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

Centurion Apartment REIT. A private REIT, which owns exclusively apartment buildings spread out around south-western Ontario. Management is highly respected. There is so many high quality apartment REITs in the publicly traded market that he sees no need to invest in this one.

US markets. It won't be great investing in the US, but it won't be horrible either. It will be slow, steady and plodding. Good news is that corporations are generally flush with cash. His key to investing is to go with companies whose profits are rising and have lots of cash. Governments, federal and states, will be cash strapped.

Gold. Trending higher but hasn't got back to its highs of August-September. Doesn't know if we have seen the peak for this cycle or not. Not big on gold but he tends to own 1 or 2 gold stocks as insurance.

Uranium. Probably more uranium will be sold in China but this is a long-term thing. It would Buy or Sell based more on current price and what its outlook.

Copper. Fundamentals are very strong and better than they are for zinc, nickel or aluminum because it has very high physical premium, which is what people will pay to have actual physical metal in their hands. Smelter fees are very low. His favourite is First Quantum (FM-T), which is probably the most likely takeover target.

REITs. This sector is expensive and it is hard to see how it can go a lot higher except you have takeovers and enough of them have payout ratios that are low enough that you could start to see some increases in distribution. It always has a rest and sometime between now and next 2 weeks, you'll start to get a correction but by late May-June you should be fully invested again.

Any Saskatchewan-based residential REIT? Mainstreet Equity (MEQ-T), which has no dividend but has been a very strong grower out west and have moved in there in a very big way. There is no one there which is totally domiciled there.

Economy. Thinks we are setting up for something like the 70s, which was no growth and inflation. Inflation is coming from the levels of debt. The only way to keep the system going is for further money creation. Mathematically, we are beyond the point of no return because there is too much debt. Key thing for the investor is the volatility and how to use it for your benefit by positioning yourself. This is the time to be looking forward.

Natural gas. With the frac technology, we have discovered a lot of natural gas. Once we establish pipelines to ship it offshore, prices will stabilize but that will require time. He likes to buy companies that have both natural gas and oil and wait.

Markets: Unemployment report last Friday – view that number in context – The US is getting stronger. Europe was a concern last August but as US gets stronger, Europe is less of a factor. If we can keep the current momentum going then we are in a pretty good phase. Large cap tech and energy are strong. Social Networking is strong. There is a little bit of a feel of a bull market, especially in social marketing. Bears are getting worried because market doesn’t seem to want to go down on bad news from Europe.

US. Had a surprisingly strong jump in job figures last month but he is always suspicious of monthly numbers. You have to look at quarterly trends. There has been an acceleration in job creation in the last 3 months. 2 things that are going to drive the US economy is 1) about 1 million more cars being bought last year and 2) the housing that starting to get cleared state-by-state. Job creation is not only aided by these 2 things but also aids those 2 things.

Markets: Found attractive valuations last fall and winter. Low prices mean great dividend yields. This was what he was waiting for. Canada stock market outperformed most of rest of world until last year. Most Canadian stocks are quite a bit more expensive than stocks elsewhere. Cash down from 70% down to 50% with a lot of orders in.

Lofecos: Canadian insurance companies in reasonable good shape in terms of capital. They are suffering from the stock market and that will rebound. They also suffer from long-term low interest rates.

In the past bonds were yielding in excess of inflation. For 20 years, bonds outperformed stocks. Today, Inflation is 2.5% but gov’t bonds are yielding 1.5%. Regular bonds make no sense as an investment longer term. Don’t buy bonds if you want to eventually buy and hold stocks later on.

Dividend paying stocks that don’t have a lot of growth move with interest rates. Rates go down and stocks go up. Real return bonds go up when people expect inflation to rise.