A: Vulcan Materials Co., $268.65, symbol VMC on New York (Shares outstanding: 132.3 million; Market cap: $35.7 billion; www.vulcanmaterials.com), operates mostly in the U.S....

A long-time Inner Circle member recently wrote, “Hello, Pat. In one of your Inner Circle letters a while back you stated, ‘We think most investors should hold up to 20% of their stock portfolios in Consumer stocks. Manufacturers of consumer staples such as food and beverages would be a sound addition to the Consumer component.’ This prompts me to ask, why 20%?”

A: Spreading your stock investments across the five main economic sectors is one of the main keys to successful investing.

By doing so, you avoid overloading yourself with stocks that are about to slump simply because of industry conditions or changes in investor fashion....

EQUINOX GOLD CORP., $7.18, symbol EQX on Toronto, is a Vancouver-based gold producer with two mines in California, one in Mexico, and four in Brazil.

The company’s eighth mine will be the Greenstone mine in northern Ontario. The mine began commissioning at year-end 2023 and is on track to pour gold in the first half of 2024....

TWILIO INC., $60.10, symbol TWLO on Nasdaq, is a buy. The company offers a key service to software developers who create mobile apps. Specifically, its own software is used to connect apps to essential functions elsewhere on a device, including dealing with phone calls and messaging.

In the quarter ended March 31, 2024, revenue rose 4.0%, to $1.05 billion from $1.01 billion....

TC ENERGY INC., $52.78, Toronto symbol TRP, is a buy.

TC generates steady cash flow for investors mainly through a 93,600-kilometre pipeline network that pumps natural gas from Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. Its other operations include 4,900 kilometres of crude oil pipelines and nine power plants.

With the April 2024 payment, TC raised your quarterly dividend by 3.2%....

INTEL CORP., $29.85, Nasdaq symbol INTC, remains a buy for long-term gains.

The company is the world’s leading maker of computer chips: its products power 65% of all personal computers and 80% of all datacentres.

The stock dropped 4% this week after the U.S....

CANADIAN TIRE CORP., $144.07, Toronto symbol CTC.A, is a buy.

Investors benefit from the company’s 502 Canadian Tire stores. They sell automotive parts and services, and household and sporting goods; franchisees run most of the locations. The company’s other operations also enrich its outlook....

ETFs in brief


Exchange-traded funds are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or sub-index....

Medium-sized companies are a bit like the proverbial middle child—they tend not to get as much attention from investors as the smallest or the biggest. But this creates opportunities for investors who are prepared to add the best of those stocks—or the ETFs that hold them—to their portfolios.


High-quality mid-cap stocks can offer the stability and balance sheet strength of large caps, while at the same time, they give investors growth potential similar to small caps.


What are mid-cap stocks?


Mid-cap stocks fall between large-cap stocks and small-cap stocks but the average size of mid-cap companies varies from market to market.


Index provider S&P ranks all U.S....

Physical gold and silver have been strong performers over the past two decades even beating the S&P 500. Gold has also been much less volatile than the equity markets.


Investors shouldn’t overindulge in any one investment, and that includes gold, silver, platinum or any other precious metals....