After an ever so brief reprieve the bears returned and once again started mauling the bulls during Wednesday’s trading session on the Canadian markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange plunged 5.32%, while the TSX Gold Index tanked 8.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 5.71% with the declining issuers outpacing the advancers by a 607 to 224 margin, on volume of 141 million shares traded. Going from the penthouse to the poorhouse, Teck Cominco (NYSE:TCK) is looking at several options to trim costs. A series of investments over the past two years has pushed the company from a cash-rich state to a cash poor one, with reports out that the diversified miner will cut its dividend, cut spending on development projects such as the Fort Hills oil sands, its Galore Creek copper project in British Columbia and its Petaquilla copper

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The China good feeling dissipates…  Currencies lose their edge…  Fannie Mae needs more!  Silver manipulation? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!OK… Well… All that build up yesterday about how the markets liked the sound of the Chinese announcement to inject $586 Billion worth of renminbi into their economy, dissipated early on in the NY market yesterday. As I left you the euro had climbed above 1.29 again, but ended the day around 1.2740… This is tied directly to the Trading Theme, and that’s all I have to say about that… Have a great day, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow…

HA! Had you there for a minute! The dollar rallied once again, when the deep, dark, dangerous clouds returned, and

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Monday November 13, 2008 Navivest

Standard & Poor’s is making changes to the S&P 500 and the S&P 400 MidCap. Following are details of the changes:

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) is replacing Ashland Inc. (ASH) in the S&P 500, Ashland will replace Lear Corp. (LEA) in the S&P MidCap 400, S&P MidCap 400 constituent DENTSPLY International Inc. (XRAY) will replace Hercules Inc. (HPC) in the S&P 500, and Bucyrus International Inc. (BUCY) will replace DENTSPLY in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading on Thursday, November 13.

Ashland will be acquiring Hercules in a transaction that will result in a company with a market value appropriate for the S&P MidCap 400, and which is expected to close on or about that date, pending final approvals. As of today’s close of trading Lear Corp. had a market value of approximately $129 million, ranking 400th in the S&P MidCap 400 index.

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Anybody listening to the markets today has likely heard “long-term horizon” more than once or twice. For the most part, long term is what most investors are planning for as they wait for a recovery to begin. With this in mind, thinking about companies that have a longer lead time to market may be a wise idea. The investment may appear less then wise at this point in time, but down the road it may become a play that turns profitable for those that got ahead of the curve.

Tamm Oil & Gas Corp., a development stage oil sand exploration and development company, works to discover and develop oil sand leases primarily in Canada. The company is currently working in the acquisition phase of its exploration process with several larger leases either signed for geological testing or in process.

Although the company is in the initial stages of its exploration program,

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Canada’s resource-rich economy is feeling the strain of tumbling commodity prices and falling demand in the US. And that’s bad news for the Canadian dollar. J. Christoph Amberger says the days of parity with the US dollar are long gone. He thinks it’s time to short the loonie.

This taken from Today’s Financial News:

With its main source export revenues plunging down over 50%, the outlook for the Canadian economy and the Canadian dollar is getting bleaker by the day.

Oil prices dropped once again after the U.S. government reported a 0.3% contraction in the U.S. economy in the third quarter.

Light, sweet crude oil for December delivery fell by$1.91 to $65.59 a barrel on the NYMEX. Overall, oil prices are now down 55% since the peak of $147 a barrel in mid-July.

Thanks to lower energy and resource prices and a surging dollar, yearly consumer inflation in the United States peaked at

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Oil prices have dropped 55 percent from their peak in July and they could go lower. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Cheaper gas and cheaper heating fuel allows you to spend more on things you really need – like your kids’ education or appliances.

Oil cost over $147 just three months ago. Now it is under $70. How low can oil go? How low should you want oil to go?

It should go much lower but don’t be too quick to rejoice. If prices fall further, the vast oil sands of Canada would become uneconomical. The tens of billions of barrels of oil lying under the deep waters of Brazil and elsewhere would cost too much to produce.

Oil first went down on weakening demand in the U.S. Then when it became apparent that de-coupling was a load

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I went tactically long of equities at the end of last week, expecting a sharp bear rally, and Monday's one day move, particularly in Japan (up 14%) and the US (up 11%) was what I might have reasonably expected for this whole week, so I've booked some profits. We're in a period of what veteran investor Barton Biggs has termed 'condensed lunacy'. The speed and scale of moves across asset markets are stunning, and in stocks we have seen nothing like this volatility since the huge swings during the 1929-33 Great Crash. This hasn't been a 'buy and hold' market for a very long time, as evidenced by the appalling returns generated by mutual funds over the last decade. So stepping back from the gut wrenching volatility, what's the big picture? We're still in a huge bear cycle for US equities. I wrote on 24 July that ...

BP Capital ManagementBP Capital Management | Boon Pickens HoldingsThis post is being written as part of HedgeFundBlogger.com's Investment Securities Tool which analyzes the holdings of hedge fund managers.With all the commotion surrounding energy these days, it never hurts to track an energy focused hedge fund ran by none other than Boone Pickens. If you are unfamiliar with Pickens, he is an energy maverick and his fund returned 300% in 2005. He is a big advocate of Peak Oil Theory and runs an energy-centric hedge fund based in Dallas, Texas. Although he typically holds numerous positions in oil, he is also big on alternative energy (except ethanol) and has numerous holdings there as well. He most recently advocated a large natural gas position and has additionally made a big bet on ...

What a wild day it was today. I published one Red-Hot Global Small Caps issue, one Red-Hot Commodity ETFs issue, and two Red-Hot Canadian Small-Caps Issues -- all of them trading issues. I also put out another update for my most recent oil report. So, I didn't have time to blog until the trading day ended. Here's what caught my eye today ...GOLDGold, Precious Metals Fall in New York as Investors Sell to Raise Cash Gold fell as investors sold commodities to raise cash and cover losses in other markets. Silver fell a two-year low and platinum dropped the most since at least 1986.

CRUDE OILOil at 7-month low on Wall Street woesOil prices settled at a seven-month low Tuesday as the meltdown on Wall Street pulled the oil market's focus to the economic slowdown that has already been

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In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, David Coffin, co-editor of the HRA (Hard Rock Analyst) Journal, advises investors to take a cautious, medium-term outlook until the metals sector regains its strength. With one of the best track records in the business, Coffin applies his encyclopedic knowledge of geology and mineral deposits to the selection of the best-looking prospects—and names his current favorites.

The Gold Report: Would you say gold is still in a correction or do you think it’s over? And what’s going on with the juniors? Why do they seem to be so unloved?

David Coffin: The juniors are unloved because we’re in a very risk-adverse market. There’s no reason to leave gold after this correction. Does that mean the price is going back up? There’s no guarantee. Volatility will prevail until we get financial stability both here and in Europe. We take a medium-term outlook with our …