Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat's commentary for the week of April 1, 2014?

Article Excerpt

If you feel an urge to take advantage of the recent gains and sell your U.S. stocks, my advice is to lie down until that urge goes away. The U.S. dollar has gained around 15% from its mid-2011 low near $0.95 Canadian. This gain comes on top of a far superior performance by U.S. stocks in the past three years, compared to Canadian stocks. The Canadian market is just getting back to its peak of three years ago. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 U.S. index has gained nearly 50%. This difference in performance partly reflects two different political and economic environments. Three years ago, President Obama was forging ahead with a lot of policies that rattled investors and business. This depressed U.S. stock prices. In contrast, Prime Minister Harper seemed economically astute and downright business-friendly. In addition, the Resources sector was on a business upswing three years ago. That’s a much bigger economic plus for Canada than for the U.S. So the Canadian…