Market News

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Commonwealth's CIO Brad McMillan addresses worries about how the stock market may react to the presidential election.

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In trading on Wednesday, shares of Gibson Energy Inc (Toronto: GEI) were yielding above the 8% mark based on its quarterly dividend (annualized to $1.32), with the stock changing hands as low as $16.39 on the day. Dividends are particularly important for investors to consider, because historically speaking dividends have provided a considerable share of the stock market's total return.

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For the world's top central banks, 'the blind leading the blind' isn't just a proverb. It's reality.

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With a strong and growing e-commerce presence, history of profit growth, and an undervalued share price, Williams-Sonoma is my long idea this week.

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Investors will get a snapshot of the labor market this week when job figures are released for the month of September, which are expected to show a slow and steady rise in hiring.

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Copper is trading in an important range between its $2/pound support level and $2.30/pound resistance level.

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Get your pencils and scorecards ready. Baseball's playoffs begin this coming week, accompanied by a fresh batch of jobs data and more Fed speakers.

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Despite the market angst over the FOMC meeting and comments from the Big Bears since August that the stock market had to crash the major averages survived another month. Heading into the last day of the month the S&P 500 was just 2% below its all time high yet according to AAII only 24% of individual investors were bullish. In addition to the last day of the month it is also the end of the 3rd quarter. Active managers are likely to again underperform their benchmarks for another quarter. Earlier in the year a Financial Times article revealed that "98.9 per cent of US equity funds underperformed over the past 10 years, 97 per cent of emerging market funds and 97.8 per cent of global equity funds." wa9-30a Looking at those funds sold in various Euro zone countries the message is the same as their chart indicates. Almost 100% of a actively managed equity funds sold in the Netherlands have failed to outperform their benchmarks over the past five years. How can investors do better?

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When Darden Restaurants -- the company behind Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, LongHorn Steakhouse and more -- reported first quarter earnings results Tuesday morning, the results were better than expected: earnings per share beat the Wall Street estimate by six cents, an increase in same-store sales proved a welcoming outlier among its food industry peers, and the company raised its full-year earnings outlook. And yet, shares of Darden failed to maintain their early-morning 4% pop during Tuesday trading, closing the day with just an 0.59% gain -- a meager increase that appears to have been driven by the Darden CEO's comments about challenges in the broader restaurant space.

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