The Labour Day shortened North American trading week began on Tuesday, September 4^th with the major market once again at or near all-time highs. To which technical analysts David Tippin & Ron Meisels commented – “The rapid gains of the past few weeks have increased the risk of a short-term pullback…we expect any bearish pressure to be overcome.” (For a complete copy of this report please contact rod.blake@canaccord.com.)

Giant sports apparel company Nike Inc. ‘NKE-N’ drew much attention to itself after naming controversial sports figure Colin Kaepernick as the face of its new advertising campaign.

Amazon.com ‘AMZN-Q’ at US$2,039.51 became the second company after Apple Inc.  ‘AAPL-Q’ to achieve US$1-trillion in market capitalization.

Tahoe Resources ’THO-T’ stock plunged by over 19.5^% to $3.61 after the company had to suspend operations at its La Arena silver mine in Peru after protesters compromised the safety of the operation.

Wednesday, September 5^th saw the Bank of Canada do as expected and leave the country’s key interest rate unchanged at 1.5^%.

Kinder Morgan Canada ‘KML-T’ announced it will spin off about $1.2-billion back to its shareholders of the $4.5-billion it got from the Canadian Government for the sale if its Trans Mountain Pipeline.

Nevsun Resources ‘NSU-T’ surged up by almost 18^% to $5.82 after the African based copper/gold miner announced it had accepted a $1.86-billion take-over offer from China’s Zijin Mining Group.

The price of BlackBerry Ltd. ‘BB-T’ fell by 6^% to $13.15 on word that internet giant Facebook Inc. ‘FB-Q’ was suing the Canadian based tech company for patent infringement.

Thursday, September 6^th – had Statistics Canada report the country’s global merchandise trade deficit fell in July to a 2½ -year low of $114-million.

Statistics Canada also reported the country’s manufacturing sales rose by 1.1^% in June to to $58.1-billion.

The price of Alimentation Couche-Tard ‘ATD.B-T’ stock rise by 4.5^% to $66.01 after the giant corner store company reported better than expected 1^st-quarter financials.

Friday, September 7^th – Statistics Canada reported the economy lost an unexpected 51,600 jobs in August and that the unemployment rate rose by 0.2^% to 6.0^%.

Down south – the U.S. Department of Labor said their country added 201,000 new jobs in August and their unemployment rate remained at an 18-year low of 3.9^%.

The price of Tahoe Resources ‘THO-T’ stock rose by 10^% to $3.76 after the beleaguered miner once again restarted operations at its La Arena silver mine in Peru.

Tesla Inc. ‘TSLA-Q’ shares fell by 6.30^% to US$263.24 on word that two key officers were leaving the electric auto company.

Petroleum industry analyst Baker Hughes ‘BHGE-N’ reported that the active American drilling rig count was unchanged last week at 1,048 active drilling rigs – while up north – the number of active Canadian drilling rigs fell by 24-rigs to 204 active drilling rigs.

During the Week – The CRB Spot Commodity Index fell to a new 1½-year low of 410.

Canopy Growth Corp. ‘WEED-T’ at $68.83, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers ‘RBA-T’ at $50.42 and Waste Connections ‘WCN-T’ at $106.40 all rose to new TSX 52-week trading highs while

BCE Inc. ‘BCE-T’ at $52.57, Goldcorp Inc. ‘G-T’ at $13.38 and Pizza Pizza Royalty ‘PZA-T’ at $9.47 all dropped to new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – the Dow Industrials fell by 0.18^% to 25,917, with the S&P 500 off by 1.03^% to 2,872 and the NASDAQ down by 2.55^% to 7,903. On the Canadian side – the TSX Composite dropped by 1.08^% to 16,090 and the TSX Venture fell by 0.18^% to 712.

With Commodities – gold bullion fell by 0.50^% to US$1,201, with copper off by 0.19^% to US$2.62 as crude oil dropped by 2.79^% to US$67.85 and natural gas was down by 5.79% to US$2.78. Overall – the CRB Spot Commodity Index rose by 0.24% to end the week at 412.

The Canadian dollar dropped by 1.07^% against its American counterpart to finish the week at US$0.7587.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX rose by 2.07-pounts the end the week at a little more nervous level of 14.93.

And Finally – It turns out that single women are much more active in the real estate market than are single men – as the National Association of Realtors recently reported that single women accounted for 18^% to real estate transactions in 2017 as opposed the 7^% of real estate transactions carried out by single men.