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

US Regional Banks. [Caller named a regional US bank but it was inaudible and no chart or ticker was displayed]. You have to be adaptive to the current changing situation. That includes banks. It was thought that interest rates would rise, but now it looks like not. It is not as constructive at it once was. You should think of paring it back.

Market Outlook - He is still risk averse. Holding 20% times the equity allocation for accounts in cash. Even if there is no economic recession, there is some signs of an earnings recession. Corporations made a lot of acquisitions and carry a lot of debt. He sees the S&P 500 crossing 2,900 and then you will have momentum probably pushing it another 10%. His top is 3,700. There he would rise cash as we would be at the 2000 or 1929 highs on a relative valuation. Yesterday the 10-year yield came low enough to match the 2-year yield. That happens usually in Canada. We are there already in Canada. If a recession comes it usually lasts 18-24 months and the market could fall 20 to 40%. The banks were rising on the expectation that rates would continue to go higher. Banks are not the best place to be for now.

Question on analyzing debt on a balance sheet - The first thing to look at is debt to cash flow. If you have 2 times debt to cash flow you are fine. At 4, 5 things get difficult. The other things is how it is spread out over time. The credit rating is important as well.

The market has bounced back quickly. He's surprised. It's like the last gasp; we've seen this before prior to past downturns. We had a sudden downdraft (December 2018), then a bounce (January-present), then things hit reality. Reality is tthere's a disconnect between high markets and economic realties around the world, particularly amid trade wars. Economists are lowering expectations for global growth. Be very cautious by holding more cash than usual, be careful what you invest in, and take profits. He expects no move by the U.S. Fed today, not in this market.

Worth buying preferred shares? Be very short in the curve with preferreds. He wouldn't look at perpetual preferreds. Most preferreds are issued at a base price of $25, but they are extremely sensitive to interest rates. Look at reset-rate preferreds; they will roll their dividends up in the coming years. If they are called, they'd be called at the $25 price. Caveat: if a company runs into trouble and their dividends become questionable, yes, they may continue to be paid, but he's seen $25 prefers selling for $15--be very, very cautious. Example: Bombardier's preferreds have been all over the map.

The market before today's U.S. Fed announcement was down, then it bumped up. Everyone was expecting one rate hike for 2019, but the Fed today announced none, and only one in 2020. When the dust settled, the only negative was in banks--fundamentally this new is not great for the banks, because they need higher interest rates--the yield curve is flat. The stock market liked the Fed announcement today. Yes, global growth is slowing, but it is still growing. REITs, utilities and consumer discretionary did quite well today. The U.S. and Canadian 10-year bond spread has never been wider because the U.S. has massive budget deficits. The past six years have reversed the norm where Canada's interest rates are higher than America's. Canada is in good financial shape vs. the U.S. and predicts this outperformance for the next 12 months. This flies against common thinking. Also, oil is reaching for a new recent high while Canadian oil companies have reduced costs to be more efficient. The oil patch won't ramp up, but be stable. Overall, he's not negative Canada like so many. He's bullish.

Housing measure introduced in yesterday's federal budget designed to help first-time buyers. Ottawa spent two years slowing down the hot real estate market and now it's trying to reverse it in a targeted way. Why not let the market do its thing? It shows confusion. Real estate lobbyists are problem at work here.

Extended duration treasuries. These are 30-40-year treasuries, which were affordable last year, but expensive now. He'd hesistate buying them, because the U.S. government is creating a massive deficit, so any downturn will get passed onto any treasuries. He's far more bullish in Canadian debt than American. Also, he doesn't see inflation coming back. Too risky to buy. Avoid.

2,800 on the S&P has long been a resistance point and it's definitely blowing through. He started buying yesterday and will keep picking away, even though markets are a little overbought and many stocks are overvalued. He's picking up resources and materials, stocks that have fallen and are basing, not the stocks that are already rising. Can the S&P sustain 2,850? The market has finally cracked 2,850 after many attempts. It'll probably crack 2,900--and that will be pretty big. Though 2,900 will invite selling pressure, the S&P can continue to be bullish after that.

How do you use the RSI indicator? The RSI default is 14 days. You're looking at the speed of movement over a given time period. You want a stock to move up to achieve momentum. Like a baseball, a stock has a maximum acceleration before it slows and moves down. The time frame can vary depending on the type of trader you are.

The price of copper. He's been buying the base metals. Copper has stopped its downtrend, made a base and has just broken out. He bought upon the breakout. This could reach $3.50, certainly low-$3.

The budget was announced today. Apart from a measure to help Millennials (especially in hot markets like Toronto and Vancouver) buy their first home, the budget was market-neutral. Notley called the Alberta election for April 16. Surprisingly, she's done well to help Alberta during this oil crisis, and is likely calling the election now to take advantage of the high price of WCS. She could win. The China-US trade negotiations saw a hiccup late today and the market slid as a result. Hiccups are expected in negotiations.

The just-announced federal budget: $1.25 billion assistance from the CMHC to buy a first home. Millennials will be happy, but the assistance is creating only 25,000 new homeowners. On the deficit side, they had a bit of a windfall, so they will give it back to Canadians, which is what happens in an election year. Projected growth is 1.8% and 1.6% in 2020--these numbers will likely be wrong. We may have a recession in that time.

Market. It is rare that he focuses on Canada because it is 3% of the world, but a budget is important. Canada is underperforming dramatically so how governments invest tax dollars is important. Infrastructure is important and Trudeau has not been good at pipelines. Housing affordability is a big issue. He believes in stress tests to that any problem in an extended family does not put a home at risk. Punitive taxing helps cap escalating housing prices. Monetary policy has to be re-thought. Pushing interest rates to zero hurts the seniors/savers and helps the young people.

Real core inflation is when we have more money in our pockets and are willing to spend it. Right now we all wait for the sales. If they just started giving money to people for free the people would spend it and that would create inflation, but printing more money does not do it. Governments can't balance the books.