The new week began on Monday, May 18th with the American markets having to go it alone as the Canadian markets were closed for the Victoria Day holiday.

Hhgregg (HGG-N) shares’ fell by almost 12.75% to US$4.60 when the consumer electronics company failed to meet the streets expectations with its 4th quarter financials.

And the price of El Pollo Loco (LOCO-Q) shares’ dropped by almost 15% to US$24.68 when the restaurant chain lowered its sales outlook for the rest of the year.

Tuesday, May 19th began with a rally in the American dollar after the U.S Census Bureau reported their housing starts rose in April to a post Great Recession annual high of 1.135-million units.

Technical analysts David Tippin & Ron Meisels – “We expect that the period of treading water will end soon. Consolidation should give way to visibly trending markets with a resumption of the overall bullish trend.”

Entree Gold (ETG-T), Rio Tinto (RIO-N), Turquoise Resources (TRQ-T) and the Mongolian government all kiss and make up and jointly announce that they have found a way for the second phase of the Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold & silver mine can go ahead in that land-locked Asian country.

Uranium stocks suffered once again after Japan’s Fukui District Court upheld an earlier ruling against the restarting of two nuclear plants in Fukui Prefecture.

Sometimes having an elite neighbour can work to your advantage as was the case on Wednesday, May 20th when the shareholders’ of CGX Energy (OYL-T) saw their investment surge up by almost 103% to $1.52 when Exxon Mobil (XOM-N) announced a discovery well on their adjoining Stabroek Block, 195 kilometers off the coast of Guyana.

The Pep Boys Manny Moe & Jack (PBY-N) (Yes, that’s a real company name) shares’ rose by over 16% to US$10.75 on rumours there were multiple possible takeover offers coming for the American auto parts company.

Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata Corp. and numerous American automakers have agreed to spend up to US5-billion to recall a record 34-million American vehicles that may have defective airbags.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP-N) was the centre of the market’s attention on Thursday, May 21st when the Ottawa based e-commerce company listed on the NYSE at $17-a share and ended its first day of trading up some 51% at US$25.68.

Conversely, another of Canada’s tech companies, Open Text (OTC-T) saw its share price tumble by over 13,35% to $51.83 when the Cloud-based information management company failed to meet the streets expectations with its 1st quarter financials.

And the share price of Lumber Liquidators (LL-N) plunged by 16.5% to US$21.10 when the CEO of the flooring company that is being investigated over high formaldehyde levels –suddenly resigned.

The markets on both sides of the border were quiet on Friday, May 22nd ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend.

The U.S. dollar rallied and commodity prices dropped after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen confirmed that if the American economy continues to improve as expected then – “It will be appropriate at some point this year to take the initial step to raise the federal funds interest rate target and begin normalizing monetary policy.“

Statistics Canada reported that the drop in energy prices helped to keep the country’s inflation rate for April just 0.8% higher than it was for the same month just one year ago.

Canadian baby boomers took heart when the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board reported their CPP Fund gained a record 18.3% in fiscal 2015 to $264.6-billion.

The American major markets continued to climb the wall of worry higher during the week with the DJIA and S&P 500 Indexes reaching new respective record closing highs of 18,312 and 2,131. Meanwhile, the CBOE Volatility Index dropped to a5-month low of 12.11.

Andrew Peller (ADW.A-T) at $16.88, Cara Operations (CAO-T) at $34.99 and Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ-T) at $5.80 all established new 52-week trading highs while Connacher Oil & Gas (CLC-T) at $2.66, Logan International (LII-T) at $2.92 and Polaris Infrastructure (PIF-T) at $9.10 all fell to new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials eased lower by 0.22% to 18,232, while the S&P 500 Index gained 0.14% to 2,126 and the NASDAQ Exchange rose by 0.81% to 5,089. In the north, the TSX Composite Index gained 0.62% to 15,201 and the lowly TSX Venture Exchange improved by 1.15% to 703.

Gold bullion lost 1.63% to US$1,205, with copper down by 4.11% to US$2.80, while crude oil fell by 1.11% to US$59.87 and natural gas dropped by 4.89% to US$2.92. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodities Index fell by 0.1.4% to end the week at 424.

The Canadian dollar lost 2.32% against the U.S. dollar to finish the week at US$0.8130.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX eased lower by another 0.25-point to end the week at a very complacent level of 12.13.

And Finally – A recent Wakefield Research survey revealed that over half of those surveyed thought that stormy weather would interfere with….’cloud computing’.