The new trading week began on Monday, April 18^th with investors keenly aware that the major North American markets were trading at or near multi-month highs.

The price of crude oil slumped early in trading as word spread that the oil exporting nations failed to come to a production ceiling consensus at their weekend meetings in Doha.

Fission Uranium (FCU-T) shares’ rose by over 5.5% to $0.75 after the mineral explorer released encouraging assays from four new zones at their PLS uranium project in northern Saskatchewan.

Conversely, the share price of Primero Mining (P-T) plunged by 17% to $2.19 after the gold miner failed to meet the streets’ expectations with its 1st-quarter financials.

The shareholders’ of Cvent Inc. (CVT-N) were pleased to see their investment surge up by almost 65.5% to US$35.23 when the meetings & events company agreed to a US$1.65-billion private takeover offer from Vista Equity Partners.

Tuesday, April 19^thhad technical analysts David Tippin & RonMeisels comment – “The recent strength of the markets suggest it is now more a matter of when, not if, the S&P 500 will hit a new all-time high.” ( For a complete copy of this report please contact  rod.blake@canaccord.com.)

Silver stocks surged higher in mass as the price of silver closed the gap on gold by gaining 4.30% to end the day at a new 11-month high of US$16.95-an-ounce.

The price of Bee Vectoring Technologies (BEE-V) rose by over 14% to $0.56 ahead of a key U.S. trial with Virginia Tech that may lead to the company’s BEE system used in controlling Fire Blight in apples, pears and other fruits.

Platinum Group Metals (PTM-T) shares’ surged up by almost 20.5% to $4.07 after the company released an updated resource estimate for its Waterberg Joint Venture in South Africa.

Market darling Netflix Inc. (NFLX-Q) had its share price cut by over 14% to US$94.23 when the company’s estimate of adding 500,000 new American subscribers in the 2nd-quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Wednesday, April 20^th began with the share price of Mitsubishi Motors plunging by more than 15% to 733-yen after the Japanese automaker admitting that they too, like German competitor Volkswagen, had altered mileage test data on about 625,000 vehicles sold in Japan.

The price of Patient Home Monitoring (PHM-V) rose by over 17.6% to $0.30 on word the company had rearranged some of their senior operating officers.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO-Q) continued to show the effects of competing with industry leader Google as the internet server company reported an 18% drop in 1st-quarter revenue to     US$859.4-million.

The price of Concordia Healthcare (CXR-T) stock rose by over 25% to $38.65 on Thursday, April 21^ston reports that Blackstone Group (BX-N) was considering making a takeover offer for the pharmaceutical company.

Mineral exploration continued to heat up as the share price of Purepoint Uranium Group (PTU-V) soared up by 37.5% to $0.11 after the explorer reported encouraging uranium assays from its Hook Lake project in the Athabasca region of Northern Saskatchewan.

General Motors (GM-N) handily beat the street with its 1st-quarter financials.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) estimates that 100,000 direct and indirect jobs have been lost to the crash in crude oil prices.

Friday, April 22^nd had two tech heavyweights reporting and it wasn’t pretty as the share price of Alphabet Inc. (GOOG-Q) and Microsoft Corp. (MFST-Q) fell by 5.3% and 7.2% respectively when their 1st-quarter financials didn’t live up to analysts’ expectations.

Cameco Corp. (CCO-T) announced that a combination of low uranium prices and over supply were behind the world’s largest uranium producer’s decision to close two of its smaller operations and the loss of some 500-jobs.

Statistics Canada reported that the country’s inflation rate remained at an annualized low of 1.3% in March although core inflation was a more robust 2.1%.

During the week – the NASDAQ reached a new 2016 closing high of 4,960, with the S&P 500 hitting new 5^1/2-month closing high of 2,102 and the Dow closing at a new 9-month high of18,097. On the Canadian side the TSX climbed to a new 6-month high of 13,911 and the Venture Exchange hit a 9-month closing high of 658. On the commodities side, silver broke out to a new 11-month closing high of US$17.00-an-ounce and the CRB Spot Commodity Index reached a new 9-month high of 417. And the Canadian loonie climbed to a new     9^1/2-month closing high of US$0.7906.

Crombie REIT (CRR.UN-T) at $14.37, Guyana Goldfields (GUY-T) at $6.57 and Norsat International (NII-T) at $7.62 all reached new TSX 52-week trading highs while Crosswinds Holdings (CWI-T) at $2.51, K-Bro Linen (KBL-T) at $42.69 and Transition Therapeutics    (TTH-T) at $0.94 all slumped to new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials gained 0.60% to 18,004, while the S&P 500 Index rose by 0.53% to 2,092, but the NASDAQ Exchange fell by 0.65% to 4,906. To the who cares about hockey north, the TSX Composite Index rose by 1.74% to 13,874 and the TSX Venture Exchange improved by 3.37% to 656.

With commodities – gold bullion was unchanged at US$1,235, with copper up by 5.09% to US$2.27, while crude oil gained 4.89% to US$43.75 and natural gas rose by 12.5% to US$2.25. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodities Index improved by 1.46% to end the week at 417.

The Canadian dollar rose by 1.23% against its southern neighbour to finish the week at US$0.7893.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX eased by 0.31-point to end the week at a slightly calmer level of 13.31.

And Finally – The Week is taking a week off to visit clients, friends & family from here to the wide skies of Saskatchewan. If all goes well this publication should reappear sometime around Monday, May 9th.