THE PIG WAS AT THE DOCTORS TODAY...(WHAT ? PIGS CAN'T GO TO THE DOCTOR ?) AND HE HAD HIS ANNUAL CHECKUP. CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS THE PIG WANTS TO MAINTAIN TOP HEALTH. NEXT YOUR GONNA ASK THE PIG IF HE BRUSHES HIS TEETH EVERY NIGHT BEFORE BED ? YOU BETCHA...........LETS GET TO THE BIZ.
ON WITH THE SHOW...
BCG.V..YUKON GOLD PLAY. GREAT NUMBERS TONIGHT. CERTAINLY ACCUMULATED ON A REGULAR PERIOD AND IT APPEARS THE ACCUMULATION FOR A PHASE 2 MOVE IS HAPPENING BEFORE US. GOOD VOLUME STRENGTH AND MOMENTUM NUMBERS ALSO. MOVING AVERAGES SCORED HIGH. THE PIG THINKS IT COULD BE A NICE ROUND RETURN IN THE SHORT TERM.
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GDR.V..GREAT NUMBERS TONIGHT ON THIS PIGLET.
SHOWS WELL IN MOMENTUM AND VOLUME DISTRIBUTION AND HUGE ACCUMULATION UNDERWAY.MOVING AVERAGES AND ALL SENTIMENT VECTORS SCORED HIGHLY........THE PIG SAYS WOWEE.....A NICE TRADE IN THE MEDIUM TERM...........
SRZ.H-TSX.V....THIRD STRONG SCANNER OF THE NIGHT. THE PIG SAYS NO STORY YET BUT SOMETHINGS COOKING. HUGE ACCUMULATION AND MOMENTUM VECTORS. MAYBE A FUN TRADE FOR THE MEDIUM TERM AND A CHEAPY......NO CHART AVAILABLE FOR IT AS YET. .....THE PIG LIKES THIS PORKY PIGLET...
Most actively traded companies on the TSX, TSX Venture Exchange markets
TORONTO - Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (11,521.83 down 4.88 points):
Lorus Therapeutics Inc. (TSX:LOR). Biopharmaceutical. Up 5.5 cents, or 91.67 per cent, at 11.5 cents on 5,098,731 shares. The life sciences company's stock shot up to its highest level since August 2008 after a study published in the journal Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy showed a drug developed by the company had "anti-tumour efficacy against several tumour types."
Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Oil and gas. Down 15 cents, or 0.49 per cent, at $30.70 on 4,472,693 shares. Its stock continued to slide since announcing Monday that it would miss production targets until its fire-damaged oilsands upgrader in Alberta is back in service in early April.
Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Trains and planes. Up 14 cents, or 2.62 per cent, at $5.48 on 4,381,440 shares. The transport giant secured a billion-dollar contract from France's national railway that could expand to become the largest in the company's history.
Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX). Miner. Down 66 cents, or 1.68 per cent, at $38.71 on 3,901,444 shares. The gold sector was the biggest decliner on the TSX, fading 1.06 per cent, as the price of bullion fell $6 to US$1,097.2 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Eastern Platinum Ltd. (TSX:ELR). Miner. Up three cents, or 2.36 per cent, at $1.30 on 3,866,299 shares.
Chariot Resources Ltd. (TSX:CHD). Miner. Down three cents, or five per cent, at 57 cents on 3,205,873 shares.
TSX Venture Exchange (1,519.41 down 0.58 point):
Allana Potash Corp. (TSXV:AAA). Miner. Up five cents, or 12.50 per cent, at 45 cents on 6,009,087 shares.
Southern Pacific Resource Corp. (TSXV:STP). Down a penny, or 1.16 per cent, at 85 cents on 5,400,848 shares.
Companies reporting major news:
Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX:CG). Miner. Up three cents, or 0.25 per cent, at $11.82 on 929,935 shares after announcing profits soared US$140 million in the fourth quarter. That was up significantly from $42.6 million a year ago when the gold miner booked an $18.8-million impairment charge. Revenue increased more than 20 per cent to $323.9 million.
Finning International Inc. (TSX:FTT). Heavy-equipment dealer. Down 59 cents, or 3.27 per cent, at $17.46 on 661,474 shares on news its fourth-quarter profits dropped to $16.3 million from $44.6 million last year. Revenues fell 27 per cent to $1.14 billion and the company warned it expects sales to continue falling in 2010.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSX:MFI). Food processor. Down 32 cents, or 2.86 per cent, at $10.88 on 105,508 shares despite booking fourth-quarter profits of $21.9 million, reversing a year-ago loss of $14.6 million. The company, which is recovering from Canada's largest food recall due to a Listeria outbreak nearly two years ago, said overall sales dipped slightly to $1.32 billion.
Sherritt International Corp. (TSX:S). Resource. Up 18 cents, or 2.67 per cent, at $6.91 on 985,678 shares. The nickel, cobalt, thermal coal, oil, gas and electricity producer earned $48.3 million in the fourth quarter, a major turnaround from a year-ago loss of $592.1 million, which included a major writedown on the Ambatovy nickel project in Madagascar. Revenue was little changed at $379.8 million.
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Charlie Munger Wants to Scare You Straight
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/02/23/charlie-munger-wants-to-scare-you-straight.aspxChristopher Barker
February 23, 2010
The second in command at Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) has never confined himself to the large shadow cast by Warren Buffett's iconic persona, but Charlie Munger's scathing account of this country's economic outlook in my opinion marks a new level of unbridled frankness from this well-known fixture in the financial world.
Munger has penned a sobering parable that appeared at Slate.com over the weekend, and I expect that in time this piece will be viewed as a classic and timely attempt to instruct a nation in the basic foundations of fiscal solvency and the potential perils of our current trajectory.
He tells of a place called "Basicland," which, like the U.S., was rooted in principles of sound money and a tradition of conservative fiscal economics. In Basicland, Munger describes what started out as a sort of economic Utopia that was eaten away by higher taxes, increased government spending, and most importantly "casino gambling." He correctly characterizes our banks as casinos and derivatives as their bet of choice. This, over time, led to a system that was susceptible to economic shocks, like higher energy prices and diminishing exports due to low-cost foreign competition.
Every parable has a moral to its story, and Munger's appears to be a plea to heed former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker's approach that would aggressively rein in the gambling activities of the financial sector. Munger takes it a step further by having his Volcker-inspired character proposing an outright ban on trading in financial derivatives altogether. Suffice to say, such a measure would inexorably alter the financial landscape by limiting access to leverage through securitization. How one would set about dismantling a $600 trillion marketplace in an orderly fashion I cannot guess, but Munger seems to present the death of derivatives as the only sustainable way forward. I agree 100%.
What does it all mean?This article is important not only because of what it says, but also because of whom is saying it. Berkshire recently completed an epic acquisition of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI), which Buffett hailed as his "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States." If that future looks anything like the one portrayed in Munger's parable -- where the once-solid credit of Basicland was reduced to tatters by persistently "extreme financial leverage" and "counterproductive governmental action" -- then Buffett's wager begins to look like something of a crapshoot.
Although the tone of Munger's tale is inescapably morose, and the mere idea that the United States could be driving down a path toward a place that Munger calls "Sorrowland" is a tough pill to swallow, Fools can take solace by safeguarding some portion of their assets from such a scenario. I have been encouraging Fools to limit their exposure to the U.S. dollar for some time now, and regardless of what debt-borne illness may befall the euro, I believe that the deep-seated fiscal imbalance underlying the greenback will make its presence known with equal or greater vigor.
For the past nine years, gold has offered a safe haven amid a precipitous decline in the purchasing power of the dollar. Fund managers like George Soros have gone for the gold with holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) exchange-traded fund, and China's sovereign wealth fund has ventured into stakes in miners like Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) and Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI). China's central bank has made no secret of its desire to diversify its holdings away from U.S. dollars. I will say it again: I believe that any notion of gold being a bubble is patently false under the circumstances.
I take no delight in saying so because of the implications for the dollar, but I believe gold's likelihood of striking the $2,000 mark has never looked stronger. I believe that silver will surprise many with a run to $50 per ounce or higher before this precious-metals bull market eventually runs its course, which formed part of my rationale for selecting Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW) as my top equity pick for 2010. Moreover, I believe that equities relating to a broad swath of commodities from agriculture to iron ore will continue to fare better than most over the coming years, and I see potential bright spots for investors from diversified suppliers like BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP).
How would you characterize the significance of Charlie Munger's article? Is Munger dead-wrong with the economic recovery well under way and with risk abating? Sound off in the comments section below.
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