Investments

P.M. market numbers: November 2, 2009

The Toronto stock market moved into positive territory mid-morning Monday as American economic data and a solid quarterly profit from Ford Motor Co. helped balance a downturn in tech heavyweight Research In Motion Ltd. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 44.3 points to 10,955.1. Fresh doubts about the strength of an economic recovery pushed the […]

By Staff |November 2, 2009

3 min read

P.M. market numbers: November 2, 2009

The Toronto stock market closed slightly lower Monday, extending last week’s steep losses loss despite good U.S. economic news and a solid profit report from Ford Motor Co. The S&P/TSX composite index fell 32.4 points to 10,878.35, with the market also weighed down by an analyst’s downgrade of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. The […]

By Staff |November 2, 2009

4 min read

Lack of liquidity is treacherous

Catastrophe in capital markets is always characterized by a lack of liquidity. No exceptions. Significant imbalances between buyers and sellers (widened bid-ask spreads) can create market gaps. Occasionally this happens to the upside but predominately it occurs on the downside. Take as examples what happened in October 1987, September 2001, and the fourth quarter of […]

By Mark Yamada |November 1, 2009

3 min read

Macquarie looks to shake up broker world

If Macquarie’s able to achieve what it has set out to do with the recently purchased Blackmont Capital – effectively create a boutique broker/advisor shop with an international deal flow – it could drastically alter the way brokers do business in Canada. The transactional nature of broker businesses have generally ridden out the storm much […]

By Mark Noble |November 1, 2009

5 min read