The new trading week begins on Monday, July 20^th with the tech weighed NASDAQ Exchange at a new record high and the resource laden TSX Venture Exchange at a new record low.

Technical analysts David Tippin & Ron Meisels – “The bulls, against the expectations of many, appear to have re-gained the upper hand in New York…The TSX has now retraced two-thirds of the rally from the December low (13,635) to the April high (15,525). This is the maximum pullback after a rally….It is essential to be in specific sectors and stocks to participate in the next up-move.” (To receive a full copy of this report contact ‘rod.blake@canaccord.com’).

PayPal (PYOL-Q) began trading on the NASDAQ Exchange and the electronic payment company did well as its stock rose by 5.4% to US$40.47.

IBM Corp. (IBM-N) set the trading tone on Tuesday, July 21^st when the tech giant reported 2^nd-quarter financials that failed to live up to the street’s lofty expectations.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK-N) shares’ fell by over 9.5% to US$9.29 when the company succumbs to low petroleum prices and suspends it quarterly dividend.

Torex Gold (TXG-T) was one of the few gold stocks to gain in price as the company’s stock surged up by 20% to $1.02 with the release of a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for its Media Luna Project in southwest Mexico.

Wednesday, July 22^nd saw Apple Inc. (AAPL-Q), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT-Q) and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO-Q) all trade lower after they disappointed the market with their quarterly reports. (Although one has a hard time how Apple’s 47.5-million iPhone sales could disappoint investors.)

The U.S. based National Association of Realtors reported that the median selling price of an existing home rose by 6.5% in June from one year ago to a record US$236,400.

Blue Buffalo Pet Products (BUFF-Q) shares’ surged up by almost 35% on their first day of trading to US$26.96. 

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX-T) shares’ rose by over 9% to $341.02 on Thursday, July 23^rdwhen the giant pharma company beat the street’s expectations with its 2^nd quarter financials.

On an aside, Valeant, with a market cap of $116.3-billion has now surpassed the Royal Bank of Canada (RY-T) with a market cap as $108.9-billion, as Canada’s largest capitalized company.

The share price of Superior Plus (SPB-T) fell by almost 12% to $11.46 when the chemical company reported lower than expected 2^nd quarter earnings.

Friday, July 24^thbegan with the U.S. Commerce Department reporting that their new home sales fell by an unexpected 6.8% in June to 482,000 units.

Oil rig counts continue to rise as industry observer Baker Hughes reported that the active U.S. oil rig count increased by 21 last week to 659 rigs.

Amazon.com (AMZN-Q) shareholder’s had a very good day as its share price surged up by 15% to US$529.42 when the online retailer posted an unexpected 2^nd-quarter profit.

On a second aside, Amazon.com with a market capitalization of US$259-billion now has a greater market cap than Wal-Mart’s US$232-billion market cap.

Conversely, Encana Corp. (ECA-T) shares’ fell by over 8.5% to $10.26 as the company joined a growing list of petroleum companies to report less than stellar quarterly earnings.

Who would have taken the bet a few years ago that a pharmaceutical company such as Valeant would have a larger market cap than the Royal Bank of Canada, Canada’s largest bank, and that an online store such as Amazon.com would be larger by capitalization than Wal-Mart, the world’s largest brick & mortar retailer.

Several mid – long term market trends were established during the week with the NASDAQ Exchange reaching a new record closing high of 5,219, while the TSX Composite Index fell to a new 7-month low of 14,186, and the TSX Venture Exchange set a new record closing low of 592. With commodities, crude oil sank to a 4-month low of US$48.17-a-barrel, with gold bullion falling to a 5-year low of US$1,087-an-ounce, while silver dropped to a new 6-year low of US$14.57-an-ounce, with copper sinking to a 6-year low of US$2.37-a-pound and the CRB Spot Commodities settled to a new 6-year low of 410. And with currencies, the Canadian petro-loonie plunged to a new 11-year low of US$0.7666.

Cott Corp. (BCB-T) at $14.59, Loblaw Companies (L-T) at $70.42, Tricon Capital Group and (TCN-T) at $12.11 all reached new TSX 52-week trading highs while Barrick Gold (ABX-T) at $9.17, Baytex Energy (BTE-T) at $13.58 and Teck Resources (TCK.B-T) at $9.36 all set new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials lost 2.86% to 17,569, while the S&P 500 Index lost 2.21% to 2,080 and the NASDAQ Exchange was off by 2.32% to 5,089. In the north, the TSX Composite Exchange fell by 3.12% to 14,186 and the TSX Venture Exchange dropped by 5.88% to 592.

With commodities, gold bullion lost 3.00% to US$1,098, with copper off by 4.40% to US$2.39, while crude oil dropped by 5.9% to US$48.17 and natural gas was off by 3.14% to US$2.78. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodity Index eased by another 1.20% to finish the week at 410.

The Canadian dollar fell by 0.53% against its American cousin to end the week at US$0.7666.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX gained 2.16-points to finish the week at a more nervous level of 14.11.

And Finally – With figures that show that pick-up trucks are becoming much more mainstream TruCar Inc. reports that the average selling price of new pick-up in the U.S. is up almost 30% in the past 6-years to US$42,429.