The new North American trading week began on Monday, May 21^st with the Americans going it alone as the Canadian side enjoyed an extra day off for their annual Victoria Day holiday.

Husky Energy ‘HSE-T’ announced the company was taking an interest in two prospective Hydrocarbon drilling blocks in the Beibu Gulf area of the South China Sea.

Tesla Motors TSLA-Q’ shares’ fell by over 3^% to U$275.02 after the world’s leading electric car company announced braking issues for its new Modal 3 sedan.

Tuesday, May 22^nd saw the Turkish lira fall by 5.5^% to 4.9-lira to the US dollar on worries their central bank was unwilling to support the currency.

Nighthawk Gold ‘NHK-V’ shares’ fell by over 7^% to $0.50 after the company failed to impress investors with a metallurgical update on their Colomac heap leach gold project in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Recreational retailer Foot Locker ‘FL-N’ raised their guidance for the rest of 2018 as the revamping of their inventory mix was nearing completion.

The S&P reported that corporate share buybacks had increased by 34^% year-over-year in the 1^st-quarter to a record US$4-trillion.

Bill C-49 passed on Wednesday, May 23^rd which would allow foreign ownership of Canadian railways to increase from 15 – 25^% and foreign ownership of Canadian airlines to rise from 25 – 49^%.

Canada’s big six banks – Bank of Montreal ‘BMO-T’, Bank of Nova Scotia ‘BNS-T’, Commerce Bank ‘CM-T’, National Bank ‘NB-T’, Royal Bank of Canada ‘RY-T’ and Toronto-Dominion Bank ‘TD-T’ do what was expected and reported 1^st-quarter financials that met or beat analysts’ expectations.

General Electric ‘GE-N’ shares’ dropped by over 7^% to US$14.18 after the giant conglomerate sighted increased difficulties in opening new electrical power plants.

The price of PetroShale ‘PSH-T’ stock rose by almost 5^% to $2.36 after the petroleum producer reported better than expected 1^st-quarter financials.

Thursday, May 24^th saw the market cap of Netflix Inc. ‘NFLX-Q’ at US$152-billion rise above that of multi-media giant Walt Disney ‘DIS-N’. To put the streaming company’s growth into some perspective – it had market cap in 2014 of just US$20-billion.

Aecon Group ‘ARE-T’ shares’ plunged by over 15^% to $14.67 after the Canadian Federal Government vetoed a proposed takeover of the construction giant by China Communications Construction Co. ‘CCCC’.

The price of nLight Inc. ‘LASR-Q- soared up by 21.5% to US$6.44 after the semiconductor and fiber laser company impressed the street with its 1^st-quarter financials.

Best Buy ‘BBY-N’ stock dropped by 7^% to US$70.90 after the electronics giant reigned in its business forecast for the rest of 2018.

Friday, May 25^th had petroleum industry consultant Baker Hughes ‘BHGE-N’ reported that the number of active American drilling rigs rose by another 13-rigs last week to 1,059 active drilling rigs. Up north – the number of active Canadian rigs fell by another 2-rigs to just 81 active drilling rigs.

Northern Dynasty ‘NDM’T’ shares’ plunged by over 32^% to $0.61 after their strategic partner First Quantum Minerals ‘FM-T’ terminated its right to earn a 50^% interest in the giant Pebble copper/gold project in southern Alaska.

The price of Decker Outdoor Corp. ‘DECK-N’ stock rose by 3.5^% to US$107.34 after the retailer handily beat analysts’ with its 4^th-quarter financials.

The markets generally traded quietly leading into the American Memorial Day long weekend.

During the Week – crude oil rose to a new 3½ year high of US$72.35-a-barrel.

BRP Inc. ‘DOO-T at $55.45, Imperial Oil ‘IMO-T’ at $42.86 and Waste Connections ‘WCN-T’ at $97.96 all climbed to new TSX 52-week trading highs while Alimentation Couche-Tard ‘ATD.B-T’ at $52.08, Pizza-Pizza Royalty ‘PZA-T’ at $12.90 and ZCL Composites ‘ZCL-T’ at $9.58 all dropped to new 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – the Dow Industrials rose by 0.15^% to 24,753, with the S&P 500 up by 0.29% to 2,721 and the NASDAQ ahead by 1.09% to 7,434. To the north – the TSX Composite fell by 0.18^% to 16,047 and the TSX Venture was off by 0.39^% to 772.

With Commodities – gold bullion lost 0.46^% to US$1,303, with copper down by 0.65^% to UA$3.06, as crude oil fell by 1.81^% to US$66.65 as natural gas gained 1.01^% to US$2.99. Overall the CRB Spot Commodity Index was unchanged on the week at 444.

The Canadian dollar fell by 0.22% against its American counterpart to end the week at US$0.7691.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index eased lower by 0.20-point to finish the week at a little calmer level of 13.22.

And Finally – Gold Bugs may take some encouragement in that according to the World Gold Council – about two-thirds of the 190,000-tonnes of global gold holdings was mined after 1950.