A: Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF, $159.56, symbol VCR on New York, aims to track the MSCI US IMI Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index. That index follows U.S. consumer discretionary companies. Those firms, in the manufacturing and service industries, are highly sensitive to economic cycles. The manufacturing… Read More

Recently some Inner Circle members have asked why the price/earnings ratios, or P/Es, of automakers, such as Ford Motor Co., are as low as they are today. They wonder if these low P/Es represent a warning sign, or a buying opportunity. There’s no simple answer… Read More

WAJAX CORP., $24.22, symbol WJX on Toronto, sells and services cranes, forklifts and other heavy equipment. It also provides related parts and systems such as ball bearings, hoses, diesel engines and transmissions.

Wajax’s customers are spread across the resources, construction, manufacturing and transportation industries.

The company has… Read More

GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC (ADR), $40.17, symbol GSK on New York, is a U.K.-based global healthcare company that develops, makes and sells products in three main markets: pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer. It has about 98,000 employees.

On July 20, 2018, rumours surfaced that Glaxo was considering spinning off… Read More

We’ve often pointed out that buying stocks when they’re in the broker/media limelight is a risky way to invest. Electric-car maker Tesla Inc. $282.03 (symbol TSLA on Nasdaq) may be today’s best example of what we mean. Founder Elon Musk and his company get a.. Read More

Here’s the text of the most-recent letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients in late July:

“When I wrote my July 2016 quarterly client letter, one month after the U.K. voted for Brexit, I felt we had entered what you might call a “tumultuous but… Read More

Demand for renewable energy continues to grow, supported by government incentives and technological advances that lower costs. Still, the broad increase in power needs worldwide—along with relatively cheap oil and natural gas prices—should keep fossil fuels as the primary energy source for years to come.
There… Read More

TD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FUND $83.10 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, Canada Trust Tower

161 Bay Street, 35th Floor, Toronto, ON M5J 2T2;1-800-386-3757; Web site: www.tdcanadatrust.com. No load — deal directly with the company) invests mostly in U.S. firms engaged in the research, development, production or distribution of products… Read More

A: Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF, $161.83, symbol VCR on New York, aims to track the MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index. That index follows U.S. consumer discretionary companies. Those firms, in the manufacturing and service industries, are highly sensitive to economic cycles. The… Read More

This Canadian mining stock focuses its production on two elements whose prices have risen substantially during the past year. 

Cobalt and nickel can both be key component in electric car batteries, an area of rising demand, and the company produces both at its mines in… Read More