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

Stocks with sudden events or bad quarters. When do you buy in? Likes to see a stock stabilize before he buys in. But if it is an event that is a one-off then he night by in instantly. BP he started to follow but it is difficult for him to buy in quickly.

Picking 3 to 5 ETFs with $100,000, which would you choose? Depends on individual circumstances, but generally would build strong base around a diversified portfolio. Perhaps 20% in Claymore’s laddered corporate bond (CBO-T), position in TSX, hedge position in an MSC Type Global (?) (MGB-N) and give real thought as to whether growth will be coming from emerging markets, so something like Claymore BRIC ETF (CBQ-T). Last 20% would be in cash.

Gold. There is a bit of a lag time between gold producers and gold bullion. Normally producers lead the bullion by about 6 months. Now getting into the seasonality of gold.

He is in the “no double dip” camp. There will be very modest growth in the second half of 2010. New home construction at an all time low is a good sign. He never thought there would be a very robust recovery. He feels most of the gains in 2010 will come from dividends. Expects a saw tooth. Some stocks have been sold off much too much and these are opportunities.

Cdn$ versus US$? Longer-term, he likes the prospects for the Cdn$. Big revaluation has been done. Will continue to see relative strength as long as commodities stay strong and Canadian economy shows relative out performance to the US economy.

I had expected 3 Top Picks but as far as I can tell, there were only 2 discussed. Anybody get anything better than this?Bill

4-month treasury bills. Prepare yourself by having money in the kitty for now with the idea of being fully invested by October.

(A Top Pick June 2/09.) 3-month Treasury Bills as a cash holding. Seasonal period of strength for equity markets ended around May 5 and a series of technical indicators started to move lower.

Oil has been coming under pressure and the bottom of the trading range is being tested. No reason to think the trend will improve in the next little while but there could be a little bounce. Crude oil tends to go sideways in the summer.

Natural gas has very strong seasonality. Tends to peak around the middle of June and move significantly lower until the end of August.

Tuesday's program was supposed to have Linda Shick on Canadian Large Caps but turned out to be a recording of Monday's Program with Michael Smedley so there will be nothing new for Market Call today. Bill

Market has been looking for an excuse to sell off for a couple of days. When you get a little bit of bad news the markets go way down. 2 or 3 more weeks of choppiness and then Q2 results will start coming out. Hang in there and stay with quality names. He looks for a high-return-on-equity company.

GE Capital Australia, which is Australia's General Electric funding arm. 5.75% maturing January/11. Likes the very short end of the yield curve of Australia.

(A Top Pick June 24/09. Up 8.88%.) City of Toronto 4.95% due June 27/18.

Why is Cdn 5-year continuing to be 60 basis points above the US five-year? This has a lot to do with the outlook for interest rates in Canada versus the US. Canada has started to raise rates and are expected to continue to do so.