The new North American trading week began on Monday, March 11th with headlines of Barrick Gold ‘ABX-T’ and Newmont Mining ‘NEM-N’ forming a joint venture to develop and operate their vast gold holdings in the state of Nevada.
Boeing Company ‘BA-N’ shares’ dive by over 5.5% lower to US$400.01 on word that a second 737-MAX 8 jetliner had crashed just after take-off in the past 6-months.
After what seemed like a very long wait – Hudbay Minerals ‘HBM-T’ announced the company had finally received the final Section 404 Water Permit for its prize Rosemont copper project in southern Arizona.
Tuesday, March 12th brought more uncertainty to the markets after the British parliament once again voted “No” to Prime Minister’s Teresa May’s latest European Union Brexit plan.
Airline stocks on both sides of the border trade down in unison on word that many countries were banning the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft from their airspace.
After peaking at over 350,000 barrels of oil per day last December – Petroleum industry analyst Genscape reported that Western Canadian crude oil shipments-by-rail fell in January to a 10-month low of 144,000-barrels-per-day.
Wednesday, March 13th saw the price of Aurora Cannabis ‘ACB-T’ open 8% higher at $11.50 with the announcement that billionaire investor Nelson Peltz was joining the marijuana grower in a strategic advisor capacity.
Keeping in the Cannabis space – HEXO Corp. ‘HEXO-T’ shares’ rose by almost 6% to $7.83 after the Quebec based marijuana grower announced the friendly takeover of fellow Ontario based grower Newstrike Brands in an all-stock deal of some $263-million.
General Electric ‘GE-N’ stock rose by over 2.5% to US$10.02 after the struggling industrialist company offered a better than expected 2019 forward guidance.
Canada and the United States join an almost global list of countries that have banned the Boeing 737 Max 8 & 9 aircraft from flying in their airspace.
Statistics Canada reported on Thursday, March 14th that for the country’s total home values fell in the 4th-quarter of 2018 for the first time in 30-years – falling 0.6% to $510-trillion.
Dollar General ‘DG-N’ shares’ fell by 7.5% to US$111.64 after the discount retailers’ 4th-quarter financials failed to meet analysts’ expectations.
Oil & gas issues tended to trade higher as crude oil quietly approached a new 4-month high of US$58.61.
Conversely, the price of gold stocks mainly fell as the price of gold bullion fell below the psychologically important level of US$1,300-an-ounce.
Friday, March 15th had the U.S. Commerce Department report their retail sales rose 2.3% year-over-year in January.
Similarly – the Commerce Department also reported that America durable goods orders (big things that if dropped on one’s foot would hurt) rose in January by 0.4% in January over the previous month.
Canadian Petroleum companies are continuing to get more frustrated and more vocal over the state of their industry such as Imperial Oil ‘IMO-T’ announced a slowdown of development of its $2.6-bil;lion Aspen oil sands project northern Alberta to the Alberta government’s restrictions on crude oil production.
During the Week – the CRB Spot Commodity Index rose to a new 3-month high of 419 helped by crude oil that rose to a new 4-month high of US$58.61-a-barrel. The S&P 500 Index closed at a new 4-month high of 2,822, the NASDAQ closed at a new 5-month high of 7,689 and the TSX Composite Index rose to a new 5½ -month closing high of 16,150.
CAE Inc. ‘CAE-T’ at $28.84, Fortis Inc. ‘FTS-T’ at $48.91 and TransCanada Corp. ‘TRP-T’ at $60.40 all rose to new TSX 52-week trading highs while Air Boss of America ‘BOS-T’ at $7.81, Mountain Province Diamonds ‘MPVD-T’ at $1.28 and Pipestone Energy ‘PIPE-T’ at $1.61 all fell to new 52-week trading lows.
For the Week – the Dow Industrials gained 1.57% to 25,849, with the S&P 500 up by 2.88% to 2,822 and the NASDAQ ahead by 3.79% to 7,689. Across the line – the TSX Composite rose by 0.90% to 16,140 and the TSX Venture improved by 1.62% to 628.
With Commodities – gold bullion gained 0.23% to US$1,302, with copper up by 0.69% to US$2.91, as crude oil gained 4.78% to US$58.74 while natural gas fell by 2.44% to US$2.80. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodity Index rose by 0.97% to end the week at 408.
The Canadian dollar rose by 0.52% against its southern counterpart to finish the week at US$0.7492.
And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX dropped by 3.1-points to end the week at a much calmer level of 12.95.
And finally – Those prized 3-bedroom homes might not be as valued if current trends continue, as Statistics Canada has announced that the number on single person households has grown by some 235% in the past 35-years to a record 4.0-million and have now reached almost 12% or the largest grouping of Canadian households.
And Finally, Finally – The Week is taking a week off to travel and see family, friends and clients. If all goes as planned this publication should reappear on or about Monday, April 1st – no fooling
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