canadian

For new investors learning how to start a stock portfolio, buying high-quality stocks and diversification are key parts of the process

3M COMPANY, $137.65, New York symbol MMM, remains a buy.

The company makes over 60,000 consumer and industrial goods, including air purifiers, adhesives, bandages and components for medical devices. Investors tap its main brands, including Post-it notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard protection and Thinsulate insulation.

3M last raised its quarterly dividend with the March 2022 payment....

Cash has been a poor performer for the past 20 years, not even keeping pace with the low rate of inflation. Almost every asset class has done much better. But some cash can be useful when equity markets turn down—it can provide investors the opportunity to buy stocks at lower prices and it offers a buffer for investors that regularly extract money from their portfolios to cover expenses.


Lastly, cash returns may rise as central bankers ramp up their fight against inflation....

Investors aiming to beat inflation over time—without taking undue risk—have a variety of options presented by exchange-traded funds. While, looking back is of limited use going forward, here are some of the results from academic studies of the volatility, downside risk, and total return of a select group of ETFs over the past 5 years:

• Balanced ETFs that are diversified across asset classes, succeeded in lowering portfolio volatility and downside risk but delivered a much lower return than the broader market.
• Equity ETFs designed to lower portfolio volatility by focusing on less volatile stocks delivered lower volatility but their returns lagged the market—although, on average, by a small margin....

Low-risk ETFs as described above can provide you with a way to hold cash balances in your investment or trading accounts. Here are some of the pricing arrangements and technical terms unique to these funds.


Money market ETFs have a base price of $50 or $100 that adjusts daily as interest accrues in the fund....

With today’s still-low interest rates, there are few, if any, high return, lower-risk fixed-income investments available to investors.


But if you must hold cash, and are looking for an alternative to bank savings accounts or holding it with your broker, these four ETFs can give you an edge....

Some investors look to reduce volatility in their portfolios for a number of reasons. One is that they can’t sleep at night because they’re nervous about the market outlook. In that case, low-volatilty funds may cut your your losses or even leave you with gains when the market is falling, but they can limit your returns in a soaring market.


Another reason to aim to cut volatility is if you expect you will need to take cash out of your portfolio in the next year or two and you don’t want to risk having to raise cash by selling stocks at low prices.


Below we discuss two ETFs that aim to provide investors with lower volatility portfolios....

The shares of Canada’s big two railways are both down since the start of 2022 on concerns that a possible economic slowdown could hurt their freight volumes.


However, both should benefit as conditions remain favourable for a rebound in grain shipments in the second half of 2022 following last year’s drought....

BANK OF MONTREAL, $136.95, Toronto symbol BMO, is a buy.

The bank is now raising your dividend by 4.5%. Starting with the August 2022 payment, investors will receive $1.39 a share instead of $1.33. The new annual rate of $5.56 yields 4.1%.

Bank of Montreal set aside $50 million to cover potential loan losses in its fiscal 2022 second quarter, ended April 30, 2022....

YAMANA GOLD INC., $7.16, is a hold. The miner (symbol YRI on Toronto) owns and operates five gold mines, in Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. This includes the Cerro Moro gold/silver mine in Argentina. It started up in mid-2018.

Yamana received a $6.7 billion U.S....