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CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE, $74.13, Toronto symbol CM, is buying 41% of U.S.-based American Century Investments, which sells mutual funds and wealth management services to institutional and individual investors. CIBC will have a 10.1% voting interest in this private company. The bank is paying $848 million U.S. for this investment. That’s equal to 1.2 times the $678 million (Canadian), or $1.60 a share, that CIBC earned in its second fiscal quarter, which ended April 30, 2011. The purchase should close by the end of October 2011, and add $0.15 a share to CIBC’s fiscal 2012 earnings. American Century has $112 billion U.S. in assets under management, so this purchase looks like a bargain for CIBC. That’s largely because American Century’s founder will still hold a majority stake in the company. Even so, it’s likely that CIBC will eventually gain control of this business. The purchase also lets CIBC offer other financial services to American Century’s high-quality clientele....

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $58.18 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares.com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds the stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index. That index is made up of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap. The Nasdaq 100 Index contains firms from 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, Oracle Corp., Comcast Corp. and Amgen Inc....

EUROPEAN GOLDFIELDS, $13.65, symbol EGU on Toronto, jumped 36.5% this week. That’s because Greece’s Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change said it will grant the company a permit to build new mines on two of its mineral deposits in Greece: The Olympias mine could start up later this year, followed by a new mine at Skouries in 2012. The two mines should boost the company’s gold output from 70,000 ounces per year to over 420,000 ounces. European Goldfields has faced delays in getting the appropriate permits. It submitted an environmental-impact study last year, but the Greek government delayed approval of the study. That was partly due to local opposition, but also to make sure the project would not pollute groundwater deposits in the area....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may have a place in your portfolio. That’s because, unlike many other financial innovations, they don’t load you up with heavy management fees, or tie you down with high redemption charges if you decide to get out of them. Instead, they give you a low-cost, flexible, convenient alternative to mutual funds. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You’ll have to pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs. However, ETFs’ low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most conventional mutual funds. As well, shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes. As a result of this low turnover, you won’t incur the regular capital-gains bills generated by the yearly distributions most conventional mutual funds pay out to unitholders....

Indigo Books & Music Inc., Toronto symbol IDG, is Canada’s largest bookseller. The company operates 97 superstores under the Chapters and Indigo banners. It also has 149 mall-based stores, and sells books, movies and music through its web site. Indigo is one of the Canadian stock picks we analyze in our Successful Investor newsletter. In its latest fiscal year, which ended April 2, 2011, the Canadian stock pick’s revenue rose 5.0% to $1.0 billion from $968.9 million in the prior year. Even so, earnings fell 67.5%, to $11.3 million, or $0.45 a share, from $34.9 million, or $1.39 a share....

INDIGO BOOKS & MUSIC INC. $13 (Toronto symbol IDG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 24.7 million; Market cap: $321.1 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.chapters.indigo.ca) saw its revenue rise 5.0% in its 2011 fiscal year, which ended April 2, 2011, to $1.0 billion from $968.9 million in the prior year. Even so, earnings fell 67.5%, to $11.3 million, or $0.45 a share, from $34.9 million, or $1.39 a share. The earnings drop is due to ongoing investments in its 51.4%-owned Kobo electronic-book (e-book) operations. This business sells e-book downloads and the Kobo e-book reading device. Indigo and its partners recently invested an additional $50 million in Kobo; Indigo’s share was $13 million. Kobo has attracted 3.6 million users from more than 100 countries in just over 15 months. However, it faces fierce competition from market leader Amazon.com (Nasdaq symbol AMZN), which is now selling more e-books than paper books....

BANK OF MONTREAL, $61.82, Toronto symbol BMO, continues to benefit as more borrowers pay back their loans on time. However, demand for new loans is slowing, and its credit-card customers are making fewer purchases. As well, other banks are paying higher interest rates to attract depositors. That is forcing Bank of Montreal to raise its rates in response. Even so, Bank of Montreal’s revenue rose 5.5%, in its 2011 second quarter, which ended April 30, 2011, to $3.2 billion from $3.05 billion a year earlier. Earnings rose 7.5%, to $800 million from $745 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 6.3%, to $1.34 from $1.26, on more shares outstanding. Without unusual items, such as costs related to its upcoming $4.1-billion, all-stock purchase of U.S.-based banking firm Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (New York symbol MI), earnings per share would have risen 5.5%, to $1.35 from $1.28. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $1.31 a share. Bank of Montreal expects to complete the Marshall & Ilsley purchase by July 31, 2011....

Vale SA (ADR), $29.40, symbol VALE on New York (Shares outstanding: 3.2 billion; Market cap: $94.4 billion; www.vale.com), is the world’s largest iron-ore producer. Vale is a formerly state-owned company that was partially privatized in the early 1990s, along with oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA. Brazil’s federal government has kept a controlling stake in Vale through holding companies, public pension-fund stakes and other investments. In 2010, Vale’s revenue jumped 94.2%, to $46.5 billion, from $23.9 billion a year earlier. Earnings soared to $17.3 billion, or $3.25 a share, from $5.4 billion, or $1.01 a share. Stronger demand and higher iron-ore prices were the main reasons for the improved results. The company’s selling price for iron ore more than doubled, to $121 a metric ton from $56 a year earlier....

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, April 29, 2011. TECK RESOURCES LTD., $53.83, Toronto symbol TCK.B, rose 8% this week after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Teck’s earnings jumped 123.5%, to $0.76 a share from $0.34 a year earlier. These figures exclude several unusual items, such as gains on asset sales. On this basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus forecast of $0.75 a share. Revenue rose 24.9%, to $2.4 billion from $1.9 billion....

DELPHI ENERGY $2.67 (Toronto symbol DEE; TSI Network Rating: Speculative) (403-265-6171; www.delphienergy.ca; Shares outstanding: 116.5 million; Market cap: $311.2 million; No dividends paid) explores for oil and gas in Alberta and B.C. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Delphi’s combined daily output of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil rose 24.0%, to 8,539 barrels of oil equivalent from 6,888 barrels a year earlier. Delphi’s cash flow rose 26.5%, to $18.0 million from $14.2 million. Its cash flow per share rose 14.3%, to $0.16 from $0.14....