Energy. The Western Canadian Select, which is the heavy oil that we are exporting, is actually up a bit in the last 6 months. He has liked the oil stocks since early this year. The biggest plays of earnings growth in the Canadian economy has been the energy sector. The WTI and the Western Canadian Select differential has narrowed because the Cdn$ is down significantly. In the meantime, there have been some real good developments in that we exported 2 million barrels per day, up 35% from the same period last year. This is a record level. He expects that earnings coming through on the 3rd quarter are going to be quite good. Has a feeling that the weakness in some of our energy stocks is because a good deal of the selling is from the US, and that US portfolio managers are not aware of how our market works. Also, Enbridge (ENB-T) is in the process of opening a new pipeline down south, which will be shipping good old Canadian heavy oil down to the Gulf, 600,000 barrels a day.
This is an OK situation now. He prefers Sun Life (SLF-T) or Power Financial (PFC-T). A lot of their projections to future growth are built on continuing success in China. He has a bias against that type of situation. He has watched what has happened to other companies that are operating in China. If there is ever a political problem, you get nailed.
A tremendous company. The real concern here is if criminal charges are brought against the company, which will exclude them from future contracts with various government agencies. They have already, more or less, proved in court that the wrongdoing was not at the high levels of the company, but more of a division situation. In fact they have won a case against one of their employees.
He sees the US market as offering specific opportunities at specific times. The dividend appreciation is one that he has used extensively with his clients who want exposure. A very high quality company. Well diversified and quite a conservative portfolio. A good place to have a piece of the US market. Yield of 2.45%.
(A Top Pick Oct 22/13. Down 3.82%.) Down, but this is just a measure of the panic in the market. This is one of his favourite stocks. Pays an excellent dividend of well over 7%. Have an excellent production record. $81 US for Bakken oil now. A fantastic operator and they have years of drilling to do.
Markets. We are in a typical correction. Investors, in the meantime, should conserve cash and avoid high beta securities. He is surprised that people are so surprised. We are seeing some really good signs of panic in the last couple of days. Big volumes, nice downturns. He had picked $14,300 on the TSX as support and we hit that and went under it today. This is a nice washout. Expects this will be the place that it rests on for a while or bounces off. There is lots of cash out there.