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CENTRAL GARDEN & PET CO., $36.78, symbol CENT on Nasdaq, provides a range of products to pet owners and residential and commercial gardeners. Central’s more than 65 brands include Pennington, Nylabone, Kaytee, Amdro and Aqueon.

Founded in 1980, the company has made several acquisitions to grow both segments of its business.

One major purchase was the February 2021 acquisition of Green Garden Products, a Massachusetts-based provider of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds, as well as seed starters and plant nutrients....

You Can See Our Exchange-Traded Funds Portfolio For June 2023 here.


ETFs in brief


Exchange-traded funds are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or sub-index....
Most of the large and popular exchange-traded funds are passively managed index-tracking funds. Passive fund management for ETFs involves investing to mirror the holdings and performance of a specific stock-market index. The indexes that form the basis of these ETFs are provided by major index providers such as MSCI, S&P, FTSE and Solactive.


Meanwhile, the methods used to construct those major indexes can dramatically influence their composition and performance....
Exchange-traded funds offering regular income have grown in popularity lately, especially during the low interest rate years of 2020 to 2021. But with interest rates moving higher over the past 18 months, ETF managers have to become more creative in their efforts to offer appealing yields to investors....
Royal Bank is the partner of BlackRock for the distribution of the iShares ETFs in Canada. But the Royal Bank platform also hosts a considerable number of RBC branded ETFs. The Bank recently expanded its ETF roster by adding RBC-branded ETFs that mirror existing actively managed mutual funds.


RBC NORTH AMERICAN GROWTH ETF $20.47 (NEO exchange symbol RNAG) invests in U.S....

On August 30, 2020, the day of his 90th birthday, billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced that his Berkshire Hathaway company (symbol BRK.B on New York) had acquired a little over 5% of each of five Japanese trading companies, or Sogo Shosha as they are called in Japan.


The five are Itochu Corp., Marubeni Corp, Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., and Sumitomo Corp....
The Japanese economy ranks third in the world and hosts some of the most-profitable global corporations.


The economy is, however, facing a declining and rapidly aging population. Still, an older population also presents opportunities, and Japanese companies are already coming up with innovative and technology-driven aids for the elderly....

High interest rates mean dividend-paying stocks must increasingly compete for investor interest with bonds and other fixed-income instruments. However, focusing on sustainable dividends still offers an attractive and growing income stream for investors—as long as you avoid the riskier strategies that some ETF managers use to boost their yields (see supplement on page 60).


Here are three ETFs that aim to provide high-yield exposure to Canadian, as well as U.S., dividend payers.


VANGUARD FTSE CANADIAN HIGH DIVIDEND ETF $42.00 (Toronto symbol VDY; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $2.1 billion) tracks the FTSE Canada High Dividend Yield Index....
ISHARES GSCI COMMODITY DYNAMIC ROLL STRATEGY ETF $26.17 (New York symbol COMT) invests in a broad range of commodities. At the end of March 2023, the fund’s asset were effectively distributed to energy (57%), agriculture (19%), industrial metals (12%), and livestock (8%)....
The growing commercial use of robots and computers with sophisticated learning and problem-solving skills continues to change the manufacturing and service sectors.


Here is a look at two exchange-traded funds that provide easy access to companies now leading the development of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.


GLOBAL X ROBOTICS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ETF $25.57 (Nasdaq symbol BOTZ; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $1.7 billion) invests in companies that benefit from the growing use of robotics and artificial intelligence.


The fund invests globally: the U.S....