Mike's Spotlight

Live Webinar – Keystone Summer School for Your Portfolio

on Friday, 18 June 2021 13:51

Buying stocks has never been easier – with fear of inflation, high valuations, central banks printing money, meme stock distortion, and a fear-of-missing-out – buying the right stocks has never been more difficult.

But it does not have to be that way – KeyStone’s Summer School for Your Portfolio Live Webinar can put you on a winning path. For over two decades KeyStone has been researching over 10,000 stocks annually to help Canadian investors build simple 15-25 stock portfolios. Portfolios designed to enrich you, not your advisor, and centered around profitable businesses including two of the best-performing stocks in Canada over the past decade. Boyd (BYD:TSX) up over 10,000% and XPEL Inc. (XPEL:NASDAQ) up over 5,300% in just 4 years. Game-changing recommendations for client portfolios.

Feel like you are missing out? Let us show you how to start with our simple and time-tested strategy – no gimmicks, no games, solid stocks you will get nowhere else. Including advice on what types of stocks you should avoid.

Whether you are just beginning your investing journey and want to know where to start or need a sober second opinion class is in session. In this Live Webinar, KeyStone’s Head Dividend Growth Stock Analyst Aaron Dunn & Founder Ryan Irvine will cover:

1. Inflation 101 – Investing in an Inflationary Environment.
2. Growth versus Value Stocks – the 2021 Reversal.
3. New Age Investment Themes 101
* Tech – AI and Digitalization Stocks.
* Renewables and Cleantech.
* Cannabis.
* Cryptocurrency and Blockchain.
* Healthcare Trends.
4. Old School Investment Themes 101
* Commodities and Cyclicals.
* Are Gold Stocks right for your portfolio?
* Staple and Essential Businesses.
5. Portfolio Tune-Up 101
* Building a new portfolio from the bottom up.
* Reviewing and repairing your existing portfolio.
* Portfolio maintenance.

PLUS a DIY Starter Portfolio: full details & analysis on 5-7 great stocks you can buy today. Their crisis investing portfolio from KeyStone’s April 2020 DIY Webinar has already gained 100.7%. Do not miss out on these unique, profitable growth and dividend growth stocks. There are two types of tickets:

1) Early Bird Tickets @ $29.95. Includes KeyStone’s 2021 Canadian Cannabis Report – 3 Profitable US Cannabis Operators ($599 value).

2) VIP Tickets @ $79.95. Includes KeyStone’s 2021 Canadian Cannabis Report – 3 Profitable US Cannabis Operators ($599 value), 2021 On-Demand Webinar: Simple Advice to Position your Portfolio for the Next Decade ($79 value), and KeyStone’s 2021 U.S. Growth Stock Report – analyzing 3,500 U.S. NASDAQ listed nano, micro, small, and mid-cap stocks to uncover 2-3 profitable buy recommendations. ($599 value).

CLICK HERE for Ticket Info

Times & Dates:
1. June 29th @ 7:00 pm Pacific.
2. July 6th @ 4:00 pm Pacific.

FYI – KeyStone’s Spring 2021 event sold out!

Why Oil Prices May Shoot 15% Higher

Posted by Brian Sozzi

on Friday, 18 June 2021 7:48

Supply constraints and a global economy rapidly rebounding from the debilitating COVID-19 pandemic lays the foundation for much higher oil prices, Goldman Sachs global head of commodities research Jeffrey Currie argues.

“Near term our highest conviction long is oil where we still see brent [crude oil] averaging $80/bbl this third quarter with potential spikes well above $80/bbl. Global demand likely rose to 97.0 million barrels a day in recent days from 95.0 million barrels a day just a few weeks ago as the U.S. passes the baton to Europe and emerging markets, where even India is beginning to show improvements,” Currie said in a new research note to clients on Friday.

To be sure, oil prices have had a bullish bias of late… CLICK for complete article

Norway Leads the Pack on Rate Hikes

Posted by James Smith

on Friday, 18 June 2021 7:43

Norway’s central bank has once again cemented itself as a hawkish outlier in the G10 policymaker arena. Norges Bank is now penciling in its first rate hike in September, and its rate projection indicates that may well be followed by another in December and March of next year. In total there are four hikes in by the end of next year, and another couple by the end of 2024.

In a sense none of this is too surprising. The Norges Bank had already been signaling at least one hike this year, and in effect the latest rate path just adds in one additional hike over what was in the March profile. The bounceback in Norwegian activity, coupled with slightly higher oil prices and a weaker NOK (relative to what the central bank says it would expect given energy price levels), all contributed to the higher rate path.

At this stage, there’s little reason to doubt that these rate hikes will materialize, barring further Covid-19 surprises. But does this tell us much about what other central banks might do? We suspect it doesn’t. Remember back in 2019, the Norges Bank hiked interest rates three times, while the Fed was busy cutting… CLICK for complete article and charts

Dow falls 260 points after Fed signals 2 rate hikes in 2023

Posted by Yun Li and Pippa Stevens

on Thursday, 17 June 2021 6:48

 

U.S. stocks dropped Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised its inflation expectations and moved up the time frame on when it will next hike interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 265.66 points, or 0.8%, at 34,033.67. The blue-chip average turned sharply lower after the Fed’s statement, falling as much as 382 points. The S&P 500 dipped 0.5% to 4,223.70, dragged down by utilities and consumer staples. The broad equity benchmark dropped as much as 1% in volatile trading as all 11 sectors fell into the red at one point. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.2% to 14,039.68 after retreating 1.2% at its session low.

The policymaking Federal Open Market Committee indicated that rate hikes could come as soon as 2023, after signaling in March that it saw no increases until beyond that year.

“This is not what the market expected,” said James McCann, Aberdeen Standard Investments’ deputy chief economist. “The Fed is now signaling that rates will need to rise sooner and faster. … This change in stance jars a little with the Fed’s recent claims that the recent spike in inflation is temporary.”

Major equity benchmark traded off their lows of the day after Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference that the so-called dot-plot projections that detail members’ forecasts for future rate increases should be taken with a “big grain of salt” and that the liftoff is “well into the future.”

The central bank gave no indication as to when it will begin cutting back on its aggressive bond-buying program, which also helped bolster markets. The Fed has been purchasing $120 billion worth of bonds each month as the economy continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

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Is Inflation “Transitory”? Here’s Your Simple Test

Posted by CHARLES HUGH SMITH

on Thursday, 17 June 2021 6:21

 

The Federal Reserve has been bleating that inflation is “transitory”–but what about the real world that we live in, as opposed to the abstract funhouse of rigged statistics? Here’s a simple test to help you decide if inflation is “transitory” in the real world.

Let’s start with some simple stipulations: price is price, there are no tricks like hedonics or substitution. Nobody cares if the truck stereo is better than it was 40 years ago, the price of the truck is the price we pay today, and that’s all that matters.

(Funny, the funhouse statistical adjustments never consider that appliances that used to last 30 years now break down and are junked after 3 years–if we adjusted for that, the $500 washer would be tagged at $5,000 today because it has lost 90% of its durability over the past 30 years.)

Second, inflation must be weighted to “big ticket” nondiscretionary items. The funhouse statistical trickery counts a $10 drop in the price of a TV (which you buy every few years at best) as equal to a $100 rise in childcare, which you pay monthly. No, no, no: a 10% rise in rent, healthcare insurance and childcare is $400 a month or roughly $5,000 a year. A 10% decline in a TV you buy every three years is $50. Even a 50% drop in the price of a TV ($250) is $83 per year–absolutely trivial, absolutely meaningless compared to $5,000 in higher big-ticket expenses.

You can forego the new TV but not the rent, childcare or healthcare. That’s the difference between “big ticket” nondiscretionary and discretionary (meals out, 3rd TV, etc.).

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