commodity

In general, stocks in the Resources & Commodities sector—as well as those in Manufacturing & Industry—expose you to above-average volatility. Those in either Finance or Utilities involve below average volatility. Consumer stocks fall in the middle.

A good way to cut your risk with Manufacturing stocks is to focus on market leaders, like the three we analyze below....

REITMANS (CANADA) LTD., $4.47, symbol RET.A on Toronto, owns 750 women’s clothing stores across Canada.

Those outlets are divided among several brands: Reitmans (327 stores), Penningtons (130), Addition Elle (104), RW & Co. (83), Thyme Maternity (68), Smart Set (23) and Hyda (17)....

ISHARES MSCI AUSTRALIA ETF $19.42 (New York symbol EWA; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that holds 73 major Australian stocks.

The fund’s top holdings include Commonwealth Bank of Australia, 11.3%; Westpac Banking Corp., 8.6%; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, 6.3%; National Australia Bank, 6.0%; BHP Billiton, 5.2%; CSL Ltd., 4.5%; Wesfarmers, 3.9%; Woolworths Ltd., 2.4%; Scentre Group, 2.1%; and Telstra Corp., 2.0%....

We think conservative investors can hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus.

The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks....

How to win more than you lose when investing in Canadian penny stocks

Fastenal Company, $46.12, symbol FAST on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 288.9 million; Market cap: $13.3 billion; www.fastenal.com), is a leading wholesale distributor of industrial and construction supplies. It has 2,630 wholesale and retail stores in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America, Asia, Europe and South Africa....

BANK OF MONTREAL, $83.44, Toronto symbol BMO, gained 1% this week after announcing it will raise its dividend. The bank also said it’s setting aside more funds to cover potential bad loans to Canadian oil and gas firms; and with more of its customers banking online, it will cut 4% of its workforce. In its fiscal 2016 second quarter, which ended April 30, 2016, Bank of Montreal earned $1.152 billion. That’s a gain of 0.5% over $1.146 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 1.2%, to $1.73 from $1.71. These figures exclude severance payments and other unusual items. On that basis, the latest earnings missed the consensus estimate of $1.75 a share....

Silver mining stocks and silver ETFs are a better way to invest in the precious metal than silver bullion.

Commodity investments mainly rise and fall with supply and demand. Revolutionary changes in the energy industry provide a great example.

The prices of several agricultural commodities continue to strengthen. For example, wheat prices are moving higher on continued dry weather in the U.S. Meanwhile, heavy rains are hurting wheat production in Germany.


Sugar prices are up on lower production in Brazil and higher imports from China....