The new trading week began on Monday, July 18^th with investors weighing the facts that while the major North American markets were at multi-year or record highs, the media seemed to be focused on terrorist acts, military coups or police actions around the world.

Wal Mart Stores Inc. (WMT-N) goes head-to-head with Visa (V-N) as the world’s largest retailer announced it will immediately begin to phase out Visa cards as a method of purchases in it 370 Canadian outlets due to what it feels is excessively high service charges.

Ballard Power Systems (BLD-T) caught many by surprise as its share price soared up by almost 44% to $2.59 after the long suffering fuel cell company announced an agreement with China’s Guangdong Nation Synergy Hydrogen Power Technology for a fuel cell stack production operation in that country.

Similarly, the price of ARM Holdings (ARMH-Q) shares’ surged up by over 40% to US$66.06 on word that SoftBank Group had agreed to buy the mobile computing company in an all-cash deal of some US$32-billion.

On Tuesday, July 19^th technical analysts David Tippin & Ron Meisels took a look at the market and commented – “After a prolonged period of stalemate in the form of a massive trading range in the S&P 500, it now appears that the bulls are regaining the upper hand. Consolidation and then follow-through from the recent breakout are essential.”

Christmas came early to the shareholders’ of Lucara Diamond (LUC-T) after the African diamond miner declared a special dividend of $0.465 to go along with the company’s regular annual dividend of $0.06.

And the shareholders of Yoho Resources (YO-V) were pleased to see their investment soar up by almost 96% to $0.46 after the junior natural gas producer agreed to a $31.5-million takeover from New York based One Stone Energy Partners.

Conversely, the share price on Netflix Inc. (NFLX-Q) fell by over 13% to US$85.66 after a surge in subscription cancellations ahead of an announce price increase caused the video company to miss the streets’ expectations with its 2nd-quarter financials.

Canadian Pacific Railway (CP-T) announced the passing of the torch on Wednesday, July 20^th as efficiency proficient Hunter Harrison will step down as CEO next year and leaving the controls to long time associate and current COO Keith Creel.

The shares’ of Zafgen Inc. (ZFGN-Q) plunged by over 52.5% to US$3.20 after the pharma company announced the suspension of its obesity drug beloranib.

Thursday, July 21^stsaw a ray of hope for the oil & gas industry as EnCana Corp. (ECA-T) reported a small but unexpected 2nd-quarter profit.

The share price of Joy Global (JOY-N) rose by almost 20% to US$28.19 on word that the American based underground mining equipment company was being taken over by Japan’s giant heavy equipment company Komatsu in an all-cash deal of some US$2.9-billion.

After being written off for dead during the financial crisis, auto industry giant General Motors (GM-N) reported a record 2nd-quarter profit and better still – raised their guidance for the rest of the year.

Statistics Canada reported that – helped by an increase in auto sector sales – the country’s wholesalers increased their sales by 1.8% in the May to $55.9-billion.

Friday, July 22^nd had Statistics Canada report that the nations’ retail sales rose by another 0.2% in May to a record $44.28-billion while the annual inflation rate held steady at 1.5%.

Canadian petroleum giant Suncor Energy (SU-T) officially acknowledged the dangers of climate change by announcing it will strive to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint by 30% by 2030.

While on a related topic – Baker Hughes reported that the active U.S. crude oil drill rig count rose by a 7-month high of 14-rigs last week, bringing the total of active drill rigs to 371 – still well down from the 659 rigs working at this time one year ago.

Golden Dawn Minerals (GOM-V) shares’ surged up by over 33% to $0.40 after the mineral developer signed a US$4-million metal purchase agreement with San Francisco based Rivi Capital in order to advance the company’s Lexington and Golden Crown projects in southern British Columbia.

During the Week – The NASDAQ reached a new 1-year high of 5,100, with the TSX setting a new 1-year high of 14,601, the Venture Exchange climbed to a new 20-month high of 770  and the Dow and S&P 500 established respective new record highs of 18,595 and 2,175. Meanwhile, the VIX fell to a new 1-year low of 11.92.

Ballard Power Systems (BLD-T) at $2.61, Lassonde Industries (LAS.A) at $206.00,  and Restaurant Brands Intl. LP (QSP.UN-T) at $59.50 all reached new TSX 52-week trading highs while DataWind Inc. (DW-T) at $1.24, UrtheCast Corp. (UR-T) at $0.86 and WesternOne Inc. (WEQ-T) at $0.10 all sank to new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials improved by 0.29% to 18,571, with the S&P 500 Index up by 0.60% to 2,175 and the NASDAQ Exchange was ahead by 1.33% to 5,097. To the north, the TSX Composite Index rose by 0.81% to 14,601 and the TSX Venture Exchange gained 0.52% to 770.

With commodities – gold bullion lost 0.23% to US$1,324, while copper gained 0.45% to US$2.24, as crude oil dropped by 5.19% to US$44.23 and natural gas improved by 0.37% to US$2.74. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodities Index fell by 0.96% to finish the week at 411.

The Canadian dollar fell by 1.31% against the American dollar to end the week at US$0.7607.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX eased by another 0.69-point to finish the week at a very confident level of11.77.

And Finally – A wanted fugitive was so enthralled with playing his Pokémon GO game that he didn’t notice the game had taken him right to the front door of a Milford, Michigan police station – where he was promptly arrested.