The new trading week begins on Monday, January 12th with investors watching the price of crude oil to see if perhaps a bottom was in or would the relentless slide continue.

And the slide did continue a crude opened over $2 lower to test a new 6-year low of US$45.96-a-barrel after Goldman Sachs slashed its 2015 forecast for crude oil from US$73.75 to just US$47.15-a-barrel.

With the number crunchers calculating how the new reality of crude oil might affect different economies, a report from Canaccord Genuity estimates that Alberta, Canada’s strongest economy, relies on energy for 25% of its gross domestic product or GDP.

Fission Uranium (FCU-T) was back in the spotlight when its stock price rose by almost 12% to $1.13 when the Saskatchewan mineral company released a report that put its Triple R uranium deposit at over 105-million pounds of indicated and inferred mineral grading over an amazing 18% U3O8.

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (TKM-T) shares surged up by almost 58% to $29.70 on word the company was taking over OnCore Biopharma and its hepatitis B drugs to form a company worth some US$750-million.

China reported its domestic vehicle sales rose by 6.9% in 2014 to a record 23.5-million units.

Copper opens the day on Tuesday, January 13th down some 8-cents to US$2.65-a-pound on word of slowing demand for the red metal in China.

The share price of ChannelAdvisor (ECOM-Q) plunged on by over 53% to US$9.81 when the e-commerce solutions firm failed to please the street with its 4th quarter financials.

Similarly, the shares’ of GoPro (GPRO-Q) fell by over 12% to US$49.86 on word that Apple Inc. (AAPL-Q) was preparing to enter the personal recreation camera business.

Energy investors were give a slim ray of hope on Wednesday, January 14th when crude oil put in potential ‘key reversal’ it opened below the previous day’s close of US$45.96 and then closed higher by some $2.30 at US$48.26-a-barrel.

Suncor Energy (SU-T) got the markets’ attention when the giant Canadian integrated energy company announced it was reducing its 2015 budget in response to the falling crude oil prices and worse yet – would be reducing its contract workforce by some 1,000 people.

The markets were generally negative after the U.S Commerce Department reported that American retail sales, (net of auto sales) unexpectedly dropped by some 0.4% in December. For all of 2014, U.S. retail sales were up by 0.4%.

Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA-Q) shareholders’ got a bit of unexpected news when founder Elon Musk said the luxury electric car would be profitable by….now wait for it…..2020.

BlackBerry Ltd. (BB-T) shares’ surged up by over 25.5% to $14.57 late in the trading day on rumours that electronics giant Samsung was going to make a US$7.5-billion offer for the Canadian smartphone company.

Sometimes big companies make big decisions and on Thursday, January 15th giant retailer Target Corp.  (TGT-N) suddenly announced it was closing all 133 of its Canadian outlets that they had opened with great fanfare not even two-years earlier and effectively shattering the lives of their 17,000 some employees. Not written into the news release was the fact that many of the Target stores had Starbucks Corp. (SBUX-Q) coffee shops within their perimeters.

The worlds’ currency markets are shocked into suddenly rebalancing and gold bullion quickly rises when the Swiss National Bank announced it was immediately abandoning its 3-year experiment of keying its Swiss franc to the euro at a subjective rate of 1.20 – 1. The Swiss franc instantly rose by 20% to a more realistic ratio of 1 – 1 to the euro.

Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B-T) shares’ plunge by over 25% to $3.09 when the world’s number three airspace company announced it was temporarily suspending its Lear business jet program due to poor interest and more importantly warned of tightened operating margins for all of its divisions for the year ahead.

And with word that sometimes the house does lose – Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CZR-N), America’s largest casino company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Friday, January 16th begins on a positive note when the University of Michigan announced its closely watched Consumer Sensitive Index rose by an impressive 5.2-points in January to an 11-year high of 98.2.

The Eurozone also had a good year in auto sales as they reported their car sales rose by 5.7% in 2014 to 12.5-million units.

The recent extreme drop in crude oil prices causes Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver to delay indefinitely the presentation of his fiscal 2016-17 budget to parliament.

Oil services giant Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB-N) announce it laid off about 7,000 or about 7% of its worldwide workforce at the end of 2014.

Several intermediate and long-term values were made during the week with gold bullion rising to a new 4-month high of US$1,276, with natural gas falling to a new 2½-year low of US$2.80, while copper fell to a new 6-year low of US$2.53, and crude oil dropped to a new 6-year low of US$45.96. With currencies, the Canadian dollar fell to a new 5¾-year low of US$0.8358.

Uranium (FCU-T) at $1.27, Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) at $25.30 and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT-T) at $43.34 all established new TSX 52-week trading highs while Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B-T) at $2.82, Finning International (FTT-T) at $20.93 and Newalta Corp. (NAL-T) at $12.59 all set new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials lost another 1.27% to 17,512, while the S&P 500 Index fell by 1.27% to 2,019 and the NASDAQ Exchange was off by another 1.55% to 4,634. To the we sure showed Target north, the TSX Composite Index eased lower by another 0.53% to 14,309 and the TSX Venture Exchange fell by another 2.77% to 668.

Gold bullion rose by another 4.93% to US$1,276, with copper off by another 4.36% to US$2.63, while crude oil was unchanged at US$48.99 and natural gas was up by 4.07% to US$3.07. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodities Index dropped by another 1.38% to finish the week at 429.

The Canadian petro-dollar fell by another 0.85% against the U.S. buck to end the week at US$0.8353.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX rose by 3.81-points to cross above the key level of 20 and end the week a much more nervous level of 21.36.

And Finally – While all of the recent headlines of job layoffs and cutbacks is somewhat scary, still scarier is a U.S Labour  Department study that estimates in ten-years, about 65% of jobs people will be doing…now wait for it…..have not even been thought of yet. (Now try getting your head around that one….).