dow

Blue chip stocks are big, well-established, dividend-paying corporations with strong business prospects.
Here’s the text of the most-recent letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients in August.

“In recent years, I’ve mentioned that the world is going through a gigantic monetary experiment. At first, I was referring to the “quantitative easing” that the U.S....
The six ETFs we update below mainly hold high-quality stocks that are widely traded on Canadian and U.S. exchanges. Each fund tracks the performance of a major stock market index. That’s different from ETFs focused on narrower indexes or themes such as cryptocurrencies or biotechnology.

Of course, you pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell these investments....
A: Tilray, $31.00, symbol TLRY on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 97.4 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; www.tilray.com), completed an initial public offering of 10.35 million common shares at $17.00 U.S....
A: Home Depot Inc., $221.77, symbol HD on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $245.4 billion; www.homedepot.com), operates warehouse-style home-improvement stores that average 104,000 square feet, plus an additional 24,000 square-foot garden centre....
A: Costco Wholesale Corp., $287.35, symbol COST on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 439.8 million; Market cap: $122.5 billion; www.costco.com), owns and operates warehouse-sized stores that sell a wide variety of consumer goods and services.

The company charges its customers an annual membership fee to shop at its locations....
A: Bridgemarq Real Estate Services, $13.90, symbol BRE on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 9.5 million; Market cap: $132.5 million; www.bridgemarq.com), is a leading provider of services to residential real estate brokers....

Despite their strategic importance, major components of the transport industry, particularly shipping, trucking, and airlines, remain cyclical. For some companies, this means considerable swings in their profitability. Still, the best stocks in this area—and the ETFs that hold them—adapt well to the ever-changing industry landscape and are sound investments.


Below we take a look at 3 ETFs that provide investors with exposure to the expanding transportation industry....
A: There’s little doubt that the developing world’s aging population will continue to spend more on medical services for years to come. Medical device makers are well positioned to capture a share of that increased spending. In turn, investors in the industry’s leading companies stand to benefit from growing demand.

Medical-device ETFs aim to provide a diversified and low-fee way for investors to participate in this expanding industry beyond one or two leading stocks.

Here’s one of the top ETFs in this area:

iShares U.S....
DUPONT DE NEMOURS, INC. $71 (New York symbol DD; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 747.5 million; Market cap: $53.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.7%; Takeover Target Rating: Lowest; www.dupont.com), formerly known as DowDuPont, took its current form on June 1, 2019, when it set up Corteva (its agriculture business) as a separate company....