Canada had the best performing stock index in the developed world in 2016. The TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) index delivered a total return of 18.26%. That was a 34% premium to the S&P 500’s total return of 13.59%. #-ad_banner-#This awesome performance was driven by a newly-listed TSX stock. On July 26, Canopy Growth Corp (TSX: WEED) became the first-ever cannabis company to be listed on the TSX Index. The listing generated huge interest from investors eager to cash in on the high-growth medical cannabis industry. Since the listing, shares of Canopy have gained 186%, making it the one of the… Read More

Canada had the best performing stock index in the developed world in 2016. The TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) index delivered a total return of 18.26%. That was a 34% premium to the S&P 500’s total return of 13.59%. #-ad_banner-#This awesome performance was driven by a newly-listed TSX stock. On July 26, Canopy Growth Corp (TSX: WEED) became the first-ever cannabis company to be listed on the TSX Index. The listing generated huge interest from investors eager to cash in on the high-growth medical cannabis industry. Since the listing, shares of Canopy have gained 186%, making it the one of the best performing stocks on the entire TSX Index. I wrote about CGC on November 1, telling investors to pay attention.  Since my article was published, Canopy is up 81%. If you missed out on those big returns, don’t worry. I see that same pattern unfolding again. Canopy is about to be joined on the TSX Index by another cannabis company. Aphria (TSXV: APH) is the second-largest medical cannabis company in Canada with a market value of $591 million. Shares of Aphria are currently traded on the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of the TSX that allows smaller companies to… Read More

Today’s investors are barraged with technology-driven investment tools. Everything from a standard online trading platform to completely automated, decision-making robo-advisors is at our fingertips. #-ad_banner-#Known collectively as Fintech, these revolutionary changes have deeply altered our relationship with the financial markets. The stock market had grown tremendously since the days when investors had to phone in orders to brokers who in turn called the stock exchange to execute orders. Things are continuing to change and change fast for individual investors. And whenever there is change there are many opportunities for profit. And this is especially true of the fintech revolution, one… Read More

Today’s investors are barraged with technology-driven investment tools. Everything from a standard online trading platform to completely automated, decision-making robo-advisors is at our fingertips. #-ad_banner-#Known collectively as Fintech, these revolutionary changes have deeply altered our relationship with the financial markets. The stock market had grown tremendously since the days when investors had to phone in orders to brokers who in turn called the stock exchange to execute orders. Things are continuing to change and change fast for individual investors. And whenever there is change there are many opportunities for profit. And this is especially true of the fintech revolution, one of many smart stocks to invest in now. Early Fintech Advances Fintech can be traced back to the early 1960s with the advent of the Quotron system on brokers’ desks. Quotron was the first electronic system for distributing stock quotes in real time. In 1966, the global telex network was launched with the goal of creating the backbone for future international financial technology. Later on, the Clearing House Interbank Payments System was founded to allow large global banks the ability to convey and settle payments in greenbacks. While it feels like forever, it has only been since 1983 that… Read More

While headlines of the new presidential administration’s various actions have dominated the news since the start of the year, the stock market has quietly been on a tear. According to Bespoke Investment Group, 36 stocks in the S&P 500 reached all-time highs last Monday. Another 24 new highs followed on Tuesday. Wednesday saw 40. Here is a full list of S&P 500 companies that have set new all-time highs as of last week, courtesy of Bespoke: Hopefully, you’ve personally benefitted from this. The question is: How long can this last? —Sponsored Link— Turn $500… Read More

While headlines of the new presidential administration’s various actions have dominated the news since the start of the year, the stock market has quietly been on a tear. According to Bespoke Investment Group, 36 stocks in the S&P 500 reached all-time highs last Monday. Another 24 new highs followed on Tuesday. Wednesday saw 40. Here is a full list of S&P 500 companies that have set new all-time highs as of last week, courtesy of Bespoke: Hopefully, you’ve personally benefitted from this. The question is: How long can this last? —Sponsored Link— Turn $500 Into $650,000 Without Risking A Single Dollar In The Market The Wall Street Journal reports that this innovation “blows open the doors to investing.” Forbes says that “this changes everything.” And if you click here now, we’ll share the details behind this investing breakthrough. If this article from the Wall Street Journal is to be believed, one disconcerting sign about the economy could come from the National Federation of Independent Business. Last month, its survey of small business optimism reached its highest level in 12 years. At a reading of 105.9,… Read More

I stumbled across a prediction last week that would impress even Mad Money’s Jim Cramer. According to a recent report from Oxfam, an international charitable organization, Bill Gates has a shot at becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Oxfam speculates that if the returns on the tech mogul’s $75 billion fortune in the next 25 years are similar to those in the last 25 years, Gates has a shot at jumping the $1 trillion mark. That got me thinking, if one man has a shot at becoming a trillionaire, certainly one of the S&P 500’s biggest companies has a shot at… Read More

I stumbled across a prediction last week that would impress even Mad Money’s Jim Cramer. According to a recent report from Oxfam, an international charitable organization, Bill Gates has a shot at becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Oxfam speculates that if the returns on the tech mogul’s $75 billion fortune in the next 25 years are similar to those in the last 25 years, Gates has a shot at jumping the $1 trillion mark. That got me thinking, if one man has a shot at becoming a trillionaire, certainly one of the S&P 500’s biggest companies has a shot at becoming the world’s first $1 trillion company? Turns out, a few do.  I see five S&P 500 companies with a shot at breaking the $1 trillion mark in the next five years. — Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is the smallest company on the list with a market cap of $386 billion. Facebook’s share price would need to hit $345, up 159%. –Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has a market cap of $400 billion. Shares would need to hit $1,980, up 125%. –Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has a market cap of $498 billion. Shares would need to hit $130, up 100%. –Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) is… Read More

With stock markets setting new records in 2017, it might be prudent to recall the much weaker start to 2016. In January 2016, the S&P 500 declined 5%, followed by another 5% decline in early February. About a year ago, on February 12, 2016, a rebound started, and the market… Read More

If you want a reason to be optimistic about the S&P 500 look no further than fourth-quarter earnings. After falling for five consecutive quarters, S&P 500 earnings growth is back in the green. It started last quarter. Third-quarter earnings grew 2.1% from the same period last year, a marginal victory on the chart but a big win for morale, breaking a five-quarter losing streak. #-ad_banner-#Fourth-quarter earnings show an improvement from there. As of February 10, 71% of S&P 500 companies had reported fourth-quarter results, according to FactSet Research. From that group, earnings were up 5.0% from… Read More

If you want a reason to be optimistic about the S&P 500 look no further than fourth-quarter earnings. After falling for five consecutive quarters, S&P 500 earnings growth is back in the green. It started last quarter. Third-quarter earnings grew 2.1% from the same period last year, a marginal victory on the chart but a big win for morale, breaking a five-quarter losing streak. #-ad_banner-#Fourth-quarter earnings show an improvement from there. As of February 10, 71% of S&P 500 companies had reported fourth-quarter results, according to FactSet Research. From that group, earnings were up 5.0% from last year. This marks a strong reversal out of the earnings recession that began in 2015. Looking forward, earnings are expected to accelerate throughout 2017. Take a look at the earnings growth projections below. This return to earnings growth is a powerful macro force that I expect to be supportive of the S&P 500 this year. History also tells me that companies delivering the best earnings surprises will do even better and benefit from one of Wall Street’s best-kept secrets. The Post Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) is the tendency for a stock’s cumulative abnormal… Read More

The president is surrounded by a host of unsavory characters, and concerns begin to brew that businesses are using the office for personal profits. Talk of impeachment begins, largely along party lines, with the opposition growing increasingly vocal. Large public protests are mostly peaceful, but the occasional act of violence generates publicity. This is the news out of South Korea. That’s right — the United States isn’t the only country with sharp political divisions. In fact, that’s the situation in many countries around the world right now. South Korea may just be further along the path of turmoil and could… Read More

The president is surrounded by a host of unsavory characters, and concerns begin to brew that businesses are using the office for personal profits. Talk of impeachment begins, largely along party lines, with the opposition growing increasingly vocal. Large public protests are mostly peaceful, but the occasional act of violence generates publicity. This is the news out of South Korea. That’s right — the United States isn’t the only country with sharp political divisions. In fact, that’s the situation in many countries around the world right now. South Korea may just be further along the path of turmoil and could offer some lessons for investors in countries that are just starting the journey toward regular chaos. —Recommended Link— This President’s Day, Get An Entire Year Of Maximum Profit — 60% Off In honor of President’s Day, we’re offering our most popular (AND most profitable) investment research service to date. It’s so precise at picking winners we call it Maximum Profit. Save 60% on a one-year subscription by using it risk-free for 90 days. But you must hurry… this offer closes for good on Thursday  at 11:59 pm. The political saga is highlighted in the chart below. The iShares MSCI… Read More

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) the parent company of popular messaging app Snapchat, recently officially filed for its initial public offering (IPO). Calling itself a “camera company,” Snapchat, which boasts a private market valuation of $17.8 billion, has ambitious plans to raise some $3 billion from the offering — a figure which some analysts call merely a placeholder number for a far greater goal. Don’t Make Snap Decisions Estimates suggest this offering to value the company between $20 billion and $22 billion, according to MarketWatch. But should retail investors, who the company says will have no… Read More

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) the parent company of popular messaging app Snapchat, recently officially filed for its initial public offering (IPO). Calling itself a “camera company,” Snapchat, which boasts a private market valuation of $17.8 billion, has ambitious plans to raise some $3 billion from the offering — a figure which some analysts call merely a placeholder number for a far greater goal. Don’t Make Snap Decisions Estimates suggest this offering to value the company between $20 billion and $22 billion, according to MarketWatch. But should retail investors, who the company says will have no voting rights, buy into the IPO? Just as important, given the recent IPO lemons we’ve seen from the likes of GoPro (Nasdaq: GPRO) — another camera company — Snapchat investors must consider the bigger picture. #-ad_banner-#According to its recent filing, Snapchat has made considerable progress in terms of monetizing its core ephemeral photo- and video-sharing app, which had 158 million daily active users at the end of 2016 for an average of 2.5 billion “snaps” created per day. Aside from the ads posted on its photo-sharing platform, the company makes money from content created by third-party channels such as news… Read More

“This could be one of our best shots at a triple-digit return in 2017.” This was what I said at the start of this month. And it remains true. Despite a recent hiccup in the stock price, I still believe a rebound in uranium prices will propel my pick in… Read More