Hey Everyone a lot has been happening so it’s time for another financial update.
Now for my usual disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links. As an affiliate of Amazon, Tangerine, and Questrade this blog may receive a small commission for sales.
Oil Stocks Should Rise
Something crazy happened yesterday in Saudi Arabia. Iranian backed Yemeni rebels used drones to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil installations and infrastructure which damaged half of the country’s total oil output. This attack has disrupted 5% of the worlds total oil production.
That’s serious sh*t! It will most likely mean a regional war with Iran at some point which is not a good thing.
The attack couldn’t have come at a worse time as Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Government’s oil company which also happens to be the world’s largest, is just about to IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. How well do you think the IPO will go now…
To my mind, Canada stands to benefit from this Mid East Oil Crisis. In contrast to the regional instability and war that is the Middle East, Canada’s vast oil reserves are safe, secure and stable. Maybe global investors will once again wake up to this fact and breathe new life into Canadian energy stocks.
Over the past few months I’ve been buying shares in Suncor (SU) as the yield was 4.5% and the stock appeared undervalued ($38). I recently saw that Warren Buffett also re-initiated a stake in Suncor. We’ll see what happens when North American markets open on Monday.
Oh and speaking of markets…
Market Update
Well, what a difference a few weeks makes! In my last update (Aug 24), markets were in free fall with the trade war heating up and threats of new US tariffs and Chinese retaliation etc., etc.
Since that time both sides decided to take a breather…for now and the new tariffs are delayed. The markets absolutely loved the news and soared to record highs this past week!
If you were buying like I was then congratulations you picked up some deals! If you panicked and sold then too bad, you missed out.
Timing the market is a fool’s game. I have my portfolio of dividend stocks that I buy and I stick with it.
A case in point were my precious bank stocks. Throughout August and into September the talking heads kept saying don’t buy the banks, there are better places for your money. Now that the banks have rallied about 10% and are yielding a lot lower than they were, these guys are now telling us to buy them!
Whatever happened to buy low and sell high? The same thing happened with gold and utility stocks last year. The financial managers were telling us not to buy them and now that they’re hot we’re told to buy them.
My advice is to ignore the so-called professionals and do your own thing if it works for you.
I was caught off guard by the rally. I was hoping to do more buying this month with our extra cash. Now that the market’s gone up so much I think I’ll just put the extra cash on the mortgage.
Paying Off Debt
If I don’t have any great investment ideas, then my extra money goes towards paying down debt.
Judging by some recent articles I read on Yahoo Finance, I’m not the only person paying off debt. Overall debt in Canada fell slightly this year which means that Canadians are finally starting to pay off their debts.
Household debt levels were flagged as a major threat to the Canadian economy by the Bank of Canada for the last 10 years now. So hopefully this trend will continue and put household debt at more manageable levels.
Cheers! And have a great weekend everyone!
In case you’re wondering here are some financial services I use:
For my Daily banking and no-fee cash back credit card I use Tangerine. Curious? Check out my Tangerine vs Simplii Financial review and the Tangerine Money Back Credit Card Review.
For investing I use a combination of TD Waterhouse (for legacy investments) and Questrade (low cost stock purchases and free ETF purchases). If you haven’t done so already, check out my Questrade Review to see why it’s the best deal around.