Finance Blog

• Gasoline hits record $3.10 a gallon - The latest pump price tops the old record of $3.07 set in September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.  Although gasoline is inelsatic in terms of demand, there comes to a point where profits are crimped, thereby affecting the economy.  People are less likely to spend their disposable income, which could result in a negative cycle.
• Has the stock price of Petro companies been positively affected? Looking at Petro-Canada, nearing a 52-wk High.

• Alcoa makes a hostile $27-b offer for Alcan, Alcan +34.1% to $90.75
• TSX jumps +95.62 to record 13,865.51, Dow +48.35 to 13,312.97

• Google tops list of most valuable brands - Tops Microsoft (No. 3), IBM (9), Apple (16) and Yahoo (42).
• ReportonBusiness.com

• April 12/07 - Uranium: When is Too Much Really Too Much?
• April 12/07 - Pure Metals: Notes from the Calgary Resource Investment Conference
• Dec 11/06 - Uranium Investors Get One More Safety Net for 2007
• April 16/07 - Uranium-Stocks.net - Portfolio
• Feb 11/07 - Uranium to Fuel Chinese Economic Advance
• Feb 20/07 - Top 10 Largest Uranium Miners

I’m going to kickstart this blog again, and try to keep up-to-date with the latest in the biz/finance world.  I’ve moved this blog to finance.dhai.ca, onto its separate site.  First thing I have planned is a model portfolio that I’ll be keeping track of over time.  Stay tuned.

Is the Canadian Market way to hot right now? Let’s take a look…

I did a little number crunching, for the growth rates of the S&P/TSX Composite Index for the last few years. Here are the numbers:

Notice the double-digit percentage growth for 2003, 2004, 2005. That’s three straight years! And from the very bottom in Oct 2002, the gain is over a whopping 100%, that’s double! So, are we done? Year-to-date shows that it’s cooled off a bit. However, it’s still a 12% growth since same time last year. Now for the chart…

Wow, quite a bull-run. A small drop since beginning of the year, but looks like it’s headed up again?

Now, how about those gems of the Canadian market, the income trusts. Let’s look at the S&P/TSX Income Trust Index…
Similar story, and chart…

Here’s a great article on the income trust outlook — Rethinking Income Trusts. I think he’s got a very good point…

So at this point, my advice is to income trust investors is to lower their sights. If you are sitting on large capital gains, consider taking some of the money off the table. Make future purchase decisions on the basis of yield and cash flow sustainability. Avoid speculation.

In short, choose trusts on the basis of what they are supposed to be: income securities, nothing more, nothing less.

The price of oil surpassed $78 a barrel Friday and leapt 5 percent in the past week after Israeli attacks against Lebanese militants stoked fears of a wider Middle East conflict and possible oil-supply disruption.

Billionnaire Mark Cuban, who is also owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is investing in a stock-fraud web site that aims to investigate stock fraud and corporate wrongdoing.  Sharesleuth.com will launch next month.

Markets took another dive today, Dow down 77 to 11,128.  It has fallen nearly 300 points in the last two sessions.

Dell Computers are going to start using AMD chips, although it’s just a small category of units (servers using dual-core Opterons)

Rumors about Dell’s adoption of AMD chips have been circulating for months, and some analysts have suggested that the company’s Intel-only policy was hurting business.  The deal also is a major win for AMD, which had little presence in the server market until it released its Opteron processor in 2003. The critically acclaimed chip put Intel in the rare position of having to play catch-up with its smaller rival.

In extended-session trading, shares of Dell rose 82 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $24.77 and AMD stock jumped $3.93, or nearly 13 percent, to $35.28 after Dell disclosed the deal as part of its first-quarter earnings report.

Dow up big today (+138.88, 1.21% to 11,577.74), as well as S&P/TSX (+144.24, 1.19% to 12,270.11).  Dow’s at its highest level in six years, just about 145 points shy of the measure’s record.  Some say Friday’s rally could represent something of a “last gasp” for the aging bull market.  Materials lifted the Canadian stocks, as gold is up 1.15% to $684.300.  Oil also returned above $70.

Big mover today is Activision (ATVI) shares jumped almost 13 percent in unusually active Nasdaq trade after the company posted a 3 cents per share fourth quarter loss vs. a penny EPS on a 7.7% revenue decline.  Interesting, while  just  yesterday Electronic Arts  posted a  16% increase in revenue, but dropped  11%  in stock price.  Thanks to the big  market players!