The new North American trading week began on Monday, April 2^nd with investors wondering if the recent market ‘correction’ was actually turning into a market ‘bear’. To which technical analysts David Tippin & Ron Meisels commented – “We expect that the correction period will end in April. The final chapter may have some volatile episodes but an upside resolution should be anticipated”. (For a complete copy of this report please contact Rod.blake@canaccord.com.)

The markets opened sharply lower on word that China was imposing trade tariffs of up to 25^% on 128 products the country imports from the United States.

The Institute of Supply Management reported that its U.S manufacturing index fell by       1.5-points in March from its 14-year high to 59.3. Still well above the growth level of 50.

Giant micro-chip manufacturer Intel Corp. ‘INTC-Q’ shares’ tumbled lower by over 5^% to US$49.00 after giant technology company Apple Inc ‘AAPL-Q’ announced it will begin building its own chips for its electronic devices.

Transcontinental Inc. ‘TCL.A-T’ stock rose by almost 10^% to $27.92 after the Montreal based printing company announced it was buying Chicago based packaging company Coveris Americas in an all-cash deal of some US$1.32-billion.

Tuesday, April 3^rd saw the United States counter China’s tariffs announcement on Monday by issuing 25^% tariffs on a further 1,300 more industrial, technology, transport and medical products.

Spotify Technology ‘SPOT-N’ shares’ began trading publicly and the Sweden based music streaming company did very well as its stock price rose by almost 13^% during the day to S$149.01.

The price of Callidus Capital ‘CBL-T’ stock plunged by over 31^% to $4.42 after the finance company reported a much larger than expected 4^th-quarter loss.

PURE Multi-Family ‘RUF.U-T’ shares’ surged up by 17^% to US$7.25 on word the REIT was being acquired by private equity firm Electra America in an all-cash deal of some $7.59-a-share.

The tariffs ball went back into China’s court on Wednesday, April 4^th and the world’s 2^nd largest economy took advantage and announced tariffs on some 106 more American goods including soybeans, whisky, beef, industrial chemicals and small aircraft.

Eldorado Gold ‘ELD-T’ finally got some good news as an arbitration panel in Greece ruled the gold miner had a valid technical plan to build metallurgical plants for its Skouries and Olympias gold mines in that Mediterranean country.

The price of Cloudera Inc. ‘CLDR-Q’ plunged by over 40^% to US$13.29 after the cloud-software company lowered its sales guidance for the rest of the year.

Lennar Corporation’s ‘LEN-N’ stock gained 10^% to US$62.82 after the American homebuilder reported it sold more homes at higher prices in the 1^st-quareter.

Thursday, April 5^th has Statistics Canada report that the country’s trade deficit rose by a much larger than expected 42^% in February to a 14-year high of $2.7-billion.

Similarly – the U.S. Commerce Department reported their trade deficit rose by a further 1.6^% in February to a 9-year high of US$57.6-billion.

Corus Entertainment ‘CJR.B-T’ shares’ surged up by 19^% to $7.13 after the media company surprised the street with much better than expected 1^st-quarter financials.

Friday, April 6^th had the Trump administration continue to play tit-for-tat with their Chinese counterparts by imposing another US$100-billion of import tariffs on yet unnamed Chinese products.

The U.S Labor Department report their economy created a less than expected 103,000 new jobs in March leaving the country’s unemployment rate steady ay 4.1^%.

Up north – Statistics Canada said this country created a better than expected 32,300 new jobs in March, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 5.8^%.

Petroleum industry analyst Baker Hughes ‘BHGE-N’ reported the number on active American drilling rigs rose by 10-rigs last week to 1,003 active drilling rigs, while the number of active Canadian rigs fell by 23-rigs to 111 active drilling rigs.

Torex Gold ‘TXG-T’ shares’ soared up by 51^% to $ 11.57 on word that the illegal blockades had ended at the company’s ELG Mine and Media Luna Projects in Mexico.

During the Week – the TSX Composite Index, S&P 500 Index, and NASDAQ Exchange fell to respective 2-month closing lows of 15,164, 2,582, and 6,870. Meanwhile the Dow Industrials fell to 4-month low of 23,644 and the TSX Venture Exchange dropped to a          9-month low of 764. All of which helped the VIX to rise to a 2-month closing high of 24.87.

For the Week – CAE Inc. ‘CAE-T’ at $24.68, Fennec Pharmaceuticals ‘FRX-T’ at $18.24 and Morneau Shepell ‘MSI-T’ at $25.99 all rose to new TSX 52-week trading highs while Corby Spirit & Wine ‘CSW.B-T’ at $18.50, KP Tissue ‘KPT-T’ at $10.96 and Paramount Resources ‘POU-T’ at $13.93 all fell to new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – the Dow Industrials fell by 0.72^% to 23,933, with the S&P 500 off by 1.42^% to 2,604 and the NASDAQ down by 2.10^% to 6,915. Up north – the TSX Composite Index fell by 1.04^% to 15,207 and the TSX Venture Exchange dropped by 3.51^% to 769.

With Commodities – gold bullion was lower by 0.75^% to US$1,337, while copper was up by 0.66^% to US$3.04, as crude oil dropped by 4.54^% to US$61.99 and natural gas fell by 1.10^% to US$2.70. Overall – the CRB Spot Commodity Index eased down by 0.23% to end the week at 436.

The Canadian dollar rose by 1.01^% against its American counterpart to finish the week at US$0.7832.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX gained 1.41-points to end the week at a little more nervous level of 21.49.

And Finally – To give you an idea of the future size of the marijuana business – research firm Cowen & Co. estimates that the American legal cannabis sales will reach US$75-billion by the year 2030 – or about the same size of the current North American soft drink market.