The new trading week began on Monday, November 23rd with investors hopeful for a repeat of the previous week’s multi-year market gains, especially going into what is traditionally an uneventful week going into American Thanksgiving.

Pfizer Inc. (PFE-N) and Allergan plc (AGN-N) got the market’s attention when the maker of Viagra and Botox announced a shares & stock merger that if approved would create the world’s largest drug company…..Pfizer plc.

The National Association of Realtors announced that U.S. existing home sales fell by 3.4% in October to an annualized 5.36-million homes with a median price that rose by 5.8% in the past year to US$219,600.

Perpetual Energy (PMT-T) shares’ slumped by almost 36% to $0.29 when the company announced a number of recapitalization measures including $25-million rights offering and an $18.2-million financing.

The shareholders’ of NGEx Resources (NGQ-T) had a good day on Tuesday, November 24th as the price of their investment soared up by over 66.6% to $0.80 when the mineral explorer reported a much better than expected mineral resource update for their Filo del Sol silver/copper/gold project in Argentina.

Tiffany & Co, (TIF-N) shareholders were disappointed to here that heading into the all-important Christmas shopping season, their jewellery company reported that comparable store sales were 5% lower in the 3rd-quarter and worse still – were expected to stay low for the remainder of the year.

It is said there is strength in numbers, and if so, Canadian Oil Sands (COS-T) should do very well as on Wednesday, November 25th the company announced it needed more time to review the 25 some expressions of interest it had received to counter Suncor Energy’s (SU-T)  $4.5-billion take-over offer bitumen producer.

Petrowest (PRW-T) shares’ surged up by over 82% to $0.47 when the company was chosen as part  of the Peace River Hydro Partners to build the Site C hydro dam in northern British Columbia.

The price of TSO3 (TOS-T) stock rose by over 38% to $0.56 on word that Sweden’s giant Getinge Infection Control AB had been granted exclusive global distributor rights to the company’s STERIZONE VP4 Sterilizer.

The B.C. Oil & Gas Commission reported that the number of wells drilled in the province to mid-November had fallen by 32% in the past year to just 462 wells drilled.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that a seasonally adjusted 495,000 new homes were sold in October.

Thursday, November 26th saw the Canadian markets go it alone as their American counterparts were closed for their Thanksgiving holiday.

Enbridge Inc. (ENB-T) announced it had purchased the 103-megawatt New Creek Wind Project in West Virginia in a deal valued at some US$200-million.

And Goldcorp (G-T) announced it had purchased New Gold’s (NGD-T) 30% interest in the      El Morro copper/gold project in Chile.

The World Gold Council reported that led by a 27% increase in bar & coin demand, global gold demand rose by 8% in the 3rd quarter to 1,121-tonnes over the same quarter last year, while total gold supply was up by 1% to 1,100-tonnes.

Black Friday shoppers were out in force on Friday, November 27th.

Industry analyst Baker Hughes reported that another thirteen oil & gas drilling rigs were taken out of service last week bringing the total number of U.S. active rigs down to 744-rigs.

Toyota Motor Corp. (TM-N) remained the world’s top-selling auto company with total 2015 sales through October of some 8.35-million units.

During the week, gold bullion fell to a new 6-year low of US$1056-an-ounce while copper dropped to a 6^1/2-year low of US$2.01-a-pound.

Chartwell Retirement Residence (CSH.UN-T) at $13.25, Premium Brands (PBH-T) at $38.73 and Stella-Jones (SJ-T) at $51.58 all set new TSX 52-week trading highs while Alamos Gold (AGI-T) at $3.76, Halogen Software (HGN-T) at $7.05 and Teck Resources (TCK.B-T) at $5.39 all hit new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials eased by 0.15% to 17,798, while the S&P 500 Index improved by 0.05% to 2,090 and the NASDAQ Exchange gained 0.45% to 5,128. North of the 49th parallel, the TSX Composite Index lost 0.48% to 13,368 and the TSX Venture Exchange gained 0.38% to 522.

With commodities – Gold bullion lost 1.86% to US$1,056, with copper unchanged at US$2.06, while crude oil fell by 0.31% to US$41.77 and natural gas gained 3.72% to US$2.23. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodities Index improved by 0.26% to 384.

The Canadian dollar lost another 0.20% against the American greenback to finish the week at US$0.7478.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX eased by another 0.35-point to end the week at a slightly more calmer level of 15.12.

And Finally – After studying several retail operations, Colliers International have determined that save for a select selection of expensive electronics, consumers will generally see greater discounts on Boxing Day over Black Friday.

And Finally, Finally – The Week will be away for  two weeks traveling to the east. If all goes well this publication will re-appear on or about Monday, December 14th.