Don’t get greedy with this one. Let the titans fight it out over food security.
We didn’t panic-sell key wealth-builders because measures of their on-the-ground performance pointed to long-term dividend sustainability--and growth.
The mood among investors attending this week's San Francisco MoneyShow indicates it's time for income-seekers to look for opportunities to lock in solid, sustainable yields.
Earnings reports for dividend-paying utility stocks suggest their ability to build wealth for investors will endure--whatever the view from 30,000 feet.
There are many ways to skin the Canadian oil sands cat. We suggest you do it with a lower-risk, high total return approach.
Roger Conrad's latest advice for Investors Seeking Dividends
Power demand is on the rise, though you'd hardly know it based on the market's treatment of electricity producers.
Canadian trusts have endured a great deal of stress since 2005, what with politicians threatening their existence and the global economy buckling then breaking. Through it all, they’ve proven their ability to pay high yields to 2011 and beyond.
The market volatility that’s followed the 2008-09 crash will cause fear and worry. Don’t succumb. Position your portfolio to profit.
Government intervention in the economy is a hot issue right now, but views on the role of official power in the mechanisms of commerce vary greatly by region.
The news for dividend-paying stocks has been good over the last couple weeks, and solid earnings bode well for continued gains.
The Bank of Canada weighed a strong domestic economy against weakness abroad. The result suggests Canada is a great venue for income investing.
Income investing is about establishing regular cash streams that will pay out over the long haul. Here are three Canada-based stalwarts with impressive records of making consistent payments to shareholders.
Elected officials, frightened by an invisible specter and what looms in November, won’t act on the greatest threat to global growth prospects. Monetary policymakers still have the room--and the capacity, presumably--to act.
Distributable cash flow--not earnings per share--is the best measure of high-yielders’ ability to maintain their payouts. Government oversight should be so easy to gauge.
A Saudi King’s hint that Peak Oil is real is interesting. A Chinese official’s forecast of billions more in investment dollars flowing into Canada’s oil patch is actionable.
Recent volatility in shares of Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR) has more to do with technical factors than the fundamental strength of the underlying business.
Fear-inspired weakness is the perfect time to establish positions in securities leveraged to the best economic story in the developed world.
Southern Company (NYSE: SO) will use federal loan guarantees to finance two nuclear reactors on its site in Waynesboro, Georgia.
The global stimulus consensus that emerged from the G-20’s first series of meetings, in 2008 and 2009, is about to unravel.
The Federal Communications Commission voted this week, along party lines, to regulate broadband access the same way it does basic phone service. Get ready for a long battle that will be fought in Congress and the courts.
ARC Energy Trust (Toronto: AET-UN.TO, Other OTC: AETUF.PK) is establishing a commanding presence in one of North America’s most promising shale gas plays.
Construction is always one of the most economically sensitive sectors. In good times, everything from office buildings and industrial facilities to single family homes is in boom mode. Then, in bad times, construction activity slows, often sharply.
Whatever become of BP (NYSE: BP) in the aftermath of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the stock is not for conservative income investors right now.
The Energy Information Administration’s annual forecast includes a drastic change in the data agency's perspective on global oil production.
Video Update: Roger Conrad on why income stocks are more important than ever in today's volatile market.
The retrenchment in the bond market looks a lot more like a reaction to the threat that fear of a European contagion will set off an investor stampede.
Statistics Canada reports the best quarterly GDP growth rate since 1999. The Bank of Canada becomes the first G-7 central bank to raise interest rates.
The president is responding radically to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Circumstances suggest the administration will tread more lightly when it comes to telecom and CO2.
Atlantic Power, Bird Construction and Cineplex Galaxy all reported encouraging first-quarter results that support the long-term dividend sustainability.
Roger discusses how investors can take advantage of this fear driven market.
The businesses backing Utility Forecaster Portfolio stocks have shed a lot of debt since 2001, when Enron provided the sector its own private Lehman Brothers.
Whether its oil or copper, the Middle Kingdom will swallow it up. And the Great White North is ready to provide.
Where do investors go from here? My answer is the same as it’s been since before the fall of Lehman Brothers: high-yielding stocks backed by solid businesses.
Who wouldn’t be overwhelmed by recent news of sovereign risk, rising taxes, oil spills and double-dips? Investors who focus on collecting steady dividends from solid businesses.
This week's market crash, in the wake of BP's (NYSE: BP) disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is an opportunity to consider again that solid businesses will weather all manner of uncertainty.
BP's (NYSE: BP) mess in the Gulf of Mexico likely scuttles plans to expand US offshore drilling. The long-term picture, however, includes lots of rigs extracting fossil fuels under water.
A motivated seller, E.ON, found an enthusiastic buyer, PPL Corp. Who wins and who loses on the sale of E.ON’s Kentucky-based assets? What of also-ran bidders such as Duke Energy?
Canadian National Railway (Toronto: CNR.TO, NYSE: CNI) and TransForce (Toronto: TFI.TO, Other OTC: TFIFF.PK) reported first-quarter earnings results that confirm the North American economic recovery.
Behemoths AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) report strong numbers, and upstart CenturyTel (NYSE: CTL) is bidding for Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q). The communications industry is all about being big or getting big.
The Bank of Canada, responding to signs of rising inflation and the Great White North's rapid rebound, is likely to raise its benchmark interest rate in June. “Emerging Canada” is all about commodities, Asia and a strong balance sheet.
Cap-and-trade: Like health care reform, it might still rise from the much of Washington, DC. Here’s how to play carbon regulation--with a word on dividend tax rates, too.
Sinopec (Hong Kong: 386, NYSE: SNP) is buying ConocoPhilips’ (NYSE: COP) stake in the Syncrude project. Here’s the lowdown on short- and long-term implications for growth and income investors alike.
A federal court has temporarily halted at least one advance by the forces of government control, ruling the FCC doesn't have the authority to regulate broadband service. What's next?
The Canadian dollar hit parity with the US dollar today. Will the loonie's rise continue?
Dan Duncan was a giant in the energy business and an innovator in the master limited partnership space. The wealth he created for investors through Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE: EPD) and other partnerships will be his legacy.
Box office records mean riches for Hollywood’s famous. Here’s how to get your own piece of that action.
Canada is often overlooked when it comes to global-scale stories. But data reported by Statistics Canada last week suggest the world is now paying attention to the Great White North.
As the Federal Communications Commission attempts to involve itself in the telecom industry's affairs, investors need to pay close attention to the likely winners and losers.
Year in and year out, this industry has continued to evolve on its own terms. The range of services and products has expanded exponentially, and costs and rates have continued to drop. Best of all, the advances are far from done.
The new royalty regime itself is an acknowledgement that front-end investment--particularly where innovative extraction techniques are absolutely critical to success, as in the long-lived Pembina field--in conventional production often demands new technology.
The refinancing boom is an extreme positive for stocks, particularly dividend-paying stocks. And with investors focused on the possibility of a stock market correction, it’s a major positive that’s by no means reflected in today’s share prices. That’s very bullish for the rest of 2010 and beyond, even if the S&P 500 has another relapse.
Canada's prudence obscures what could be an explosive upside in coming years--particularly for US-based investors who will get the added benefit of putting greenbacks to work in loonie terms.
Everyone wants to buy into a big yield. The trouble is most people aren’t willing to put in the time to tell the good from the bad and ugly. As a result, they’re either overly skeptical--thereby missing out on what would otherwise be an ideal investment--or gullible, in which case they’re liable to make even worse moves.
China is the undisputed leader of this still-toddling recovery; we’ll wait for further confirmation before we ring the double-dip alarm.
To meet the military's increasing demand for electricity, the Dept of Defense has intensified its search for permanent, on-site generation. Nuclear power is one option.
What if a third of the power supply for an entire US state were suddenly shut off? Would its residents find themselves in the dark, as they do routinely in developing nations?
No other industrial democracy in the world has an asset similar to Canada's oil sands. Resource constraints brought on by new demand from China, in particular, and India will be far easier to navigate if we take an open-minded approach to it.
Blame it on Sarbanes-Oxley and subsequent populist-inspired attempts by Washington to protect investors from Wall Street fraud: Year-end filing has become so regulation-driven that fourth-quarter earnings reporting season lasts literally the entire first quarter.
Hydroelectric power is ubiquitous in many Canadian provinces, so much so that the word “hydro” has come to stand for electricity generally; the names of the government-run companies that provide such power reflect this significant presence.
Letting your politics dictate your investments is a terrible “strategy,” but don't ignore political developments.
FirstEnergy Corp (NYSE: FE) and Allegheny Energy (NYSE: AYE) have announced the power industry’s biggest merger in years. The immediate winners of the $8.5 billion deal are shareholders of Allegheny, who received a premium of 32 percent to the company’s pre-announcement share price.
China Investment Corp's first 13-F filing is a positive from a public relations perspective and makes for good geopolitical optics. The real significance is what it suggests China can do with its USD2.7 trillion of foreign currency reserves.
The Obama budget would not only extend preferential tax rates for dividends and capital gains. It would basically make them permanent, firmly establishing the principle that savings and investment be rewarded, not just for buying and selling stocks, but for holding on and collection income.
And as he exhorted the private sector to basically tell a better story Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice provided real help by saying Canada wouldn’t adopt its own climate change legislation until the US passes a bill.
The economy is still crawling back from the near-meltdown of late 2008. But there’s a long way to go, and there are plenty of challenges ahead that may prolong a full recovery.
That Alberta oil and gas producers could be looking at more favorable royalty structures is, obviously, a positive; every little bit that helps the bottom line counts. However, at this point the folks who have to manage these companies would settle for predictability.
We may not know exactly what political developments will shape the great energy debate in the US, but global investment in natural gas and renewable energy in all its forms will continue to rise for some time to come.
The election of Republican Scott Brown to the US Senate has reshuffled America’s political deck. And there are profound implications for income investors.
In addition to the statement announcing the rate decision the central bank also announced today that it will cut back certain extraordinary public market operations it put in place at the height of the global financial panic.
Florida regulators to Florida utilities: Say good-bye to reliable returns that ensure a low cost of capital. Florida utilities to Florida regulators: Fine, but don’t expect any new investment.
Though bilateral trade between Canada and China is only in its early stages of growth, the Great White North is already benefitting from the Middle Kingdom’s appetites.
Utilities sailed through the recession in part because they provide essential services, demand for which is rarely affected much by recessions. Equally important, however, is the massive reduction of debt and operating risk since the fall of Enron in 2001 nearly brought the entire industry to its knees.
What we’ve learned is that an effective regulatory structure on top of deposit-focused banking, the good fortune of abundant resources, and a decade of balanced federal books puts a country in good position to outperform during this unfolding recovery.
Doom or boom? That’s the question many investors are asking as we enter a new year. Will we see many happy returns, as we did in 2009, or will 2010 be another year when the markets roll over and play dead?
Two thousand ten is shaping up to be a big year for Canada. Three global events will take place in the Great White North in the first half of the year, each significant in its own right. Viewed together they highlight Canada’s potential on the world stage.
The Roman god Janus looks both ahead and behind at the same time. With his namesake month January days away, now’s a good time to look at a few things income investors learned in 2009, and what they portend for the year ahead.
Statistics Canada reported last week that the country’s index of leading economic indicators rose 1.3 percent in November, almost two times as fast as analysts anticipated. Nine of the index’s 10 components rose and one was unchanged, the broadest increase in more than two years.
Recent polls provide more evidence that combating global warming isn't as high a priority for Americans in a recession as it would be following an economic recovery. No matter what happens in its final hours, the Copenhagen conference’s achievements will be limited by this reality.
Rising exports to the US accounted for three-quarters of the increase despite the relative strength of the loonie versus the greenback.
Almost half the analysts canvassed in a Bloomberg survey this week stated they expect prices to rise as the winter wears on. A slightly higher percentage, however, expressed a decidedly bearish opinion.
One thing is clear, ClimateGate or not, CO2 regulation is coming and soon. Here's how to profit.
The Bank of Canada maintained its conditional commitment to keep its benchmark interest rate steady through the first half of 2010.
There’s nothing like a blockbuster merger between household names to raise the blood pressure of every so-called defender of the public interest. And that’s definitely the case with the proposed union of Comcast Corp (NSDQ: CMCSA) with NBC Universal, currently owned by General Electric (NYSE: GE).
Monday’s report on third-quarter GDP from Statistics Canada underscores the importance of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to China.
Strong corporations across the board are borrowing at the lowest rates in half a century. In fact, they’re recapitalizing their balance sheets in a way that will leave them stronger and better positioned for growth than ever.
As much as Cineplex’ numbers suggest that the company is resistant to economic downturns, there’s no escaping the conclusion that it’s captive to the quality of the productions coming out of Hollywood.
When it comes to energy, it’s hard to find two countries whose interests are more conjoined than the US and China.
At this point, oil sands production of 3.2 million barrels a day by 2020 seems more inevitable than a United Nations-brokered agreement on climate change.
I’m a lot less interested in whether a company met a particular earnings projection than I am in how it’s meeting the challenges of competing in its industry or dealing with economic ups and downs.
Like his response to the recent domestic crisis, his handling of China illustrates Stepehn Harper’s maturation from leader of a Western Canada-focused protest party to head of one of the strongest pillars in the global financial system.
I’d like a company I recommend to post improved numbers every quarter. That’s not necessarily earnings per share, or even distributions per share, but a group of metrics I consider to be important in gauging the health of the business.
Estimates from experimental tests indicate that the process can recover as much as 80 percent of original oil-in-place while partially upgrading the crude oil in situ.
Friday’s sharp reversal of Thursday’s gain is a pretty stark reminder of how little (if any) conviction investors have about things getting better, and how willing they are to sell at any provocation. That kind of sentiment is usually a bullish sign for stocks in the longer term.
Korean National Oil Company’s decision to buy Harvest Energy Trust is curious on many levels. But the difficulty resource-hungry SWFs and SOEs face is that most of the plum assets--productive and located in safe jurisdictions--are already under the control of global resource heavyweights.
A catalyst may emerge to take down stocks. But with companies borrowing at such low rates, it’s not going to be the credit markets that do the damage. And, amazingly, few of today’s cautious investors are aware of this reality.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is more concerned about the strengthening Canadian dollar right now than he is about inflation.
Takeover talk is often more fun than the deals themselves. That’s because the speculation is so pregnant with promise and everyone, from investors to business partners, is a potential winner.
For the US-based investor, buying Canada right now means accessing a relatively stable, low-beta play on a global economic recovery. It means benefitting from fundamental factors that support a strong and rising Canadian dollar. It means owning solid businesses that pay sustainable distributions.
The correct role of the regulator has always been a matter of debate for the state and federal officials who oversee industries from electricity and communications to banking.