Invest in Canada

What’s behind the loonie’s rise?

Last week’s rosy economic outlook by the Bank of Canada – it declared the recession over – helped boost the dollar (CAD/USD-I0.940.011.07%) . Currency markets shrugged off Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney’s caution that a high dollar could hamper the recovery, focusing instead on his comment that Canada is emerging from the recession in [...]

Why Canada could prove a safe bet in this global downturn

Things aren’t looking great for the global economy.

With the bursting of the US housing bubble, it seems more than likely that the world’s most important consumers – the American public – will finally be forced to stop spending, as the equity in their homes disappears. That’s bad news for the rest of us.

As Morgan Stanley [...]

Alberta slips into recession

Falling stock prices and energy revenues have hit Alberta hard, and the debt-free province is now expected to post a $1-billion deficit – its first budget shortfall in 15 years.
It’s a major reversal from even last August, when government officials were projecting Alberta would rake in an $8.5-billion surplus by the end of the 2008-09 [...]

Now is the chance to make money in Oil.

While no one seems to be looking, the oil sands landscape is poised to change once again as global oil majors take steps to stake out even bigger holdings.
But in contrast to the last wave of foreign takeovers, made at hefty premiums and sometimes for marginal properties, multi-nationals including Paris-based Total SA, London-based BP PLC [...]

No bottom yet for falling commodities, Scotiabank finds

Global commodity prices have not yet hit bottom, but they are not falling as fast as they have been, Bank of Nova Scotia said Thursday.
“The pace of decline is slowing and the forced, indiscriminate asset selling by funds – triggered by investor redemptions and tight credit – appears to be subsiding,” Patricia Mohr, vice-president of [...]

The waning of the boom

Hungry young tradesmen like Evan Brewer used to be as plentiful on the ground in Fort McMurray as chips at the Boomtown Casino. They’d get off the plane from Atlantic Canada and score big money in the oil sands.
Now Mr. Brewer feels like one of the last of an endangered species. “I just got in [...]

Falling oil prices are hurting the major oil producers

After throwing a wrench into Canada’s oil sands growth and messing up Alberta’s budget surplus, slumping oil prices are beginning to bite into the government budgets of many OPEC members, Tristone Capital Inc. said in a report.
The Calgary-based energy investment dealer said Tuesday cartel outliers Iran and Venezuela are in the toughest spot, requiring oil [...]

Ottawa warns on Gold-backed Web trades

Canada’s financial intelligence agency warns that criminals may be exploiting Internet-based companies that convert cash into electronic gold, exposing a new front in the international effort to restrict terrorist financing and money laundering.
While other channels of money laundering are successfully being shut down, authorities are increasingly worried about a proliferation of “digital precious metals operators” [...]