Barack Obama: ‘Tonight, we turn the page’ + MORE Jan 21st

MONTREAL – The new owner of the Manchu Wok fast food franchise, MTY Food Group (TSX:MTY), is raising its quarterly dividend payment by 18 per cent.
Montreal-based MTY added Manchu Wok, SensAsian and Washabi Grill & Noodle to its extensive list of brands in a $7.9-million cash deal that closed in December.
MTY now has a network of more than 2,800 outlets that generate $1 billion in annual system sales.
Its new dividend rate of 10 cents per share, up from 8.5 cents per share, will be payable Feb. 13.
MTY chief executive Stanley Ma said in a statement Wednesday that the higher payout to shareholders will “in no way affect our growth strategy, including but not limiting to acquisitions and organic growth.”
The company’s announcement follows a recent report by market research firm NPD Group, which predicts a shift in consumer spending habits could slow growth in the fast-food industry to a crawl.
Traffic at Canada’s fast-food restaurants is forecast to increase by less than one per cent annually over the next five years, a “modest rate” that signals an era of more intense competition, the report said…

UnitedHealth’s fourth-quarter earnings rose nearly 6 per cent in a performance that topped Wall Street expectations, and the nation’s largest health insurer brought an optimistic vibe into the new year as it detailed final results from 2014.
The Minneapolis-based insurer’s CEO, Stephen Hemsley, said Wednesday in a statement that the company enters 2015 “with a positive outlook and rising business momentum.” That’s a contrast to how UnitedHealth started 2014, filled with worry about another round of funding cuts to a key business: Medicare Advantage plans, the privately run versions of the federal government’s coverage program for people who are over 65 or disabled.
Wednesday’s proclamation garnered strong early reviews from investors, who pushed the stock price higher before markets opened. Most investors have turned their focus to what lies ahead by the time companies report their fourth-quarter results.
UnitedHealth had said early last month that it expected double-digit earnings growth in 2015 and a smaller hit from the health care overhaul, the massive federal law that expands coverage to millions of uninsured people…

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(Mandal Ngan, AP Photo)
Text of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, as prepared for delivery and provided by the White House:
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice-President, members of Congress, my fellow Americans:
We are 15 years into this new century. Fifteen years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many.
But tonight, we turn the page.
Tonight, after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999. Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis. More of our kids are graduating than ever before; more of our people are insured than ever before; we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we’ve been in almost 30 years.
Tonight, for the first time since 9-11, our combat mission in Afghanistan is over…

Sliding commodity prices are straining the economies of resource-based provinces but at the same time providing an investment opportunity to reboot the country’s manufacturing sector