commodity

SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL $0.65 (Toronto symbol S; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800-704-6698; www.sherritt.com; Shares outstanding: 293.9 million; Market cap: $199.8 million; No dividends paid) owns 40% of the Ambatovy nickel mine on the island nation of Madagascar, off Africa’s east coast.

The $5.3-billion U.S....

Sound balance sheet and positive cash flow mean Major Drilling is well positioned to profit when commodity prices rebound.

PLEASE NOTE: One week from today, on January 22, 2016, shortly after the stock market closes at 4:00 p.m. Toronto time, we will reveal our top aggressive stocks for 2016 to subscribers of Stock Pickers Digest. You can be among the first to hear about our top picks for 2016. Because you’re a loyal subscriber, we are happy to offer you a low-priced, no-risk introduction to Stock Pickers Digest. It gives you the first month—and the 2016 Stocks of the Year—FREE. But you must act now. Click here. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++...

We’re still positive on the long-term outlook for stocks. But in a time of rising market volatility, plunging commodity prices and international tension, it’s more important than ever to diversify, rather than focus on a single stock of the year. Moreover, we find lots of attractive long-term buys among stocks we cover. With that in mind, we’ve chosen to highlight one pick from each of our portfolios (Conservative, Aggressive and Income) for 2016. All three of these high-quality stocks offer strong growth prospects and trade at reasonable multiples to earnings. CAE INC. $15 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 269.2 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) is the world’s leading maker of flight simulators, which help teach airline and military pilots how to take off, land and handle a variety of emergency situations....

ISHARES MSCI AUSTRALIA ETF $19.43 (New York symbol EWA; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that holds the 71 largest Australian stocks. The fund’s top holdings include Commonwealth Bank of Australia, 12.1%; Westpac Banking Corp., 9.3%; National Australia Bank, 6.9%; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, 6.7%; BHP Billiton, 5.4%; CSL Ltd., 4.2%; Wesfarmers, 3.8%; Woolworths Ltd., 2.7%; Macquarie Group, 2.2%; and Telstra Corp., 2.1%. The ETF’s industry breakdown consists of Financials, 53.0%; Materials, 14.4%; Consumer Staples, 7.8%; Industrials, 6.3%; Health Care, 6.0%; Energy, 3.9%; Telecommunications, 2.5%; Consumer Discretionary, 2.2%; and Utilities, 2.1%.

The iShares MSCI Australia ETF was launched on March 12, 1996. It has a 0.48% expense ratio. Australia benefits from its stable banking and political systems and is rich in natural resources. Low commodity prices have hurt the country’s economy, but its proximity to Asian markets with vast potential, including India and China, gives it strong long-term prospects.

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Strong consumer products companies share a number of characteristics. These include geographic diversity, a record of rising cash flow and strong balance sheets.

The best gold stocks will generate positive cash flow even with low gold prices and also offer rising production outlooks.

Our view on Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan and whether its high dividend can stand up to weaker demand and lower prices.

FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $18 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 169.3 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.finning.com) sells and services Caterpillar-brand heavy equipment. Its main customers are in the oil, mining, forest-products and construction industries. Weaker commodity prices continue to hurt equipment demand. In response, Finning has laid off 13% of its workforce and closed 11 of its locations in Western Canada. The company is now looking at other ways to lower its costs, such as shipping parts directly to customers instead of through dealerships. Meanwhile, Finning’s earnings fell 42.4% in the three months ended September 30, 2015, to $0.19 a share from $0.33 a year earlier. Without one-time items, the company earned $0.34 a share in the latest quarter....

SHAWCOR LTD. $27 (Toronto symbol SCL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares out- standing: 64.5 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.shawcor.com) has acquired certain businesses from Flint Field Services. These operations inspect and make plastic liners for pipelines. The company paid $35.5 million for the Flint businesses, which is equal to 93% of the $38.1 million, or $0.59 a share, it earned in the third quarter of 2015. The purchase will add $46 million to its annual revenue of $1.9 billion. ShawCor is a buy....