The U.S. housing construction and improvement markets have recovered strongly from the lows they hit at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. In fact, they have gone on to new highs.


That growth includes a big jump in late 2023. That rise was spurred by ongoing pent-up demand for housing....

A: We still feel that investors will profit the most with a well-balanced portfolio of high-quality individual stocks, but ETFs can also play a role in a portfolio. Here’s a look at the ETFs you’ve asked about:

Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF, $83.70, symbol XLE on New York (Units outstanding: 424.4 million; Market cap: $35.5 billion; www.ssga.com), provides exposure to companies in the oil, gas and consumable fuel, energy equipment and services industries.

The fund’s MER is just 0.10%....

We first recommended Canadian Pacific Railway (now called Canadian Pacific Kansas City) in the first issue of The Successful Investor in January 1995.

The stock moved up for our subscribers in the late 1990s, though much more slowly than Internet and technology stocks....

WOLVERINE WORLDWIDE INC., $8.57, symbol WWW on New York, is a Michigan-based footwear manufacturer. Its brands include Wolverine Boots and Shoes, Merrell, Sweaty Betty, Hush Puppies, Saucony and Stride Rite.

On January 11, 2024, the company announced that it had sold its Sperry brand (best known for boat shoes and loafers) to Authentic Brands Group Inc....

FAIR ISAAC CORP., $1,255.30, is a buy for our subscribers. Investors in this stock draw gains from a company (symbol FICO on New York) best known for its FICO Scores software. It lets lenders make better decisions about customer creditworthiness. Fair Isaac also makes programs that help credit-card issuers reduce fraud and analyze the spending patterns of cardholders.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2023, revenue rose 10.8%, to $382.1 million from $344.9 million a year earlier....

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO., $170.55, Toronto symbol CNR, is a buy.

The company operates Canada’s largest railway. Its 30,250-kilometre network stretches across the country. It also travels down through the U.S. Midwest, connecting Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

CN is now raising your quarterly dividend by 7.0%....

ALPHABET INC., Nasdaq symbols GOOG $143.54 [class C: non-voting] and GOOGL $142.38 [class A: one vote per share], is your #1 Aggressive buy for 2024.

The company is the parent of Google, the world’s leading Internet search engine—it handles over 90% of global search requests....

CANADIAN PACIFIC KANSAS CITY LTD., $112.09, Toronto symbol CP, is your #1 Conservative Buy for 2024.

The company took its current form in April 2023 when it acquired U.S.-based railway Kansas City Southern.

CP paid $31 billion U.S. in cash and shares for KCS....

We think investors will profit most—and with the least risk—by buying shares of well-established companies with strong business prospects and strong positions in healthy industries....

ENBRIDGE, $47.74, is a buy. The firm (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 2.1 billion; Market cap: $102.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 7.7%; www.enbridge.com) has agreed to sell its stakes in two joint ventures to its partner Pembina Pipeline.


Specifically, Pembina will acquire an additional 50.0% of the Alliance Pipeline, which pumps natural gas from B.C....