The new trading week begins on Monday, August 11th with investors watching to see if the markets can build a base following a two week correction, that on the American exchanges in particular, wiped out most if not all of the yearly gains made to date.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation announced that the country’s new housing starts rose by a better than expected 0.7% in July to a seasonally adjusted 10-month high of 200,098 units.

The shares’ of Chiquita Brands (CQB-N) surged up by over 30% to US$13.10 on word the banana producer had received an US$610.5-million all-cash takeover offer from juice maker Cutrale and investment bank Safra Group.

Energy giant Kinder Morgan (KMI-N) announced it was consolidating itself and all of its divisions of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP-N), Kinder Morgan Management (KMR-N), and El Paso Pipeline Partners (EPB-NN) to create a stronger entity in which to take advantage of future market opportunities.

The share price of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (TKM-T) rose by another 12% to $25.84 on word the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had modified their position on the company’s Ebola drug TKM-Ebola.

The shareholders’ of Kate Spade (KATE-N) had a bad day on Tuesday, August 12th as they watched their investment plunge by almost 26% to US$28.88 when the market didn’t take kindly to the retailer’s idea of spinning out its North America and International segments into two separate entities.

For the most part the markets were quiet and uneventful on Wednesday, August 13th save perhaps the action on SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (SEAS-Q) whose share price plunged by almost 33% to US$18.90 when the marine park company’s second quarter financials failed to live up to the streets expectations.

Thursday, August 14th saw the World Gold Council report that global gold bullion production rose by 4% in 2013 to 1,478.5-tonnes.

While on a similar topic, after 117-years of manually setting the price of silver, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) announced it will now let the price of silver  be set by an electronic auction process.

And with figures that confirm that government and commerce are firmly interconnected, giant retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT-N) reported that their domestic sales were flat in the second quarter due to…..now wait for it……a cut back in the issue of government sponsored food stamps.

Great Canadian Gaming (GC-T) shares’ rose by over 13% to $18.57 when the casino company reported record 2nd quarter revenues and earnings.

Personal coffee maker Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR-Q) said the price of coffee has increased by about 55% in the past year.

The Canadian dollar surged upwards by over 1/3rd-of-a-cent early on Friday, August 15th when revised Statistics Canada figures showed that the Canadian economy actually created a much better than expected 41,700 new jobs in the month of July.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported that the average price of a Canadian home rose by 5.0% in the past year to July to a record $401,585.

Beverage companies caught the eye of investors as the price of Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST-Q) surged up by over 30% to US$93.49 on word that giant Coca-Cola Co. (KO-N) would spend US$2.25-billion for a 17% interest in the new age drink manufacturer.

And the price of Imperial Metals Corp. (III-T) stock rebounded by almost 16% to $10.11 when the mining company reported it had arranged $100-million in financing to help with the clean-up of the mount Polly tailings dam disaster of two-weeks ago.

Finning International (FTT-T) at $34.05, Tim Hortons (THI-T) at $68.90 and Whistler Blackcomb Holdings (WB-T) at $19.46 all established new TSX 52-week trading highs during the week, while Fortress Paper (FTP-T) at $1.82, Imperial Metals at $8.76 and TAG Oil    (TAO-T) at $2.35 all set new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials gained 0.66% to 16,663, with the S&P 500 Index up by 1.2% to 1,955 and the NASDAQ Exchange off on the week by 0.14% to 4,465. On the Canadian side, the TSX Composite Index lost 0.71% to 15,304 and the TSX Venture Exchange eased by 0.15% to 996.

Gold bullion was lower by 0.50% to US$1,306.30, with crude oil down by 2.75% to US$94.93, natural gas off by 3.79% to US$3.81 and copper down by 1.26% to US$3.13. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodities Index was down by 0.21% to 484.

The Canadian dollar improved by 0.78% against the American greenback to US$0.9184.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX dropped by 2.47-points to end the week at a much calmer level of 13.30.

And Finally – The Fraser Institute’s recently released Canadian Consumer Tax Index revealed that 41.8% of the average Canadian’s income now goes to some sort of taxation, well up from the 33.5% of income that went to taxation in 1961.