commodity
Gold has dropped by a third or more from the $1,800 U.S. peak it reached last October. Many investors now wonder if this is a heaven-sent second opportunity to buy. Others wonder if they should wait for the price to drop to, say, $1,000. I don’t have any such strong feeling about owning gold. Then again, I also don’t share the widespread feeling that gold is a great crisis barometer, safe haven, or hedge against disaster/chaos/social breakdown or whatever. My feeling is that gold first gained its safe-haven reputation centuries ago, when wars were more common and cities still maintained walls around them to keep out marauders. You could bury a few gold coins under a dirt floor and the soldiers or robbers might miss them....
CHEMTRADE LOGISTICS INCOME FUND $17.30 (Toronto symbol CHE.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-496-5856; www.chemtradelogistics- .com; Units outstanding: 41.7 million; Market cap: $716.7 million; Dividend yield: 7.0%) is one of North America’s largest providers of removal services for resource firms, such as oil refineries and base-metal processors....
CHEMTRADE LOGISTICS INCOME FUND $17.30 (Toronto symbol CHE.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-496-5856; www.chemtradelogistics- .com; Units outstanding: 41.7 million; Market cap: $716.7 million; Dividend yield: 7.0%) is one of North America’s largest providers of removal services for resource firms, such as oil refineries and base-metal processors. These companies create sulphur, acid and other by-products as part of their activities. Chemtrade converts these substances into useful chemicals, like sulphuric acid.
Chemtrade’s Marsulex subsidiary provides a range of environmental services, including improving air quality and treating and handling industrial waste.
In the three months ended March 31, 2013, Chemtrade’s revenue fell 7.8%, to $210.0 million from $227.9 million a year earlier. The decline mostly reflects lower prices for sulphuric acid on international markets. However, cash flow per unit rose 7.6%, to $0.71 from $0.66.
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Chemtrade’s Marsulex subsidiary provides a range of environmental services, including improving air quality and treating and handling industrial waste.
In the three months ended March 31, 2013, Chemtrade’s revenue fell 7.8%, to $210.0 million from $227.9 million a year earlier. The decline mostly reflects lower prices for sulphuric acid on international markets. However, cash flow per unit rose 7.6%, to $0.71 from $0.66.
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We think conservative investors could 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 high-quality stocks. Here are two international ETFs that we follow regularly. ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND (New York Exchange symbol ECH; us.ishares.com; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Chile Investable Market Index, which consists of stocks that are mainly traded on the Santiago Stock Exchange....
FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $22 (www.finning.com) has increased its quarterly dividend by 8.9%, to $0.1525 a share from $0.14. The new annual rate of $0.61 yields 2.8%. Finning sells heavy equipment to the mining industry, and lower commodity prices have hurt the stock....
CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE $77 (Toronto symbol CM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 399.8 million; Market cap: $30.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cibc.com) is the fifth-largest Canadian bank, with $397.7 billion of assets.
CIBC has the highest exposure to Canada of all the big five banks: its domestic operations now supply 85% of its revenue. Its international businesses mainly consist of wealth management services in the U.S. and retail banking in the Caribbean.
In the three months ended April 30, 2013, CIBC earned $876 million, up 4.3% from $840 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 6.0%, to $2.12 from $2.00, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude several unusual items, mainly losses on securities the bank holds.
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CIBC has the highest exposure to Canada of all the big five banks: its domestic operations now supply 85% of its revenue. Its international businesses mainly consist of wealth management services in the U.S. and retail banking in the Caribbean.
In the three months ended April 30, 2013, CIBC earned $876 million, up 4.3% from $840 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 6.0%, to $2.12 from $2.00, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude several unusual items, mainly losses on securities the bank holds.
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For decades, I’ve felt it was a good idea to devote at least part of your portfolio to U.S. stocks, regardless of how you feel about the outlook for the exchange rate for the two currencies. The U.S. simply offers a much better selection of the world’s top multi-national companies. It also offers much better choice among the five main economic sectors. In the past six years, the exchange rate hasn’t been much of an issue. The U.S. and Canadian dollars have generally traded within five cents of parity with each other, apart from a period in the depths of the recession when the U.S. dollar shot up to a temporary 30% premium. Historically, the Canadian dollar has more often stayed below the U.S. dollar. But when comparing the Obama and Harper governments, many investors felt that Canada offered a friendlier attitude toward business and investors. In addition, Canada’s real estate market escaped the plunge in real estate prices that much of the U.S. suffered in the recession. To top it off, Canada enjoyed the effects of booming commodity prices. All these factors spurred buying of Canadian dollars in the foreign exchange market. This lent strength to our dollar in relation to the U.S. dollar....
Gildan Activewear Inc., $41.15, symbol GIL on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 121.7 million; Market cap: $5.0 billion; www.gildan.com), makes and sells T-shirts, fleece sweatshirts and sweatpants, sport shirts, underwear and socks in a variety of weights, sizes, colours and styles. Its customers are in Canada, the U.S., Europe and other countries. Company-owned brands include Gildan, Gold Toe and Anvil. It also makes licensed products under the Under Armour and New Balance labels. Gildan makes most of its products from 100% cotton, blended cotton and polyester. It doesn’t add designs to its clothes; instead, it sells them to wholesale distributors as blanks. The distributors then sell Gildan’s clothing to screen printers and embroiderers who add their own images....
Bank of Nova Scotia (see page 61) is our favourite bank, but we still like the outlook for Canada’s other top banks. All four are using their strong balance sheets to buy up assets that diversify their businesses, often at bargain prices.
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $59 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $82.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) is Canada’s largest bank, with $867.5 billion of assets.
Royal recently paid $3.7 billion for Ally Financial’s Canadian operations....
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $59 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $82.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) is Canada’s largest bank, with $867.5 billion of assets.
Royal recently paid $3.7 billion for Ally Financial’s Canadian operations....
CAE INC. $10 (www.cae.com) has sold six flight simulators to airlines in Turkey and Azerbaijan. These are the company’s first simulator sales in its 2014 fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2014. Simulator orders tend to be erratic. Even so, CAE will probably sell around 35 simulators this year, unchanged from 2013....