A Glut Of Oil?

The world is awash in oil, I’m hearing. The problem is, it’s fairly expensive oil. Take for example Canada. The country has managed to increase its production of oil by a million barrels a day over the last decade. But almost all of that increase has come from oil sands. If you consider only conventional…

Holiday Spending Season Begins With Decline At Brick-And-Mortar O

There was much hope for America’s struggling brick-and-mortar retail outlets that was aided by plunging gasoline prices, Americans would come out in droves to chase Black Friday (and increasingly Thanksgiving) blockbuster deals on the ground across America’s increasingly troubled shopping malls and retail outlets. And while there was the usual hysteria on select occasions (see this…

Dividend Aristocrats In Focus Part 49: Colgate-Palmolive (CL)

Colgate-Palmolive (CL) is one of the largest publicly traded personal products companies. The company has a market cap of $63 billion which is large for the personal products industry; larger than Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark’s (KMB) $43 billion market cap, but significantly smaller than Procter & Gamble’s (PG) $244 billion market cap. Colgate-Palmolive has an extremely long dividend history. The…

Dollar Positive Investment Themes Set To Strengthen

    Throughout the last few months, we have identified three forces that are shaping the investment climate:  the economic and monetary divergence that favors the U.S., the decline in commodity prices, and a slowing of China. These forces remain very much intact, and if anything, have strengthened and reinforcing each other. The unexpected upward revision…

Why Small Businesses Need Agreements In Writing

Small businesses often capitalize on their less formal, more personal, approach to their customers and clients. While there is nothing wrong with this approach in general, it should not extend to business agreements and legal matters. On the contrary, a small business should insist on reducing all agreements to writing just like their larger counterparts…