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VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $82.43 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index, a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of shares of large U.S. companies. The fund’s MER is just 0.10%.

The $32.6-billion Vanguard Growth ETF’s top holdings are Apple, IBM, Google, Coca-Cola, Philip Morris International, Oracle, Comcast, Qualcomm and Intel.

The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology (26.1%), Consumer Services (20.9%), Financials (12.0%), Consumer Goods (10.6%), Industrials (11.5%), Health Care (9.3%), Oil and Gas (7.2%), Materials (1.6%), Telecommunication Services (0.4%) and Utilities (0.4%).
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TRANSCANADA CORP. $45.56 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 707.0 million; Market cap: $32.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.transcanada.com) has announced two major new pipeline projects.

First, the company says it will proceed with its $12-billion Energy East oil pipeline now that it has received enough support from producers. When completed, this new system will pump crude oil from Western Canada to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick.

In addition, TransCanada will spend $1.5 billion to expand its gas pipeline network in B.C. This will help it pump more natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a planned liquefied natural gas terminal near Prince Rupert.
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CANADIAN REIT $41.04 (Toronto symbol REF.UN; Units outstanding: 68.5 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.creit.ca) owns 194 properties, including retail, industrial and office buildings, across Canada and in Chicago. These holdings contain over 19.7 million square feet of leasable area. The trust’s occupancy rate is 94.9%.

In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Canadian REIT’s revenue rose 7.9%, to $93.2 million from $86.4 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit gained 18.9%, to $0.63 from $0.53.

Canadian REIT added $197.6 million worth of new buildings in the latest quarter and $11.3 million worth in the first quarter. That followed property purchases totalling $401.9 million in 2012, including a 50% stake in Calgary Place, a 575,000-square-foot office and retail complex, for $156.0 million.
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H&R REIT $20.96 (Toronto symbol HR.UN; Units outstanding: 268.3 million; Market cap: $5.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.4%; www.hr-reit.com) owns stakes in 41 office buildings, 112 industrial properties and 165 shopping malls across Canada. The trust has a 98.7% occupancy rate.

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

H&R recently completed the purchase of 27 properties from Primaris REIT for about $3.1 billion. These assets include the aging 567,000-square-foot Dufferin Mall in Toronto’s west end, which has huge redevelopment potential. As well, eight of the 27 properties will have Target stores as their main tenants by the end of this year.
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MANITOBA TELECOM $33.90 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 67.8 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.mts.ca) recently sold its Allstream subsidiary for $405 million in a deal that closes later this year.

Without Allstream, Manitoba Tel earned $28.2 million, or $0.42 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2013. That’s down 12.7% from $32.3 million, or $0.49, a year earlier.

However, revenue rose 0.2%, to $247.4 million from $246.8 million, as strong demand for wireless and Internet services offset lower revenue from the company’s regular telephone services.
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VERESEN $11.74 (Toronto symbol VSN; Shares outstanding: 199.9 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Yield: 8.5%) owns pipelines, power plants and gas-processing facilities across North America. A major holding is 50% of the Alliance gas line, which runs 3,000 kilometres between Chicago and Fort St. John, B.C. Enbridge owns the other 50%. Veresen also owns the Alberta Ethane Gathering System, and Veresen and Enbridge together hold 85.4% of the Aux Sable NGL plant.

In February 2012, Veresen paid Encana Corp. $920 million for the Hythe/Steeprock natural gas gathering and processing complex. Encana signed a long-term deal to buy most of this facility’s gas.

To diversify beyond pipelines and gas-processing plants, Veresen continues to expand its power generation business. This includes hydroelectric facilities, wind farms, natural gas fired plants and waste-heat facilities.
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PEMBINA PIPELINE $32.36 (Toronto symbol PPL; Shares outstanding: 310.3 million; Market cap: $10.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Div. yield: 5.2%; www.pembina.com) owns pipelines that carry half of Alberta’s conventional oil output, 30% of Western Canada’s natural gas liquids (NGLs) and almost all of B.C.’s conventional oil production.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2013, Pembina’s revenue rose 34.9%, to $1.2 billion from $870.9 million a year earlier. In April 2012, the company paid $3.2 billion for rival Provident Energy, which extracts, transports and stores NGLs. Provident was the main reason for the higher revenue.

Cash flow rose 60.9%, to $144.0 million from $89.5 million. Cash flow per share gained 51.6%, to $0.47 from $0.31, because Pembina issued more shares to pay for Provident.
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ISHARES S&P INDIA NIFTY 50 INDEX FUND $19.09 (Nasdaq symbol INDY; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an ETF that aims to track the S&P CNX Nifty Index, which represents the 50 largest, most liquid Indian securities.

The stocks held by most emerging market ETFs have weakened this year, but the iShares S&P India Fund has been hit especially hard.

That’s because the Indian currency, the rupee, has fallen sharply. It’s down more than 31% against the U.S. dollar since January of this year. That fall cuts the value of declining Indian stocks even further for foreign investors.
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ENCANA CORP. $18.09 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 737.9 million; Market cap: $13.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.6%; www.encana.com) is one of North America’s largest natural gas producers.

In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Encana’s cash flow per share fell 16.7%, to $0.90 from $1.08 a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). The decline came from lower realized gas prices.

The company continues to expand its hedging program, which helps shield it from volatile gas prices. For the rest of 2013, it has hedged roughly 75% of its expected output at $4.37 per thousand cubic feet, 19% higher than today’s price of $3.67. For 2014, Encana has hedged 55% of its forecast production at $4.19.
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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice on stocks to buy 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 one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. While we reserve our buy-hold-sell advice for Inner Circle members, these excerpts provide a great deal of information and analysis on stocks we’ve covered for members of Pat’s Inner Circle....

High unemployment and gasoline prices have hurt U.S. consumer spending and prompted shoppers to shift to discount and warehouse chains. That’s putting pressure on department stores. Here is how one of America’s most renowned department stores is seeking to overcome the slowdown in consumer spending....

investing for beginners advice- Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment tips

PASON SYSTEMS (Toronto symbol PSI; www.pason.com) rents equipment for monitoring and managing oil and gas rigs. It also sells communication technology, such as its satellite system, which companies use to remotely collect data from their drilling operations. Pason serves oil and gas producers and drilling contractors throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Argentina and Australia....

Focus on investment quality, and favour growth over momentum, and you’ll improve your chances of success with aggressive stock investing.

SHAWCOR LTD. (Toronto symbol SCL; www.shawcor.com) gets 90% of its revenue by making sealants and coatings that keep oil and gas pipelines from rusting. The remaining 10% comes from manufacturing industrial products, such as electrical wire and protective sheaths....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice on specific investments 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 one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. While we reserve our buy-hold-sell advice for Inner Circle members, these excerpts provide a great deal of information and analysis on stocks we’ve covered for members of Pat’s Inner Circle....

PENN WEST PETROLEUM (Toronto symbol PWT; www.pennwest.com) is one of North America’s largest oil and gas producers. Its output is 63% oil and 37% gas....

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 tips and stock market 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....

BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A and BBD.B; www.bombardier.com) is the world’s third-largest commercial aircraft maker, behind Boeing and Airbus. It is also the world’s leading passenger railcar manufacturer. The company has just completed the first test flight of its new CSeries passenger jet. The test flight was a success. It had planned to begin flight tests in June, but needed extra time to upgrade the plane’s software....

GANNETT CO. INC. (New York symbol GCI; www.gannett.com) publishes 99 newspapers in the U.S. and U.K., including USA Today, its flagship paper. It also publishes 680 magazines and weekly papers and owns 23 U.S. television stations....

CISCO SYSTEMS INC. $24 (Nasdaq symbol CSCO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.4 billion; Market cap: $129.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cisco.com) is a leading maker of hardware and software that links and manages computer networks. The company’s hardware includes routers, local area network (LAN) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, and server computers. Cisco mainly sells this equipment to large businesses and government agencies.

The company continues to profit as wireless carriers upgrade their networks to handle rising demand for video and other media. Cisco is also benefiting from a major restructuring plan, which included selling its low-margin consumer products businesses and focusing on more profitable operations, like software.


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ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $52 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 502.3 million; Market cap: $26.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.1; No dividends paid since June 2005; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.adobe.com) earned $164.4 million, or $0.32 a share, in its fiscal 2013 third quarter, which ended August 30, 2013. That’s down 43.5% from $291.2 million, or $0.58 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 7.9%, to $995.1 million from $1.1 billion.

The company is doing a good job of selling its Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs as a subscription service instead of a one-time purchase. It added 331,000 Creative Cloud subscribers during the third quarter, compared to 221,000 in the second quarter. It now has 1.03 million subscribers and should reach its goal of 1.25 million by the end of fiscal 2013.

However, the stock trades at 35.9 times Adobe’s likely 2013 earnings of $1.45 a share. That’s a high p/e ratio for a company that’s shifting to a new business model. As well, its revenue and earnings could suffer if fewer users than expected sign up for the full version of Creative Cloud when their trial periods end.
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ABB LTD. ADRs $24 (New York symbol ABB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 2.3 billion; Market cap: $55.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.abb.com) makes transformers, transmission systems and circuit breakers for electrical power utilities. The Switzerland-based company also produces automation systems and robotics that industrial clients use to improve their productivity.

The uncertain economy is hurting equipment orders. However, an acquisition helped push up ABB’s revenue by 5.8% in the three months ended June 30, 2013, to $10.2 billion from $9.7 billion a year earlier. Earnings per ADR rose 13.8%, to $0.33 from $0.29 (each American Depositary Receipt represents one ABB common share).

ABB is a buy....

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $189 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $207.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) continues to add to its software expertise.

The company recently paid an undisclosed sum for U.K.-based Daeja Image Systems. This company’s products make it easier to view digital images in hundreds of different computer-file formats, without first installing the program that created the original image. Daeja’s products also help businesses mask sensitive information on computer images, and restrict access to certain files.

IBM is a buy.
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YUM! BRANDS INC. $72 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 446.2 million; Market cap: $32.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.yum.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 10.4%, to $0.37 a share from $0.335. The new annual rate of $1.48 yields 2.1%. This was the ninth annual increase since Yum began paying dividends in 2004.

The stock has held up well, even though sales at its Chinese KFC outlets continue to suffer in the wake of false allegations that they bought chicken with higher-than-permitted levels of antibiotics. Yum is responding with an advertising campaign to emphasize the quality of its ingredients. It feels this will spur its Chinese sales.

Yum Brands is still a buy....