European trade deal makes Canada’s carmakers even bigger losers in trade: report + MORE May 26th

Despite the widely held view that commodities are in the doldrums these days, prices for the commodities Canada exports have reached their highest levels since the recession, National Bank Financial says.That bodes well for Canada.

If you had the option to invest in a real estate company that paid no dividend versus one that did, what would you choose? You’d obviously pick the one that paid a yield. In today’s low interest rate world, high paying real estate investment trusts have done extremely well and a lot of people have bought in to get an income boost.
Since most real estate companies pay a dividend, it’s easy to lose sight of the one that doesn’t. It’s likely you haven’t heard of Mainstreet Equity Corp, a Calgary-based business that takes beaten down apartment buildings in Western Canada, fixes them up and then rents them out. It has no payout and it’s also not a REIT, so it doesn’t get as much attention as some of its peers.
However, a lot of analysts like this company because of its growth, which can be hard to come by in the REIT sector. Mainstreet has seen 14 consecutive quarters of double-digit year-over-year increases in funds from operations and net operating income. In the second quarter—results were released on May 13—it posted revenues of $21…

Spending on non-core parts of the company has contributed to disappointing share performance

OTTAWA – Canada’s free trade deal with Europe will almost certainly be a winner for some sectors, but Ontario’s automakers can expect the mostly one-way traffic in trade to worsen once the pact is implemented, according to a new study on the issue.
The report, authored by Jim Stanford, an auto industry economist with Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, calculates Europe’s $5.3 billion trade surplus in vehicles and parts last year — a record high — will balloon to more than $7 billion within a decade of the deal taking effect.
The damage could be far worse once the impact of the South Korean trade deal and potential pact with Japan are added in, says the study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“That would be a triple whammy,” Stanford said. “The fact you lose a few thousand units of volume of Cadillacs or Lexus or whatever isn’t a game changer, but if all those things combined change companies’ minds about the viability of Canadian plants at a time we are fighting tooth and nail for every investment we can win, then we will really have shot ourselves in the foot…

TORONTO – Some of the most active companies traded Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (14,715.69, up 7.59 points):
Eastern Platinum Ltd. (TSX:ELR). Miner. Down 0.5 cents, or 5.56 per cent, to 8.5 cents on 3.4 million shares.
Fortis Inc. (TSX:FTS.IR). Utilities. Down 45 cents, or 1.16 per cent, to $38.30 on 2.3 million shares.
Twin Butte Energy Ltd. (TSX:TBE). Oil and gas. Up two cents, or 1.04 per cent, to $1.94 on 2.2 million shares.
Coalspur Mines Ltd. (TSX:CPT). Miner. Down one cent, or 15.38 per cent, to 5.5 cents on 2 million shares.
Stornoway Diamond Corp. (TSX:SWY.R). Miner. Down two cents, or 2.70 per cent, to 72 cents on 1.9 million shares.
CAE Inc. (TSX:CAE). Industrials. Up 12 cents, or 0.81 per cent, to $14.90 on 1.8 million shares.
Toronto Venture Exchange (994.90, up 6.95 points):
ArPetrol Ltd. (TSXV:RPT). Oil and gas. Unchanged at 1.5 cents on 7.1 million shares.
Unigold Inc. (TSXV:UGD). Miner. Unchanged at four cents on 6…