The Week Ahead – August 3, 2009

The TSX is poised to show a 5% + increase for the month of July with less than 2 hours to go in the trading day while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up almost 9% for the month.
On the economic front next week, US ISM Manufacturing  numbers come out on Monday. US Pending Home [...]

Get Your Spousal Loan In Place While They’re Hot

When one spouse is in a much higher tax bracket than the other, one income splitting technique to help reduce taxes is to lend a lump sum of money to lower income earning spouse.
By having a formal lending agreement in place, the lower income spouse can start to generate income from the funds at a [...]

Buffett Hits Home Run with Goldman Sachs

A short eight months ago, the media was asking whether Warren Buffett, the worlds most astute investor according to many had lost his touch after placing large bets on Goldman Sachs through his investment fund, Berkshire Hathaway.
Goldman Sachs reported a record profit for the quarter as its stock has gone from a low of $47.41 [...]

Microsoft and Google Fight to the Finish

Google and Microsoft look to bury each other with damage to each being a certainty. Microsoft earns most of its revenue from two sources, Its Office software suite and Windows operating system licensing fees.
Google earns most of its revenues from paid search advertising. Both firms have been encroaching on each others territory and both will [...]

What to Look For in a Financial Advisor?

A Bernie Madoff type ponzi scheme reared its head in Canada this weekend with the discovery of $50 million in potential investor losses care of alleged financial advisor, Earl Jones. What was of extreme interest was that he was not registered as an investment advisor at all.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened [...]

The Week Ahead

It will be a busy reporting week on the economic front with month over month Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index numbers coming out early in the week.
Initial jobless claims and continuing claims are being reported Thursday while Housing starts and building permit numbers will be reported on Friday.
On the earnings front, not many [...]

General Motors IPO….Any Takers?

As GM gets ready to emerge from bankruptcy protection a  much leaner organization with less debt and less product lines, the largest shareholder, the US government and taxpayers, intend on getting some if not all of their money back  in 2010.
An initial public offering has been discussed for the middle of next year which would [...]