The new trading week began on Monday, July 6^th with the markets opening lower as most investors wondered in amazement that 61% of the people of Greece had voted a resounding “No” to any further austerity cuts and thereby defying the Eurozone to expel the Mediterranean country from their exclusive club of nations.

Technical analysts David Tippin & Ron Meisels – “The bears are having their moment in the Grecian sun but overall the bull market remains in force and new highs should be achieved later in the year.”

(For a complete copy of this report please contact rod.blake@canaccord.com.)

The recently merged Kraft Heinz Company (KHC-N) and maker of Kraft cheese, Jell-O, Planters peanuts, Heinz ketchup and Classico sauces traded for the first time under its new symbol.

Oncolytics Biotech (ONC-T) shares’ rose by 20% to $0.78 on word the company’s gastrointestinal cancer drug REO 017 had showed marked improvement in patients in a Phase II study.

Statistics Canada reported the country’s trade deficit rose to $3.3-billion in May, a number not seen since the great recession of 2008-09.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Tuesday, July 7^thsaw Uranium explorer Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU-T) and uranium explorer/producer Denison Mines Corp. (DML-T) announce they will merge as equals under the banner of Denison Energy Corp. and hold some of the most promising uranium properties in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin.

Industry analyst Baker Hughes reported that the number of active American oil rigs rose by twelve last week to 640-rigs and ending the longest rig count decline in history which had see the number of active oil rigs drop by 59% since last November.

Silver Wheaton (SLW-T) shares’ plunged by over 11.5% to $19.65 on word the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) was proposing a higher tax rate on the silver steaming company’s foreign operations.

Conversely, the share price of Depomed (DEPO-Q) surged up by over 38% to US$28.53 when the company received a US$3-billion all-stock takeover offer from Horizon Pharma (HZNP-Q).

North American markets traded lower on Wednesday, July 8^th on word that China’s Shanghai Composite Index had plunged by another 5.9% overnight or 30% in the past month.

Adding to the pain in Canada was another Statistics Canada report that value of the country’s building permits fell by 14.5% in May to $6.7-billion.

The World Gold Council calculates that in 2013 gold mining contributed US$171.6-billion to the global economy, more than the economies of Ecuador, Ghana and Tanzania…..combined.

The negative weight on the markets was enhanced on Thursday, July 9^th after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its 2015 outlook for global growth by 0.2% to 3.3%, and closer to home, lowered Canada’s outlook by 0.7% to just 1.5% and dropped the projected growth of the United States by 0.6% to 2.5%.

The share price of Pacific Rubiales Energy (PRE -T) plunged by over 45% to $2.85 on word that its     $2-billion refinancing deal with Alfa SAB and Harbour Energy Ltd. had fallen off the rails.

Canadian employment numbers were front and centre on Friday, July 10^thas Statistics Canada reported the country lost a less than expected 6,400 jobs in June and that the nation’s unemployment rate held at a better than expected 6.8%.

To the south, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reiterated the Fed’s interest rate outlook by stating – “I expect that it will be appropriate at some point later this year to take the first step to raise the federal funds rate and thus begin normalizing monetary policy.”

Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B-T) shares’ nosedived by 8% to a 22-year low of $1.84 when the world’s third largest commercial airplane manufacturer announced that it was conducting a full production review of its updated Global 7000-8000 business jet.

Teck Resources’ (TCK.B-T0 re-entry into the oil business had a setback when the miner announced it was delaying initial production from its massive Frontier oil sands project in northern Alberta by       5-years to 2026.

The markets rallied going into the weekend as optimism prevailed that a compromise deal would be reached that would see Greece remain in the European economic community.

Several mid to long term lows were established during the week with crude oil falling to a 3-month low of US$51.80-a-barrel, while gold bullion also dropped to a new 3-month low of US$1,153-an ounce and copper plunging to a 6-year low of US$2.45-a-pound. This helped to pull the TSX Venture Exchange down to a record low of 637 and the Canadian dollar down to a 4-month low of US$0.7847. Meanwhile the VIX touched a new 5-month high of 19.97.

Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.B-T) at $54.77, Gildan Activewear (GIL-T) at $43.07 and FirstService Corp. (FSV-T) at $38.00 all reached new TSX 52-week trading highs while Cenovus Energy (CVE-T) at $18.20, Denison Mines (DML-T) at $0.80 and Saputo Inc. (SAP-T) at $29.30 all touched new         52-week trading lows.

For The Week – The Dow Industrials were higher by 0.17% to 17,760, while the S&P 500 Index eased marginally to 2,077 and the NASDAQ Exchange lost 0.22% to 4,998. On the Canadian side, the TSX Composite Index fell by 1.85% to 14,411 and the TSX Venture Exchange dropped by 4.5% to 641.

Gold bullion eased by 0.17% to US$1,162, with copper off by 3.42% to US$2.54, while crude oil dropped by 6.55% to US$53.20 and natural gas fell by 2.46% to US$2.77. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodities Index was lower by 3-points to finish the week at 420.

The Canadian dollar fell by 0.68% to against its American counterpart to end the week at               U.S. $0.7898.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX eased by 0.02-point to finish the week at a somewhat nervous level of 16.77.

And Finally – You may see a change in traditional meals this barbeque season as the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association reports that due to drought induced beef herd cutbacks – wholesale ground beef prices have risen by one-third in the past 2-years to a record $12.64-a-killogram, while sirloin steaks have surged by 44% to $24.22-a-killogram. (Smokies anyone?)

And Finally. Finally – The Week is taking some summer time off and if all works out will once again publish sometime on or about Monday, July 27th.