The current trading week began on Monday, October 12th with the Americans having to go it alone as the Canadian markets closed for Thanksgiving, and investors on both sides of the border acutely aware that the previous week had registered some the largest North American percentage market gains in recent months.

Michael Dell’s privately held Dell Inc. pulls off the largest tech deal in history with a US$67-billion takeover of network server and corporate software company ENC Corp. (EMC-N).

Tuesday, October 13th begins with the minority shareholders of Fission Uranium (FCU-T) rejecting their company’s proposed merger with fellow uranium company Denison Mines (DML-T).

The on again – off again and now on again merger of Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BUD-N) and Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP-N) was announced which combined the world’s two largest brewers into the world’s largest brewery as an entity that will have sales greater than those of perennial beverage sales leader Coca-Cola (KO-N).

Wednesday, October 14th was not a good day for some consumer stocks as the price of Wal Mart (WMT-N) shares’ fell by over 10% to US$60.03 when the world’s largest brick & mortar retailer reduced its earnings forecast for the year ahead.

Similarly, the share price of Netflix Inc. (NFLX-Q) plunged by over 8% to US$101.00 after the video streaming company failed to impress the street with its recent growth numbers.

Thursday, October 15th saw the price of Cequence Energy (CQE-T) surge up by over 16.6% to $0.56 after the company announced it was exploring ‘strategic alternatives’ to enhancing its shareholder value.

Conversely, the price of Seagate Technology (STX-N) fell by almost 13.5% to US$41.36 when the data storage company didn’t meet analysts’ expectations with its 3rd quarter financials.

Friday, October 16th began with Statistics Canada reporting that in foreigners bought $3.11-billion of Canadian securities in August to along with purchases of $5.6-billion in Canadian bonds.

North American petroleum development continued to contract as industry analysts Baker Hughes reported the number of active American oil & gas rigs fell by another eight in the past week to 787 rigs – well below the 1,918 rigs that were working just one year ago.

Precious metals gained during the week as gold bullion rose to a new 4-month high of US$1,188-anounce while the price of silver improved to a new 4½ -month high of US$16.13-an-ounce.

Endeavour Mining (EDV-T) at $0.75, Rogers Communications (RCI.B-T) at $48.74 and Scandium International Mining (SCY-T) at $0.19 established new TSX 52-week trading highs while Continental Gold (CNL-T) at $1.57, Dorel Industries (DII.B-T) at $29.50 and Sleep Country Canada Holdings (ZZZ-T) at $14.09 all fell to new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week –The Dow Industrials gained 0.77% to 17,216, with the S&P 500 Index up by 0.89% to 2.033 and the NASDAQ Exchange ahead by 1.18% to 4,887. To the baseball frenzied north, the TSX Composite Index was off by 0.90% to 13,838 while the TSX Venture Index gained 0.72% to 556.

With commodities, gold bullion gained 1.90% to US$1.156, with copper off by 0.41% to US$2.40, while crude oil was down by 4.95% to US$47.66 and natural gas was up by 12.0% to US$2.80. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodity Index improved by 0.76% to end the week at 397.

The Canadian dollar rose by 0.31% against its U.S. counterpart to finish the week at US$0.7748.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX eased by 1.69-points to end the week at a somewhat calmer level of 15.39.

And Finally – A recent CareerBuilder survey found that the percentage of healthy workers phoning in ‘sick’ rose from 28% to 38% in the past year….and that 1/3rd of employers are now checking to see if their employee was actually sick.

And Finally, Finally – The Week is taking a few weeks off to travel and unwind. If all goes as planned this publication will once again appear in your inbox on or about Monday, November 16th.