Fixed income needs a fix + MORE Jul 28th

HALIFAX – Transcontinental Inc. says it’s shutting down a printing plant in the Halifax area, resulting in about 55 layoffs, by mid-August.
The company says it’s selling most of its commercial printing line of business operated from its plant in Dartmouth to Advocate Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., an independent printer and publisher in Atlantic Canada.
Jacques Gregoire, president of Transcontinental Printing, says the decision was made due to the shifting landscape for some commercial products.
Transcontinental (TSX:TCL.A, TSX:TCL.B) recently sold all of its newspaper assets in Saskatchewan and closed a printing plant in Saskatoon, though it has said its retail flyer operations remain stable.
The company says it will continue to serve its customers in Atlantic Canada for retail flyers, newspapers and some specific commercial products through its printing network, which includes Transcontinental Halifax, Transcontinental Prince Edward Island and Transcontinental St…

The recent Ant-Man movie featured a shrinking hero. Unfortunately, interest rates have also been shrinking and are now at historically low levels.
That’s why it’s high time to take a second look at the iShares Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF, which forms the core part of many fixed income portfolios. The exchange traded fund trades on the Toronto stock exchange under the ticker symbol XBB, is offered by BlackRock, and provides exposure to a broadly diversified selection of Canadian investment grade bonds. It’s a one-stop option for bond investors.
The fund’s annual fee (or MER) is relatively low at 0.33% when compared to actively managed bond funds. While it’s not the cheapest core Canadian bond ETF in the market these days, the fund remains wildly popular.
BlackRock reported that the fund’s weighted average yield to maturity was 1.78%, on a before-fee basis, on July 26, 2016. Take out the annual fee and the yield falls to about 1.45%.
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TORONTO – When people picture retirement, they may envision lying on a sandy beach with a mojito in hand or teeing off on a breathtaking golf course in Hawaii.
What they usually don’t consider is the alternative: being broke and struggling to pay the bills.
So how do you ensure you have enough money saved for the retirement of your dreams when you don’t know how long you will live?
The wisest advice, according to financial experts, is to budget conservatively because it’s always better to have some money when you die than no money while you’re still alive.
“Most people are living longer than their parents and their grandparents did,” said John De Goey, a certified financial planner and portfolio manager at Industrial Alliance Securities.
“A good baseline is that you need to plan to live until age 90.”
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Should you work part-time in retirement?
There are several factors that could also affect a life expectancy, including whether there is a family history of health problems and one’s gender…

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Stocks continued to search for direction Thursday as investors worked through another batch of mixed company earnings, including results from Facebook, Ford and Whole Foods.
Investors are looking ahead to a meeting of the Bank of Japan tomorrow which is expected to result in an announcement of more stimulus for the world’s third-largest economy.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average lost 38 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 18,434 as of 2:40 p.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose less than a point to 2,168 and the Nasdaq composite rose eight points, or 0.2 per cent, to 5,148.
LIKE: Facebook shares rose $1.42, or 1.1 per cent, to $124.75. The social networking company reported earnings that more than doubled from a year earlier, topping analysts’ views, as well as a 15 per cent rise in monthly users. However the shares had been much higher earlier in the session. Investors will get results from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and Amazon after the market close Thursday…

U.S. crude hits 3-month low again on reported Cushing build