The last full trading week of the third quarter began on Monday, September 22nd with a polarized situation in North America as U.S indices at near or record highs while their Canadian counterparts were suffering through a commodities driven correction.

Technical analysts Olaf Sztaba & Ron Meisels – “Will the market make a shallow pullback followed by new highs or are investors up for a traditional autumn scare”. (To see the full report send an email to ‘ronmeisels@phases-cycles.com’).

Apple Inc. (AAPL-Q) reported the weekend launch of their new iPhone 6 and iPhone6 Plus smartphones resulted in a record 10-million plus new orders.

The share price of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (TKM-T)  moved up by over 15% to $26.10 when the drug maker received Canadian and U.S. approval to use its Ebola treatment on patients who have confirmed or suspected infections of this deadly disease.

Similarly, the shares’ of Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL-Q) surged up by over 33% to US$136.39 on word that Germany’s Merck KGAA agreed to purchase the pharmaceutical supply company in an all-cash deal of some US$17-billion.

And Netflix Inc. (NFLX-Q) basically told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to “stick it” as the American based internet entertainment provider said it was not bound to Canadian regulations and refused to comply with a CRTC order to turn over its Canadian subscriber and content information for scrutiny by the Canadian broadcast regulator.

The Canadian government said it would bring Canada’s vehicle fuel-efficiency regulations in line with those of the United States by the year 2017.

America’s CF Industries Holdings (CF-N) and Norway’s Yara International ASA announced on Tuesday, September 23rd that they were in talks to merge as equals to become a    US$27.5-billion global nitrogen based fertilizer producer.

The World Gold Council reported that global gold demand fell by 16% in the second quarter from the same period last year to 964-tonnes, led by jewellery demand that was off by 30% to just 510-tonnes, while central-bank purchases were up by 28% to 118-tonnes.

Not to left out of last week’s action, Blackberry Inc. (BB-T) launched their new ‘Passport’ smartphone on Wednesday, September 24th.

Technical analyst Ron Meisels – “This is the time of year when investors need to be looking over their shoulders to be prepared in case there is an unexpected event.” (To see the full report send an email to ‘ronmeisels@phases-cycles.com’).

Markets sometimes just can’t help themselves and they find a way to get very nervous and sell off without any particular catalyst, as was the case on Thursday, September 25th when the TSX Composite index fell by 211-points to 14,879 and the DJIA plunged by 264-points to 16,946.

Rubicon Minerals (RMX-T) was one of the few Canadian issues to have a good day as its shares’ rose by almost 12.25% to $1.56 when the mineral explorer issued more encouraging drill-hole gold assays from its Phoenix Gold Project in Red Lake, Ontario.

While in the United States, LipoScience (LPDX-Q) shares’ surged up by over 62.5% to US$5.19 on word the company had agreed to be acquired by giant pharma company Laboratory Corp. (LH-N) for a 65% premium price of US$5.25-a-share.

The markets rebounded to the upside on Friday, September 26th after the U.S. Commerce Department reported their gross domestic product or GDP grew in the second quarter by a much better than expected annualized 4.6% and the Canadian Finance Department reported the federal government reduced its deficit for July by 0.8-billion from the same month one year ago to $1.2-billion.

Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B-T) shares improved when the transportation company reported an additional fifty orders of their new C-Series 150-seat commercial jetliners from Australian leasing company Macquarie Group Ltd.

Sears Canada (SCC-T) share’s plunged by almost 19% to $10.35 when the New York Post suggested the long suffering retailer was seeking legal advice on declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

And under our continuing heading of ‘Name Dropper’ – The share price of Janus Capital Group (JNS-N) surged up by almost 41.5% to US$15.72 on word that bond king Bill Gross was leaving his founding company PIMCO to come over to Janus.

The Canadian Exchanges touched new short term and intermediate closing lows during the week with the TSX Composite Index dropping to a new 3-month closing low of 14,910 while the lowly TSX Venture Exchange fell to a new 9-month low close of 909.

Canadian National Railway (CNR-T) at $82.45, Metro Inc. (MRU-T) at $74.80 and George Weston (WN-T) at $90.82 all achieved new TSX 52-week trading highs during the week while Africa Oil (AOI-T) at $4.37, Kinross Gold (K-T) at $3.74 and Niko Resources (NKO-T) at $0.60 all found new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – The Dow Industrials fell by 0.91%nto 17,113, with the S&P 500 Index down by 1.34% to 1,983 and the NASDAQ Exchange off by 1.48% to 4,512. To the we live for hockey north, the TSX Composite Index was down by 1.57% to 15,027 and the TSX Venture Exchange dropped by 3.77% to 919.

Crude oil rose by another 1.48% to US$92.49 while natural gas rose by 3.33% to US$4.03 and copper fell by 1.62% to US$3.04. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodity Index eased by another 0.63% to 475.

The Canadian dollar plunged by 1.82% against its U.S. counterpart to end the week at US$0.8966.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX rose by 2.74-points to finish the week at a much more nervous level of 14.85.

And Finally – Innovative billionaire businessman Richard Branson of Virgin fame has announced that as a way to increase creativity, morale and productivity he is offering his salaried employees the opportunity to take as much time off as they need with full benefits.