A Comment -- General Comments From an Expert (A Commentary)

Oil. Expect there will be demand/destruction when gasoline in the US gets above $4. Currently at around $3.60 so there is a little ways to go. Thinks there is probably about a $15-$20 premium baked into the price of oil so a lot of hike in oil prices relates to geopolitical events and what is going on in Iran.

Markets. Feels this market has room to run. Because we have had a really strong run means we are likely to continue to do so. Central banks are continuing to pump out liquidity. Chinese have started to reduce reserve requirements. Because of strong earnings, valuations of companies are reasonable.

Markets: Markets should take a breath after 4 months of rally. He is driven by a chart showing earnings yield vs. bond yield. There is now a real gap. The public systems are bankrupt (sovereign debt, bonds) but the private systems (equities) are not. Conservatively balanced companies are raising their dividend. On a balance sheet they are less levered and payout ratios are lower. This is favorable for equities.

Markets. TSX has a little bit more room according to some of the indicators but NASDAQ and S&P are at extreme readings. Looking at the actual price actions, there are very small daily movements and volatility is very low. Indicates records are complacent but grinding higher.

Moving averages? The conventional stuff is the 50 and 200 day. He prefers 125. If you are trader is to be 125 min., if you are a swing trader you can look at the 125 day moving average. He likes the 125 day as well as 125 week.

Markets. He is looking at 10% earnings growth this year. Sees some positive upside for the market in the form of high single digits, including dividends. Wouldn't be surprised to see a little pullback when markets digest earnings growth. Sees pretty good upside potential in the energy space. Expecting some decent upside in financials, especially the banks.

Markets. In the market, but is nervous. Has raised some cash. Thinks it is a replay of 2010-2011 where there were strong markets in the early part of the year and then a sharp selloff. The ingredients are out there for this. A lot of potential problems on the horizon including Europe and restrictive policies in China and India. Indicator of Chinese activity is still a flashing contraction.

Uranium. This is going to be challenged market quite for some time so he wouldn't be overly aggressive in buying. There is a lot of uranium in the world. If you really want to be involved in a mining stock that has some exposure, BHP Billiton (BHP-N) has a lot of land in Saskatchewan. This is the way he would play it.

Markets: Dow hit 13K, a big round number. Certainly there is a lot more optimism today than the last few months. Looks like things in Greece may be settling down. Some numbers out of the US give investors more confidence. Some investors may be more interested in stocks now that we hit 13k on the Dow. Thinks we are breaking out and there is a bit of momentum building. Also, the key thing is to focus on the fact that fundamentals are improving.

Markets. Things are looking better. A nice improvement in US economic data. In earnings, growth was great last year and we’ll see a little bit of growth again this year. Position yourself to take advantage of what is going on. Valuations are cheap, interest rates are very low and bonds are paying you nothing so take advantage of good quality companies. He is rotating out of names that have less upside such as REITs, utilities, pipelines, etc. With Cdn$ rising, he is taking a hard look at a lot of US names, especially in technology, healthcare and companies you can’t get exposure to in Canada.

Markets. We are in a bit of a trading range. Currently we are in the classic tug-of-war. Are earnings better or worse than expectations? Also rising interest rates are not boding well for equities in the longer run. But interest rates are low and will stay low and earnings are good. There is also lots of dividend growth.

Markets. Thinks this is the last time the Greeks can go to the trough and will have to see what happens after that. When that settles in and people are happy with that, the markets could have a good run. If it doesn't, the markets could have check back but that would be a buying opportunity.

Markets: A bit of a rotation into cyclical stocks and this put pressure on dividend stocks. REITs have had a run but net operating income will remain and higher valuations are indicative of higher net asset values.

Markets. US financial sector has been looking appealing for the last few years. There is also a turnaround in the US housing sector. Since the end of November until now, a lot of the companies on his watch list have really moved by 20%-25% so are less attractive now. On the Canadian side there is very little of interest for a contrarian.

What kind of banks would you be interested in putting into a TFSA account? He puts really boring, guaranteed GIC kind of thing. He doesn't put stocks in it but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.