Canadian stocks rated by Iain Fraser

Hamas--big trouble for oil

It is hard to imagine a turn of events that would be worse. The, mainly men, who are the leaders of the Hamas Party, vow to eliminate all Americans and all Jews; these same men have now been elected to Parliament in Palestine. They have a majority and will be the next government of that country.

There is bound to be a confrontation with Israel. Hamas is almost certain to turn to Iran for help, and will likely get it. Sanctions on Iranian oil are almost sure to follow. Under this scenario there is little liklihood of the price of crude going down.

A sitting duck !

We have three classes of undervalued stocks; moderately UV; substantially UV; excessively UV; and best of all "a sitting duck" A classic example of a sitting duck was Algoma Steel in August of 2004; at that time the stock was $13.00; estimated earnings were $7.00 per share; the est. cash flow was $10.00 per share and the est. book value was $20.00 per share; all of this was in our Report at that time. This was a sitting duck! The stock moved up to $40.00 in less than a year. In our Report last last month we thought Caterpillar was a sitting duck at $58.45; today it moved up to over $65.00. The ducks are doing well.

The Election

A few points to mention; it is about time we had a PM from the West; not many expected the PC's to get any seats in Quebec; as we see it Harper today is a differnt politician than he was a year and a half ago;  his public presence is now rather impressive; the scandals did Martin in; the divide between city and rural was always there but is now more pronounced; Harper is likely good for the stock market; this observer has voted many times (PC) and has never picked  a winning candidate; Harper was impressive in his acceptance when he went back and forth, from English to French, without missing a beat.

GM and Ford

In this observers opinion the better course of action would be for GM and Ford to follow the same steps as the U.S. airlines did. Go through a bankruptcy procedure but keep on making vehicles just as the airlines kept on flying. When GM and Ford come out of bankruptcy, like the airlines, they could make giant strides in earnings per share.

Top of trading range

In our Report of Jan.14/06 we showed the charts for the XIU's and the XFN's.  Both were at, or close to, the top of their longer term trading ranges. And now New York is down close to 200 points and Toronto is following suit.

It is astounding how the news fits the charts (the hidden hand).

Canadian oil stocks on the verge of a big breakout!

The i units for the energy sector is made up mainly of our leading oil and gas stocks. The XEG has been sideways for four to five months; and now it is within a whisker of breaking out on the upside; the technical expectation is for an upmove of at least 15%!

To get our latest Report on these energy stocks just email us at fraserratings@yahoo.ca

Sleepless in Seattle - prologue

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you are young at heart.

Words by Carolyn Leigh, sung by Frank Sinatra.

Sleepless in Seattle

After the football game this observer happened to catch the last half  of this movie made in 1993. A remake of Cary Grant's classic.

Sleepless in Seattle shows that Hollywood can still do it; wonderful story; great acting; clever script; idealistic; good humour; excellent diction; fantastic ending; and no crime, no violence, no sex, and no dirty language. We sometimes wonder if Hollywood is right in thinking that what sells like popcorn is a sreeching soundtrack, filthy words, explosions galore, and the theme that there is little box office appeal in being a good guy.

The doors at the Mall

One of our tests for quality of life is whether the person leaving the mall looks behind them, and holds the door open, or just lets it shut in their face. We have been doing this for many years in Toronto, Tampa, Florida; New York City; and London, England.

Twenty years ago London was easily the most polite, followed by Toronto.

But, times have changed. Our estimate today is that out of 100 people leaving the mall (or supermarket) in England 95 hold the door open; in Richmond Hill (Toronto) maybe 20; in Tampa maybe 15, and in New York, less than 10. Sad commentary.

Veterans of World War 1

In Great Britain there are 12 veterans of World War I still living.

Amazing!

When the last one passes away a huge State Funeral is planned.

Only in Britain.