Here’s Part One of the text of the most-recent letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients in July this year:

“You may recall hearing this common explanation for the poor outcome that the U.S. achieved in the Vietnam War:
“The problem is that the U.S....

CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC., $14.45, symbol CLF on New York, is the largest iron ore mining company in the U.S. It’s a major supplier of iron ore pellets to the North American steel industry.

The company is also the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America after buying AK Steel for $3.0 billion in stock in 2019 and the U.S....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC., $43.04, Toronto symbol SU, remains a buy.

The company is Canada’s largest integrated oil firm, with major projects in the Alberta oil sands. Suncor also operates four refineries (three in Canada and one in Colorado), along with 1,875 Petro-Canada gas stations.

With the June 2022 payment, Suncor increased your quarterly dividend by 11.9%....

PEPSICO INC., $170.19, Nasdaq symbol PEP, is still a hold.

The company is the world’s second-largest soft-drink maker after Coca-Cola. Its other brands include Frito-Lay snack foods, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana fruit juices and Quaker Oats cereals.

PepsiCo continues to benefit from higher selling prices to offset rising costs for food ingredients, packaging and shipping.

In the quarter ended September 3, 2022, the company’s sales rose 8.8%, to $21.97 billion from $20.19 billion a year earlier....

MERCK & CO. INC., $92.18, is a buy. The drugmaker (symbol MRK on New York) is a pharmaceutical leader in oncology, acute-care and animal health drugs as well as vaccines.

Merck has now exercised an option to jointly develop and potentially sell an mRNA-based cancer vaccine along with Moderna (symbol MRNA on Nasdaq).

The vaccine, mRNA-4157, is being tested in conjunction with Merck’s blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda, in a mid-stage trial....

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO., $148.60, Toronto symbol CNR, remains a buy.

The company operates Canada’s largest railway. Its 32,200-kilometre network stretches across the country. It also travels down through the U.S. Midwest, connecting Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

CN has agreed to a new three-year deal with its 750 unionized signals and communications employees....

Many investors have lost interest in investing in emerging markets (“EMs”) given their recent poor performance. Still, EM fundamentals remain sound, despite COVID-19-induced setbacks and higher inflation. The key emerging markets are also home to many top-notch global companies, available at reasonable, if not attractive valuations.


Emerging markets can deliver stellar returns


Over the past 30 years, investors in EMs have experienced slightly lower returns than investors in developed markets....

Hackers, organized crime, and state-sponsored actors are increasingly targeting Internet-linked networks and databases to gain access to confidential information and extract large ransom payments.


The lucrative nature of online crime, combined with a relatively low risk of being caught, and a massive and growing target market, indicate that this criminal industry will continue its rapid growth.


However, companies that can provide effective protection against cybercrime will benefit from its expansion.


Criminals have a large target market


Attacks on individuals aim to steal personal and financial information while corporations are targeted to obtain client records and business secrets.


Cybercriminals have figured out ways to get paid (mostly in untraceable cryptocurrencies) to extract considerable payments from their victims....

This month we highlight a carbon credit ETF from TD Asset Management as well as an actively managed fintech ETF from Blackrock.


TD GLOBAL CARBON CREDIT INDEX ETF $36.87 (Toronto symbol TCBN) seeks to track the performance of a global carbon credit index, which measures the investment return of global cap-and-trade carbon emission credits.


The ETF passively tracks the Solactive Global Carbon Credit Index....

Tourism is an important part of the Indonesian economy, contributing directly and indirectly about 5% to the country’s GDP in normal years.


In 2019, Indonesia welcomed 16 million international tourists, who spent $17 billion during that year. The industry is credited with employing an estimated 4.7 million people, or 4% of the total workforce.


The Indonesian tourism industry grew considerably between 2000 and 2019 with foreign arrivals increasing by 240%.


Most of the tourists hailed from China, Malaysia, and Australia....