Gold and Equities VS the U.S. Dollar - US Treasuries are not a safe place to be!

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI know that, when everyone starts to panic, most investors see the U.S. dollar as a safe haven. This week investors are piling into U.S. Treasuries as they have in the past during past times of fear and uncertainty. The problems in Europe have shaken confidence and the market plumeted yesterday on those fears. It would appear that, what the market has not done, is price in any hopeful sign that the European Union might actually come up with a plan similiar to the U.S. T.A.R.P. plan, which, in hindsight, was very positive for U.S. stocks, and which did not lose any money for taxpayers in the long run.  If the E.U. comes up with such a plan in the near term, there could be a dramatic pop in markets that are currently ruled by fear. There seems to be no pricing in of any good news that may eminate from Europe in the coming week(s).

In the mean time, the best "safe haven" of recent years, gold bullion, and by proxy, gold miners, have taken a beating this week. They have taken a beating only if you consider the price of gold over the course of the past month where bullion prices spiked as high as $1900. Compared to the rest of 2011, gold is still up a healthy 20% or more. It is only back to mid July prices.  That, my friends, is a healthy pullback, not This is not 2008 all over again. The fear is overblown. It may well be 2009 all over again as equities test those "generational lows" once again. I know this may be a contrary view, when compared with many market followers, but if I am right, this is the time to take the advice of Warren Buffett who famously said "buy when all others are fearful".

I am a buyer right now. A buyer of select equities in tech and pharma. A buyer of gold miners. A buyer of top Lithium miners. A buyer of select Canadian banks. If things go lower, I will buy more. Today I doubled down on small and mid tier gold miners like San Gold, and Brigus Gold. I even bought speculative stocks like TNR Gold and Nautilus Minerals. I bought more Talison Lithium. I bought more Rodinia Lithium.

I like Cenovus Energy and Suncor in the oil sector, TD Bank, RBC and BMO in banking.
I even like Manulife Financial as they are trading at an all time low this week. I like solid Techs like Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Google. I am watching HP since they announced thier new CEO today, Meg Whitman. I think there are great buys out there, and I am taking advantage of the irrational fear as everyone runs to the not so safe haven of the U.S. dollar.

I do not like the prospects for the American dollar, the Euro or, for that matter, most fiat currencies. Gold is bought and sold by central banks around the world, and it would not surprise me to hear in the coming weeks that countries like Italy have sold some of their gold stocks to pay down debt. Certainly that would account for the current weakness in bullion prices, which will rebound as fiat currencies, including the USD once again, lose favor with investors.

No one has a crystal ball, least of all this writer. However, it is those investors who seize the moment, who most often come out ahead of the herd. I hope you are one of those.

Happy investing.HP

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Royal Bank loses coveted Triple AAA credit rating leaving TD Bank as the only Canadian bank with a AAA rating by Moodys

FT.com reported today that Moodys has down graded the credit rating of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)  from the coveted AAA rating to AA1.

This leaves TD Bank as the only Canadian bank to keep the coveted triple A rating, along with only a handfull of banks worldwide.

Top dividend Stocks you should consider for your Retirefund!

Image via Wikipedia

Dividend paying stocks are good for your Retirefund! They are "very good" for your Retirefund! You pay less tax on dividends than you pay for almost all other income. Companies that have paid dividends for many years can usually be found at the top of the market where they are listed.

Here are 12 top Canadian dividend paying stocks listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. These are solid performing companies that have high dividend yields. You should consider them when constructing your Retirefund outside of an RRSP.

S.No.	Company	Ticker	Market Capitalization as of April 23, 2010	Dividend Yield
1	Bank of Montreal	BMO	$36.0B	4.32%
2	BCE Inc.	BCE	$23.7B	5.63%
3	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	CM	$29.8B	4.57%
4	Enbridge Inc.	ENB	$19.2B	3.31%
5	Rogers Communications Inc.	RCI	$20.9B	3.60%
6	Royal Bank of Canada	RY	$87.7B	3.24%
7	Sun Life Financial Inc.	SLF	$17.7B	4.59%
8	TELUS Corporation	TU	$11.7B	5.20%
9	The Bank of Nova Scotia	BNS	$53.4B	3.77%
10	Thomson Reuters Corporation	TRI	$30.6B	3.13%
11	Toronto Dominion Bank	TD	$66.3B	3.17%
12	TransCanada Corporation	TRP	$25.7B	4.29%

If you are looking for steady income, taxed at a low rate, for a long time. (In other words, you have a solid nest egg and now want to start enjoying life instead of tracking stocks) then you should be invested in solid, dividend paying, blue chip stocks, and these are a great place to start.

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Stocks Scorecard October 2009

It’s bragging time! While I know full well that a “rising tide floats all boats” I also know that some boats are faster than others. Since January the S&P/TSX is up 25.2% so if you had bought a simple index fund you would be in the money by that amount minus .5% of your entire portfolio.

However, if you had invested along with me this year, here is what your returns would be at this point in the calendar:

TD Bank, 96% (bought in March) (sold Oct 1^st)

Ballard Power 130.97% (YTD)

Wi-lan Technologies 26.9% (YTD)

Apollo Gold 33.4% (bought in Sept)

Corridor Resources 74% (bought in March)

Now, if you had sold your U.S. Cash into the Canada buck when I did in January, this small simple transaction would have returned for you over 27.6% or more than the entire index.

To update these picks, I have sold approx 75% of my TD Stock (anytime you get a lift of 96% on a bank stock you take profit, period) however I am holding on to the rest as I still see great upside in all four of these picks. I also have some low PER mutual funds and my near term use funds are in money market funds.

I hope you have done as well with your Retirefund this year to date; however the year is not over and there is much more to be made. Of the four stocks I am keeping I expect that, even though their returns have been great, Ballard Power, and Apollo Gold have the momentum to double in the next two months with good upside beyond in early 2010. Wilan Technologies is still a sleeper with upside in the 300% range in my opinion, over the next 12 months, because of it’s 750 wireless patents. Corridor Resources is a small gas play with takeover potential.

I have increased my holdings in Apollo gold twice this month, since buying in at .45 My last purchase was at .55 as I believe that this stock has the most upside potential of all four.

Happy Investing. Happy retirement.

HP

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