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CANALASKA VENTURES $0.08 (Toronto symbol CVV; SI Rating: Start-up) (1-800-667-1870; www.canalaska.com; Shares outstanding: 137.7 million; Market cap: $10.3 million) holds nineteen 100%-owned uranium projects in the Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan. The company has added partners to help pay for exploration drilling....

AMERIGO RESOURCES $0.36 (Toronto symbol ARG; SI Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.amerigoresources.com; Shares outstanding: 93.4 million; Market cap: $33.1 million) processes copper from the tailings (waste rock) from Chile’s El Teniente, the world’s largest underground copper mine. In the three months ended September 30, 2008, Amerigo’s revenues rose 4.8%, to $29.9 million from $28.5 million a year earlier on record production. (All figures except share price in U.S. dollars.) However, cash flow per share fell 66.7%, to $0.03 a share from $0.09. That was largely due to higher costs, as well as lower copper prices, Copper prices have dropped over 67% from a high of $4.10 in June, to $1.31 today. Still, the long-term production outlook for the company is positive, and copper prices should recover with the economy. Amerigo has positive cash flow. It also holds cash of $4.3 million and has low debt....

BAFFINLAND IRON MINES $0.15 (Toronto symbol BIM; SI Rating: Start-up) (416-364-8820; www.baffinland.com; Shares outstanding: 233.1 million; Market cap: $35.0 million) is now looking for a major partner for its Mary River iron ore project on Baffin Island. Baffinland still hopes to start building an open-pit mine in 2010, with completion scheduled for 2014. It then aims to produce 18 million tonnes of ore per year for over 21 years. The company recently raised $21 million in a share issue. Baffinland is a buy for highly aggressive investors.

MIRANDA GOLD $0.23 (Toronto symbol MAD; SI Rating: Start up) (604-689-1659; www.mirandagold.com; Shares outstanding: 44.9 million; Market cap: $10.1 million) is a gold exploration company focused mostly in Nevada. Miranda holds $12 million in cash. That’s enough for four to five years of exploration. The company also has joint ventures with Barrick Gold, Teck Corp, Piedmont Mining, White Bear Resources and Queensgate Resources. These partners pay for high-risk early drilling to earn interests in Miranda’s properties. Miranda is a buy for highly aggressive investors.

HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. $17 (Toronto symbol HCG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 34.5 million; Market cap; $586.5 million; SI Rating: Extra risk) is the parent company of Home Trust Company, a federally regulated trust company that specializes in residential first mortgages to small business owners, the self-employed and others who don’t meet the stricter criteria of larger, traditional lenders. Home Capital recently began offering traditional mortgages. While that puts it in direct competition with the big banks, Home Capital feels this move will strengthen its position among mortgage brokers. Demand for new residential and commercial mortgages rose 39.8% to $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Consequently, earnings grew 24.6%, to $0.81 a share (total $27.9 million) from $0.65 a share ($22.8 million) a year earlier. Revenue improved 24.0%, to $117.0 million from $94.3 million. Strong gains at the Visa credit card and personal loan businesses also help fuel earnings and revenue....

FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $14 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 171.4 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; SI Rating: Above average) sells and rents heavy equipment made by Caterpillar Inc. Products include tractors, bulldozers, pavers and trucks. Finning’s shares have moved down from their peak of $31 in April, 2008. That’s mainly because falling commodity prices have forced mining and energy exploration firms to suspend or scale back work on new developments. The credit crisis has made it harder for customers to borrow money for new equipment. Finning now plans to improve the profitability of its Canadian operations with a new restructuring plan, mostly by cutting its back office staff by 4%. The company did not reveal how much this plan would cost, but it should save it $10 million a year....

ENCANA CORP. $60 (Toronto symbol ECA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 750.3 million; Market cap: $45.0 billion; SI Rating: Average) is a leading North American producer of natural gas and oil. Natural gas accounts for 80% of its production. EnCana prefers to focus on what it calls “key resource plays”. These are unconventional properties, such as early-stage gas fields and oil sands projects, which have much longer production lives than conventional properties. EnCana has postponed its plan to break itself up into two separate companies — one focusing on natural gas, the other on oil sands and oil refineries. That’s because falling energy prices and the problems in the credit markets make it difficult for the two new smaller companies to raise capital to fund new projects....

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $42 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 869.7 million; Market cap: $33.0 billion; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s largest integrated oil company. It also operates over 1,900 retail gas stations under the “Esso” banner. ExxonMobil owns 69.6% of Imperial’s stock. Imperial gets about 90% of its daily crude oil production from its oil sands properties, mainly its 100% interest in the Cold Lake development and its 25% stake in the Syncrude partnership. Cold Lake’s reserves should last 13 more years, while Syncrude should continue for 28 more years. The company is now developing a new oil sands project at Kearl Lake. Imperial owns 70% of this project and will operate it; ExxonMobil owns the remaining 30%. Kearl Lake’s reserves should last 40 years....

BCE INC. $23 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 806.2 million; Market cap: $18.5 billion; SI Rating: Above average) provides telephone service to over 7.5 million residential and business customers in Ontario and Quebec. BCE also provides wireless service to 6.4 million subscribers across Canada. In June, 2007, BCE accepted a $42.75-a-share all-cash takeover offer from a private consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The deal required auditing firm KPMG to provide an opinion on BCE’s solvency following the takeover. KPMG’s preliminary analysis shows that BCE’s liabilities would probably exceed the value of its assets. KPMG’s report effectively killed the takeover. BCE recently stopped paying dividends on its common shares as part of deal with the consortium to help ensure that takeover would go through. Now that the deal is dead, BCE will probably resume quarterly dividend payments. The previous annual rate of $1.46 would now yield 6.3%....

NVIDIA CORP. $7.60 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 556.6 million; Market cap: $4.2 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) designs 3D chips for computers, video game consoles and other devices. Slowing sales of new computers have hurt Nvidia’s shares in the past few months. Restructuring charges and higher warranty costs related to defective chips have also dampened its earnings. In its third fiscal quarter ended October 26, 2008, earnings before one-time items dropped 57.8%, to $111.4 million from $264.2 million a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 54.5%, to $0.20 from $0.44. Revenue declined 19.5%, to $897.7 million from $1.1 billion. That’s partly due to growing price competition among video chip makers....

WAL-MART STORES INC. $57 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.9 billion; Market cap: $222.3 billion; WSSF Rating: Above average) is the world’s largest retailer with over 7,400 stores in the United States and 13 other countries. It serves over 175 million customers each week. The company has three main divisions: the Wal-Mart division operates 3,630 discount stores in the U.S. (63% of total sales); the Sam’s Club division operates 595 warehouse club stores (25% of sales); and the International division consists of 3,200 stores outside of the U.S. that Wal-Mart operates directly and through joint ventures (12% of sales). Revenues grew from $256.3 billion in 2004 to $374.5 billion in 2008 (fiscal years end January 31). Earnings rose from $2.03 a share ($8.9 billion) in 2004 to $3.16 a share ($12.9 billion) in 2008....

PENN WEST ENERGY TRUST $16.04 (Toronto symbol PWT.UN; Shares outstanding: 384.4 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; SI Rating: Speculative) is the largest conventional oil and gas trust in North America. In the three months ended September 30, 2008, Penn West’s revenue rose 113.6%, to $1.2 billion from $628 million, largely due to acquisitions. Cash flow per unit rose 20.1%, to $1.73 from $1.44. Penn West trades at 2.3 times cash flow per share based on the 12 months. Penn West now has average daily production of 190,177 barrels of oil equivalent (weighted 44% to natural gas and 56% to oil). The units yield 25.4%....

PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST $10.09 (Toronto symbol PGF.UN; Shares outstanding: 254.6 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; SI Rating: Average) produces oil and gas in western Canada, as well as offshore Nova Scotia. Pengrowth’s average daily production of 80,981 barrels of oil equivalent is weighted 49% toward oil and liquids and 51% natural gas. In the three months ended September 30, 2008, Pengrowth’s revenue rose 23.3%, to $518.7 million from $420.7 million. Cash flow per unit rose 23.6%, to $1.10 from $0.89....

ARC ENERGY TRUST $18.72 (Toronto symbol AET.UN; Shares outstanding: 215.3 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; SI Rating: Speculative) produces oil and gas in western Canada. In the three months ended September 30, 2008, ARC’s revenue rose 61.8%, to $485.7 million from $300.2 million. Cash flow per unit rose 36.5%, to $1.16 from $0.85. The rise in cash flow came largely from higher oil and natural gas prices. ARC’s average daily production of 64,325 barrels of oil per day equivalent is weighted 50% toward oil and 50% natural gas. ARC’s debt remains low, at 17% of market cap. The trust has just lowered its monthly distribution by 16.7%, to $0.20 from $0.24. The units now yield 12.8%. ARC flowed only 68% of its cash flow through to its unitholders as distributions in the latest quarter. The units trade at 4.4 times cash flow based on the 12 months....

ISHARES MCSI CANADA INDEX FUND $15.98 (American Exchange symbol EWC; buy or sell through brokers) is like a market-cap based index fund, but it tinkers with the index fund formula to try and improve performance by using its proprietary Morgan Stanley Capital International Canada Index. The U.S.-based fund also has to work around foreign ownership restrictions. iShares MCSI Canada Index Fund is managed by Barclays Global Investors and has an MER of 0.54%. We think that if you want to own a Canadian index fund, you should buy the iShares CDN LargeCap 60. You’ll pay about a third of the management fees. We don’t recommend iShares MCSI Canada Index Fund.

NASDAQ-100 TRUST SHARES $28.62 (Nasdaq Exchange symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers) or ‘Qubes’, hold the stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index. This index is made up of the 100 largest and most heavily traded stocks on the Nasdaq exchange. The index reflects firms across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. Expenses are about 0.20% of assets. The top 10 highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Cisco, Intel, Research in Motion, Gilead Sciences, Oracle and Amgen. Nasdaq-100 Trust Shares are a buy for aggressive investors only.

DIAMONDS TRUST SHARES $86.04 (American Exchange symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers) hold the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Currently, the fund’s top 10 holdings are IBM, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart Stores, United Technologies and Coca- Cola. Expenses are about 0.18% of assets. Diamonds Trust Shares are a buy.

S&P DEPOSITORY RECEIPTS $87.32 (American Exchange symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers) are commonly called ‘Spiders’. The fund holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index. This index is comprised of 500 major U.S. stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation. The 10 highest weighted stocks on the index are Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron Corp., Microsoft, Wal-Mart Stores, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Pfizer. Expenses for the fund are just 0.10% of assets. If you want exposure to the S&P 500 Index, S&P Depository Receipts are a buy.

ISHARES CDN LARGECAP 60 INDEX FUND $12.71 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through a broker) (units split 4-for-1 in August, 2008) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units hold a basket of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index. The index is made up of the 60 largest and most heavily traded stocks on the TSX. Expenses on the units are just 0.17% of assets. Most of the 60 stocks in the index are good quality companies. However, to meet the requirement that all sectors are represented, the index holds a few firms we wouldn’t include, such as Biovail Corp. The index’s top holdings are: Royal Bank, 7.5%; EnCana Corporation, 5.8%; TD Bank, 4.8%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.7%; Manulife Financial, 4.6%; Barrick Gold, 4.3%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.6%; Research in Motion, 3.5%; Suncor Energy, 3.5%; Goldcorp, 3.3%; Potash Corporation, 3.2%; Canadian National Railway, 2.8%; BCE Inc., 2.6%; Rogers Communications, 2.5%; and Bank of Montreal, 2.5%....

JAPAN SMALLER CAP FUND $6.41 (New York symbol JOF; CWA Rating: Aggressive) invests mainly in less-widely-followed Japanese over-the-counter stocks. The fund’s top holdings are Jupiter Telecom, Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Moshi Moshi Hotline, Inc., Seven Bank, Ltd., Kuraray Co., Ltd. and Air Water Inc. Japan Smaller Cap Fund sells for a 12% discount to the current value of its assets. Japan Smaller Cap is a buy.

CIBC U.S. SMALL COMPANIES FUND $8.88 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (CIBC Securities, 5140 Yonge Street, Suite 900, Toronto, Ontario M2N 6X7. 1-800-631-7008; Website: www.cibc.com. No load — deal directly with the company.) invests in small-cap U.S. companies that it sees as undervalued, and having above-average growth potential. The $109.4 million fund’s top holdings now include Children’s Place Retail (clothing stores), Amedisys (home health care nursing), Buckle Inc. (clothing stores), Syniverse Holdings (wireless telecom technology), Triumph Group (aircraft components), Interactive Brokers Group (electronic brokers), Collective Brands (operates Payless Shoe- Source), HealthSpring (healthcare benefits & services) and Deckers Outdoor (footwear). CIBC U.S. Small Companies Fund lost 16.8% in Canadian dollars over the last year, compared to a loss of 15.7% for the benchmark Russell 2000 index in Canadian funds. The fund’s MER is 2.60%....

SCOTIA U.S GROWTH FUND $6.49 (CWA Rating: Conservative) (Scotia Securities, 40 King Street West, 6th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 1H1. 1-800-268-9269; Website: www.scotiabank.com. No load — deal directly with the company.) looks at a company’s fundamentals such as earnings, dividend yield, book value, cash flow and low debt, as well as its management, to find undervalued stocks. The $36.0 million Scotia U.S. Growth Fund’s top holdings include Wells Fargo (diversified financial services), Oracle Corporation (software), Snap-on Inc. (professional tools), JP Morgan Chase (financial services), ExxonMobil Corporation, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin (space & aeronautics), PepsiCo, Conoco- Phillips and Eli Lilly & Co. (pharmaceuticals). The fund’s one-year loss in Canadian dollars is 21.3%, compared to a loss of 18.2% for the S&P 500 in Canadian funds over the same period. The fund’s MER is 2.56%....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $12.83 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Shares outstanding: 220.4 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s largest REIT. RioCan has ownership interests in 238 retail properties across Canada, including 14 under development. These contain over 58 million square feet of leasable area. Occupancy stands at 97.0%. RioCan is Canada’s largest owner of neighbourhood shopping centres. These are enclosed malls in smaller urban centres. But where it’s showing the strongest growth is as the largest owner of ‘New Format’ malls. These are in the suburbs of larger cities, and are made up of ‘Big Box’ stores with lots of parking and room for new building. RioCan’s revenue in the three months ended September 30, 2008 was $185.5 million, up 7.6% from $172.5 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit rose 2.8%, to $0.37 from $0.36. RioCan recently increased its monthly distribution by 2.2%, to $0.115 a unit from $0.1125. The new annual rate of $1.38 yields 10.8%....

SYMANTEC CORP. $12 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 836.0 million; Market cap: $10.0 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) makes software that helps protect computers from viruses and electronic attacks. Its best-known product is the top-selling Norton Anti-Virus program. Symantec continues to make acquisitions that strengthen its current products. For example, it recently purchased UK-based MessageLabs, which offers online software that helps users protect their email and instant messaging services from spam and junk emails. To put the $695 million purchase price in context, Symantec earned $311.2 million in its second fiscal quarter ended October 3, 2008, up 18.5% from $262.6 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings grew 27.6%, to $0.37 from $0.29, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude unusual items. Sales grew 7.0%, to $1.5 billion from $1.4 billion....

AUTODESK INC. $17 (Nasdaq symbol ADSK; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 226.2 million; Market cap: $3.8 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) makes Auto- CAD, the world’s leading computer aided design program. AutoCAD helps engineers and architects design machinery and buildings. The company also makes software that filmmakers use to create special effects. Autodesk’s shares have dropped 50% in the past two months. That’s partly because slowing construction activity could hurt demand for its 3D building design software. The company is now cutting costs, which should help it remain profitable if sales weaken. In its third fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2008, Autodesk’s earnings before unusual items rose 11.0%, to $130.0 million from $117.7 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 14.3%, to $0.56 from $0.49, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue grew 12.8%, to $607.1 million from $538.4 million....