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

Educational Segment. Gold and Gold Stock Valuations. Gold equities are the cheapest they have been in a decade. XGD-T has gone down to where it is approaching its cheapest ever. It is almost uncorrelated with anything. There are things that have to happen for Gold to do well. We need a debt crisis. A lot of junior stocks don’t have production, but he is okay with them.

The bond yield cracked 3% last week, so perhaps we should be concerned over the shape of the yield curve. We worry about an inverted yield curve because it foretells a recession by 12-18 months; the market rolls over 6 months before that. He's holding more cash and buying longer-term bonds. Telecoms are getting hit this year, but they would do well during a recession. He fears that when the recession hits, then households and businesses alike will carry heavy debt that's unseen in history. Japan would be an okay place to invest in a recession; they are especially advanced in developing artificial intelligence.

What's the future price of oil? He has no idea where oil is going. It's difficult to predict commodity prices. That's the truth. There are so many factors that go into the prce of oil.

Buy a bank ETF or individual banks? Unless you want to do the work researching banks, then buy an ETF of the Canadian banks. If you want to research, then look at ROE, dividend growth history and growth rate. RY and TD are the leaders in Canada.

Market. The growth names are in the US. Canada is seeming good valuations, especially within the lifecos, banks and energy stocks. With interest rates potentially going up and the Canadian government not being pro-business, the lack of growth in the Canadian markets could continue. We have to be cautious in the NAFTA negotiations to not show Canada as being against business development. The cannabis sector seems over valued in Canada and he warns of further potential downside – play it smartly. Some of these new companies will be bankrupt in a year. He is watching the US 10 year bond yield with only a 25 bps spread with short term rates as a potential warning of an upcoming recession.

New US highs reached this week. First time since 2011, he’s been taking money off the table in the US specifically and getting a bit cautious. Has been underweight Canada for a while. Now neutral on the US, and starting to underweight the US. Three things concern him about the S&P 500. 1) The advance is narrow. FANGs have created the bulk of the rise. 2) Earnings in the first quarter were a one-time shot because of tax cuts. Earnings are the fuel for equities. 3) US interest rate being high, and the S&P 500 doing well, and the US dollar going up, all investments flows have been going to the US either bonds, stocks or currency. He thinks we are coming to the end of that road.

Where’s the opportunity? We’re back in the international markets because of process of elimination. We’ve seen terrible underperformance from international markets relative to the US, so now it’s cheap. Unlike the US, that market it’s not tech oriented but more value oriented and thinks downside risk is less. As we take money off the table, he’s keeping it in cash.

What would it take to be interested in Canada again? Thinks the resolution on the pipeline issue is key. The broad TSX index is probably not going to move much it’s 40% financial and although he is not worried about the Canadian banks they’re not going to go up a lot. So it rests on energy and materials. Energy stocks are not responding to the lift of price because we can’t move the product so what’s the point of finding more oil.

Where do you stand on marijuana? If you’re playing in marijuana, you’re not investing. Remember crypto and bitcoin at year end and big swings day to day. As long as you understand that you’re gambling now and not investing it’s up to you.

Outlook for the rest of the year? Fourth quarter is typically good. But the question mark is US mid-terms in November, and then how Trump reacts to the results. It could be a tough end to the year.

Market. There is no way to value these things from a fundamental stand point. Their applications can be pharma, wellness or applications in beverages. There is a significant amount of speculative interest in investment. The flavor is 'cannabis'. A year from now the ETF could grind higher if there are more participants coming to the table. We are in the late stages of the business cycle. We should see strength in industrials but that has not been taking place yet. There are trade wars, for example. There is a very narrow band of what is driving markets. The 9% of S&P increases have been explained by healthcare and techs. Japan is attracting a lot of investor inflows.

Market Outlook. The S&P 500 at an all-time high today but the Canadian Market is disastrous. Since the Financial Crisis the US stock market has done like 200% vs the Canadian Market that returned 30%. The difference being that they have all the Googles, the Facebooks and Apples and Amazon and we have crappy oil stocks and the Banks that are doing a lot. In the marijuana sector is all retail money. There is going to be real demand for these products but for now it is all speculation. He doesn’t think it will have a great effect on the economy in general.

All the way through this bull market, people have been nervous. Bull markets die of excess, but that we have been in a cautious expansion. We are in the early stages of a reflation in the economy. There are no signs of recession on the horizon. The market is healthy. Tilray took off today: that's investing, not speculating. He'd be concerned about buying cannabis stocks, but if you have the stomach for it, all the power to you. He doesn't have the stomach for it. Some cannabis companies will do well and others will be wreckage.

Market. Canada has continued to weaken while the US has shown growth. Headwinds in all our three key sectors have continued, this includes consume debt and rising interest rates slowing down financials. The energy sector has been off as political leadership has been lacking. Materials companies cannot catch a bid. Over 70% of our market is doing poorly and for what is left over, there are other companies around the world doing it better. The silver lining is that valuations in Canada have become quite low. A drop in the US dollar could potentially benefit the Canadian market, causing investment to go looking for other markets.

Why are there no trade worries about US-China? Why are were markets were up today? The Federal Reserve today said the economy is doing well. Trade barriers are raising prices in US and China. He thinks investors think this will all get resolved as will NAFTA. Corporate profits are pretty good. Banks and industry are unchanged or slightly down--there's some turmoil beneath the surface. Investors are immune to Trump's bluster and looking to invest--won't invest by headline. Canadian markets have been down the past few years, and the lack of pipelines have been discouraging. Canadian financials have done nothing for the past year, though their profits are rising--this sector looks interesting. Canadian investors should continue to explore America and abroad, though the weak CAD is an obstacle. Canadian capital markets have limited choice.