell. Same-store sales also rose 4% at the India division, while Pizza Hut saw a 1% decline.

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CEDAR FAIR L.P. $47 (New York symbol FUN; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Units outstanding: 55.9 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 6.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cedarfair.com) owns 11 amusement parks, three outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and five hotels.

The partnership reported record revenue of $939 million in the first eight months of 2014. Excluding a water park Cedar Fair sold in August 2013, comparable- park revenue improved by $12 million, or 1.3%, in 2014.

Colder-than-normal summer weather in the Great Lakes region cut attendance by 1%. However, visitors spent an average of 3% more in Cedar Fair’s parks.

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KRAFT FOODS GROUP INC. $57 (Nasdaq symbol KRFT; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 594.7 million; Market cap: $33.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.kraftfoodsgroup.com) makes a variety of grocery products, including Kraft macaroni and cheese, Oscar Mayer meats, Philadelphia cream cheese, Maxwell House coffee, Jell-O desserts and Miracle Whip salad dressing.

The company has raised its quarterly dividend by 4.8%, to $0.55 a share from $0.525. The new annual rate of $2.20 yields 3.9%. This is the second time Kraft has raised the payout since its spinoff from Mondelez International in October 2012.

Kraft Foods is a buy.

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