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

Alibaba versus Amazon Comment. The risk to Alibaba (BABA-N) is that it is operating in China and he sees this as risky. He owns more Amazon (AMZN-N) than Alibaba and has more faith with Amazon. KWEB-N is an ETF offering a basket of Chinese online companies.

Canadian Banks Comment. He has some exposure to Canadian banks, but would prefer to own US banks. He would consider Royal Bank (RY-T) as it has significant capital exposure and a large wealth management business in Canada. He also likes National Bank (NA-T).

Structural Bull Market Comment. He sees the period of 2000-2013 as showing no persistent growth. Now that we are in a structural bull market, you should hold onto your winning positions. The first stock that doubles will likely double again. There may be market pullbacks. Don’t go looking for change where it doesn’t exist. REITs, telcos, utilities and other interest rate sensitive stocks remain vulnerable – don’t get caught buying on a bounce. If you own these types of stock, use the bounce to get out of them.

Infrastructure Assets Comment. Years ago pension funds looked towards infrastructure as better investments compared to bonds. This has squeezed out the value and forced these towards the value of bonds. If interest rates rise these companies will be hurt.

Energy Market Comment He is not a fan of the energy sector currently. It continues to strike him how poorly this sector is preforming relative to the commodity price. He would look elsewhere than the energy sector. It has not appreciated during a strong structural bull market.

Bank of Canada not changing interest rates today We started the year thinking the BoC will follow the Fed's three rate hikes, but now we think one or two. The reason is that our economy is slowing quickly. Consumer debt is high, while new mortgage regulations are coming in and will effect the housing market.

Tariffs Trumps's proposed steel and aluminum tariffs don't make sense, but they could happen. He hopes this goes beyond a tit-for-tat tariff retaliation by Canada, and believes cooler heads will prevail. Steel tariffs are really a NAFTA bargaining chip.

Mining. There's a lot more smart money into the sector. It's a good time to look at these stocks. He's positive about minerals. His method of evaluating a company hasn't changed from five years ago. He's still looking for the highest-quality deposit. He wants to be involved in a discovery early on to attract a buy-out from a major. Exploration hasn't been that successful in the past 10 years, but the industry still needs new discoveries. Now, the juniors are willing to do this exploration, moving to a place and doing work through locals, whereas a major that moves to, say, Mongolia is a big deal.

Gary Cohn quits White House. Another one bites the dust. Trump is an imbecile. As the Mueller investigation goes on and ties between Trump and Russia are exposed, we're looking at potential impeachment a year from now, which will be negative to the U.S. dollar, which by default is positive in the gold price.

Effect of Trump tweets on gold companies. The volatility of his tweets, like the steel tariffs, has a direct impact on the economy, trade deficit and the gold companies.

Mining. Gold always gets attention, but silver is picking up. Copper and zinc and also picking up, but not uranium. Cobalt is picking up. Discoveries generate a lot of return, like Ivanhoe which made him a 700% return. He's agnostic about the commodity per se.

Gary Cohn quits White House. This creates uncertainty. Constant change and volatility in the White House is bad for the U.S. dollar and good for gold.

Lithium and cobalt oversupply? He was more bullish on lithium last year before the SQM deal. Now, they're allowed to expand their production. There could be a balanced market in the near term. He picks lithium projects in the lower-cost quartile. He used to play lithium and battery elements (anything with lithium on it) in the beta, but now you need to find an alpha play. Make sure the right people know the technology in lithium.

Bitcoin vs. gold. Last year, Bitcoin was saying, "We're a fraction of the gold market," and they attracted some investors, but he doesn't think Bitcoin has attracted the gold bugs.

Unrest in the Congo on cobalt mines? There's a lot of production here. This is one reason why he sold Ivanhoe--political instability in Congo. This will impact the price of cobalt to the upside--it would be good. Remember that 98% of cobalt is a by-product. So, the copper or nickel price really impacts the cobalt price.