Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) reported Tuesday that its third-quarter profits rose 18 per cent to $1.29 billion, helped by recent acquisitions and strength in its international division.
Canada
You’ve heard the refrain: Buy and hold.
The idea is that although stocks might be declining, you can’t determine how long the pain will last. And ultimately you want to have some money invested in stocks or stock funds so you are ready to catch one of the benevolent periods that invariably will arrive and make your money grow.
You might recall the last excruciating period. Stocks fell about 57 percent from late 2007 to early 2009. In March 2009, the recovery took investors by surprise and lifted the stock market about 70 percent into the next spring. That surge didn’t fix all the damage, but it sure helped.
Keep in mind, if you intend to live by the buy-and-hold motto, that doesn’t mean you have to hold on to everything. It means you don’t flee the stock market completely but don’t have to embrace a mutual fund that’s been unreliable. Funds vary. Some are more aggressive and can be extreme losers in down periods. Others are more defensive
JACKSON HOLE, WYO.
Delta Air Lines on Thursday confirmed its plan to buy 100 Boeing 737 jets as part of a fleet upgrade, with delivery set for 2013 to 2018.
The order announced Thursday is valued at $8.5 billion at list prices, although airlines commonly get discounts. The newer planes offer perks for travelers including a roomier cabin, less engine noise and more room in overhead bins. But they also have huge benefits for airlines because they are more efficient, require less maintenance and burn less fuel.
The 737-900 extended-range aircraft from Boeing Co. have a single aisle and up to 180 seats when set up with economy and first class. They have the range to fly on any of Delta’s current domestic routes. The 737-900 is the newest of Boeing’s popular 737 model.
Delta Air Lines Inc., which is based in Atlanta, said in January it was considering an order for as many as 200 jets _ possibly with options for 200 more _ to replace the aging fleet it uses for domestic flying. It said the timing of its delivery plan announced Thursday will allow it to keep its capital spending plan on target for this year. Keeping its costs under control is critical to its goal of reducing its debt over the next two years.
The new planes will replace Delta workhorses such as the DC-9-50s and Airbus A320s that it got when it bought Northwest Airlines in 2008, as well as Boeing 757-200s, which both airlines have operated paydayloans. The average age of Delta’s planes is 16 years. It has some Boeing planes that are less than two years old. But its DC-9s date back to the 1970s. They are the oldest commercial passenger planes flown today by a U.S. airline. Delta is the world’s second-largest airline, behind United Continental Holdings Inc. It has a total fleet of more than 700 planes.
Delta estimates that it will save between 15 and 20 percent in fuel and maintenance costs when it takes on the new planes. It is now more than halfway through a three-year, $2 billion plan to upgrade its fleet, facilities and technology.
The purchase is good news for Chicago-based Boeing, which lost its exclusive hold on American Airlines’ fleet last month. The airline, which is owned by AMR Corp., announced plans to split a massive order between Boeing and rival Airbus. It was the biggest plane order in history: 460 aircraft (260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing) with options to buy 465 more.
In morning trading, Delta shares fell 39 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $6.86. Boeing shares shed 64 cents to $61.05.
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Samantha Bomkamp can be reached at http://twitter.com/SamWillTravel
Oil rose above $85 per barrel Tuesday on encouraging economic news from Asia and Europe. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.02 to finish at $85.44 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price oil produced abroad, increased $1.08 to $109.44 per barrel in London.
Prices rose following reports of better-than-expected manufacturing activity in China and Europe. And stocks rose in the U.S. ahead of an expected announcement from the Federal Reserve on Friday to further stimulate the nation’s economy.
The positive news was offset by reports of more unrest in Libya’s capitol as the Gadhafi regime appeared near collapse.
An end to the country’s six-month rebellion would clear the way for oil exports to resume, but analysts cautioned that it will likely take more than a year for oil to begin flowing at levels that would affect prices.
“Crude from Libya is going to be a story for 2012 or 2013. Not today,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service fast cash loans.
Fighting during the last six months has all but stopped activity in Libya’s oil fields. The country previously supplied about 1.5 million barrels per day for world markets. That’s roughly 2 percent of daily global oil demand.
Meanwhile, U.S. gas pump prices rose Tuesday to a national average $3.572 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular is 86.4 cents more expensive than the same time last year.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 3.18 cents to end at $2.9425 per gallon and gasoline futures added 4.15 cents to finish at $2.8766 per gallon. Natural gas rose 10.4 cents to end the day at $3.993 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Stocks are opening sharply higher, breaking a four-week losing streak.
Many traders are looking ahead to a speech by Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, at an annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo. on Friday. Some analysts believe the Fed may make another move to help the flagging economy.
Lowe’s Cos. rose 1 percent in early trading Monday. The home improvement retailer said it will buy back up to $5 billion stock.
Stocks fell sharply over the past four weeks as traders worried the U saving account payday loan.S. might enter another recession.
Shortly after the opening of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 188 points, or 1.7 percent, to 11,005. The S&P 500 index rose 20 points, or 1.8 percent, to 1,144. The Nasdaq rose 50 points, or 2.1 percent, to 2,390.
When Don Boyes was driving up north last week, heading to a cottage where he had never been before, he brought along his iPhone.
Armed with an app that serves as a GPS device, he could manoeuvre all the right turns along the roads.
Suddenly at one point, where cellphone service became spotty, he lost his connection, and his directions. But Boyes, a senior lecturer in the geography department at the University of Toronto, wasn
More signs of economic weakness triggered a global sell-off in stocks Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 400 points in a return to the wild swings in the market last week.
In the United States, there were reports that more people joined the unemployment line last week than a week earlier, gasoline prices contributed to higher inflation and manufacturing slowed in the mid-Atlantic.
In Europe, bank stocks slid on worries about the region’s debt problems. In Asia, Japan’s exports fell for the fifth straight month.
The U.S. and European economies are “dangerously close to recession,” Morgan Stanley economists wrote in a report. “It won’t take much in the form of additional shocks to tip the balance.”
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 409 points, or 3.6 percent, to 11,001 at noon. The Dow was down by as much as 528 points about a half-hour into trading.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 46 points, or 3.9 percent, to 1,147. The Nasdaq composite fell 105, or 4.2 percent, to 2,406.
Last week was one of the wildest in Wall Street history. The Dow moved more than 400 points on four straight days for the first time.
But stocks had been relatively stable this week because investors were calmed by strong earnings reports. The Dow had fallen 76 points Tuesday and risen four points Wednesday _ the first time this month that the average rose or fell by less than 100 points on two straight days.
That ended Thursday. And with stocks down big, money flooded into U.S. Treasurys and gold, both considered safer investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note briefly fell below 2 percent for the first time, before recovering to 2.07 percent. Low yields show that investors are willing to accept a lower return on their money in exchange for safety. Demand for government debt has stayed high, and yields low, even after Standard & Poor’s stripped the United States of its top credit rating.
Gold rose $26.30 per ounce to $1,820.30 after earlier climbing to a record of $1,829.70. That’s up from $1,400 at the start of the year and more than double the price several years ago. The price of gold has set one record after another, with some investors looking for stability and others simply looking to cash in.
The Morgan Stanley economists cut their forecast for growth in developed economies this year to 1.5 percent from 1.9 percent. Over the past 20 years, growth for developed economies has been closer to 2.3 percent.
Among the disappointing U.S. economic news:
_ 408,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week, up from 399,000 the week before and the most in four weeks payday loans.
_ Inflation at the consumer level rose 0.5 percent in July, the highest since March. It had fallen 0.2 percent in June.
_ Manufacturing has sharply weakened in the Philadelphia region, according to a report from the Federal Reserve. Manufacturing had been one of the economy’s strongest industries since the recession ended in 2009, but its growth has slowed this year.
_ The National Association of Realtors said the number of people who bought previously occupied homes dropped in July for the third time in four months.
The fresh signs of economic weakness underscore the challenge for the Federal Reserve as it tries to help the economy with prices rising and the job market weak, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.
“Every time the economy got the sniffles, we had the Federal Reserve standing by with tissues,” Ablin said. “This time around, I think the box is empty, and we’re going to have to go through this alone. I think we can do it. It’s just not something we’re accustomed to.”
The Fed has already said it will keep short-term interest rates super-low into 2013. But the risk of further stoking inflation may keep it from taking additional steps, such as an additional round of massive bond-buying.
In the meantime, worries about European debt hang over the markets. A default by any country would hurt the European banks that hold European government bonds, plus American banks that have loans to their European counterparts.
“Europe is the big question in the market, and nobody really knows what happens from here,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James.
On Thursday, stocks in industries that depend on a growing economy fell the most. Industrial stocks in the S&P 500 fell 5.4 percent, technology stocks 5.1 percent and financial stocks 4.6 percent.
Crude oil fell $4.11 per barrel to $83.47 on worries that a weaker global economy will mean less demand. Falling prices for crude oil should work their way to the gas pump, though, and bring household budgets at least some relief.
Asian markets started Thursday’s drop. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.3 percent. South Korea’s Kospi stock index fell 1.7 percent, and India’s Sensex index fell 2.2 percent.
The declines extended to Europe. In London, the FTSE 100 index fell 4.5 percent after a report showed that growth in British retail sales slowed more than economists expected last month. Germany’s DAX index fell 6.5 percent.
The leaders of France and Germany said Wednesday that they want the heads of the eurozone countries to elect the president of a new “economic government” who would direct regular summits to respond to the continent’s financial crisis.
For many in the markets, the proposal fell short of hopes: a grand plan to save the euro and, in particular, a sign the eurozone was moving toward a single bond issued by the 17 countries.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel outlined their proposals in a letter to Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council. They said that they hoped Van Rompuy would get the job.
The two leaders, who met in Paris on Tuesday, called the twice-yearly summits “the cornerstone of the new economic government of the eurozone.”
However, heads of the eurozone governments already hold summits, though not regularly scheduled ones, under the chairmanship of Van Rompuy. The first was in 2008.
Sarkozy and Merkel also raised the politically sensitive issue of pensions, saying eurozone states should rapidly implement structural reforms, including changes in “retirement policy.” They did not elaborate.
As global stocks fell, shares in stock exchange operators were hit particularly hard on news the two leaders want to introduce a tax on financial transactions. Deutsche Boerse slid 3.7 percent and the London Stock Exchange Group PLC was down 4.7 percent. Merkel and Sarkozy said the two countries’ finance ministers would come up with a proposal by September that would be forwarded to the European Commission.
A transaction tax _ a small percentage taken from foreign exchange and share transactions, for instance _ has been proposed as a source of money to pay for bank bailouts. But European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet says it would only work if introduced globally. The U.S. is also against the idea.
Yusuf Heusen, senior sales trader at IG Index, said the news was hurting the shares. “It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that this is simply a proposal and there are many hurdles to be overcome, but without doubt it’s going to be squarely in focus in the weeks and months ahead.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the proposals would bring a “higher level of commitment” to efforts to stabilize budgets and fight debt payday loan online. Yet Wednesday’s letter seemed to back away from the boldest proposal Sarkozy had put forward a day earlier _ the creation of a eurozone economic government. The letter gave few details and described it primarily as a reinforcement of current policies.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told VRT radio the biannual summits would “absolutely not create an economic government,” and called the proposal window dressing.
A prominent opposition lawmaker in Germany was equally unimpressed.
“What has been proposed here isn’t a European economic government, but that Mr. Van Rompuy will be allowed to give an occasional report to Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy,” Juergen Trittin, a co-leader of the Greens’ parliamentary group, told Radio Eins.
Analysts said the proposals would do little to pull Europe out of its quagmire.
“It’s all very long-term stuff, which is why the outcome’s been quite disappointing,” said Jennifer McKeown, a European economist at Capital Economics. “It doesn’t address the current problems.”
She said Sarkozy and Merkel had avoided the only real solution: a close fiscal union in which struggling countries could receive aid quickly without long negotiations. The eurobond would be one likely outcome of a closer union and would allow weaker countries to borrow more cheaply since the bonds would be backed by the entire eurozone. It might, however, raise costs for a powerhouse like Germany.
Sarkozy and Merkel said Tuesday that a eurobond might eventually be created, but not in the near future. Eurobonds are viewed with suspicion in Germany, where critics say they would encourage other countries to continue running up debt.
Without such a move, the eurozone is doomed, said McKeown.
“The likely outcome is the eurozone ceases to exist,” she said, though the stronger core countries, like Germany, the Netherlands and France, might continue to band together.
Tempted to go bargain-hunting while the stock markets are still in flux? Here are a few tips to keep your portfolio from taking a hammering in the process:
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