Very little going on in the day-to-day action in the marketplace, hence very little to write about. If there was a story to write about, it would be at the extremely low yields of the US treasury market and how it continues to induce others to chase yield. Forcing people to invest in assets for income when they do not receive a fair risk-adjusted return of capital (opposed to return on capital) means making such investment decisions is a tricky endeavour.
Spot gold continues to swim at the US$1,200/Oz mark; spot crude continues to wobble between US$70 and US$85/barrel. Natural gas has been wobbling around $4.5/mmBtu, which is still quite divergent with the energy content implied with the crude contract – Natural gas has considerably lagged crude, presumably due to the implementation of cheap shale gas drilling (so-called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” in short).
3-month banker’s acceptance futures have also shifted slightly downward, implying less of a chance that the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates on their September 8th meeting. Three-month corporate paper is trading at a 0.91% yield. This change in the future projected rates also had the effect of taking down the Canadian dollar from roughly 97 cents to 95 cents, but this could just be white noise. The currency diversification is an interesting and separate topic, but I am happy with my mix of Canadian and US-based portfolio components.
There’s not a lot to be writing about, which gives me some time to research individual issues on my research queue. Also, since the last two weeks of August are the most heavily booked vacation days before the kids go back to school, the markets should also be relatively quiet in volume, but not necessarily price! However, at least Monday was a calm day.
I have been noticing some of my income trusts creeping up in price; if they go much higher, I might consider a partial liquidation.