The new North American trading week began quietly on Monday May 28^th with the Canadian markets going it alone as their American counterparts were closed for the Memorial Day holiday.

The Bank of Montreal ‘BMO-T’ and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ‘CM-T’ both announced that computers hacks had potentially accessed some of their customers’ data.

CIBC Capital Markets estimates that the failure to get the country’s petroleum products to world markets has cost to Canada’s oilpatch over $12-billion in the past 5-years.

The Canadian Commissioner of Completion vetoed Corus Entertainment’s ‘CJR.B-T’ proposed sale of two French-language specialty television channels to media giant Bell Inc. ’BCE-T’.

Bombardier Inc. ‘BBD.B-T’ shares’ rose by over 4^% to $4.56 after the aircraft manufacturer announced the sale of an additional 60 CSeries CS300 jetliners to Air Baltic.

The American markets reopened to the downside on Tuesday, May 2^nd to which technical analysts David Tippin & Ron Meisels commented – “The markets are in good shape and upside potential is considerable.” (For a complete copy of this report please contact Rod.Blake@canaccord.com.)

After months of project uncertainty and in a final effort to see the Trans Mountain Expansion Project to completion – the Canadian Federal Government announced it was buying the Trans Mountain Pipeline system form Kinder Morgan Canada ‘KML-T’ for the tidy sum of $4.5-billion.

Soft commodity prices are rising. And with the price of chickpeas having risen to about $980-a-tonne in the past year – Canadian farmers are doubling the area of their chickpea crop this year to an 11-year high of 346,000 acres.

The World Energy Agency reports that the global number of electric vehicles rose by 54% in 2017 to 3.1-million units and is further estimated to grow to 54-million by 2030.

Wednesday, May 30^th had the Bank of Canada do as expected and kept the country’s key benchmark lending rate steady at 1.25^%.

Statistics Canada reported that – led by a drop in housing – the economy grew by a less than expected 1.3^% in the 1^st-quarter – down from 1.7^% in the same quarter one year ago.

Canada Goose ‘GOOS-T’ announced that the high-end outerwear company was expanding to China by opening two outlets in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Leucrotta Exploration ‘LXE-V’ shares’ climbed by over 5% to $2.00 after the petroleum company reported better than expected 1^st-quarter financials.

Thursday, May 31^st saw the trade disputes escalate to a state of war as the U.S. government announced import tariffs on aluminum and steel form Canada, Japan, the U.K., France, Italy and Germany. To which all of those counties announced reciprocal tariffs on American products coming into their countries.

British Columbia’s premier liquid natural gas ‘LNG’ project suddenly springs back to life after Malaysia’s Petronas announced it was coming back by taking a 25& interest in the          $40-billion LNG Canada project.

The Bank of Nova Scotia ‘BNS-T’ announced it was buying the Canadian Medical Association’s wealth management firm MD Financial Management for some $2.6-billion.

While Canadians seem to endlessly debate the morality of producing and shipping fossil fuels – The Energy Information Agency ‘EIA’ announced that American production of crude oil rose by 215,000 barrels-a-day-in March to a record 10.47-million barrels-a-day while their exports rose to a record 2.57-million barrels-a-day. Meanwhile, their production of natural gas reached a record 88.8-billion cubic-feet-per-day.

Friday, June 1^st had the U.S. Labor Department report that their economy created an additional 223,000 new jobs in May and that their unemployment rate fell by 0.1^% to an 18-year low of 3.8^%.

Baker Hughes ‘BHGE-N’ reported that the number of active American drilling rigs increased by just 1-rig last week to 1,060 active rigs. Meanwhile, the number of Canadian active drilling rigs rose by 18-rigs to 99 active drilling rigs.

DesRosiers Automotive Consultants reported that that the number of Canadian light vehicle sales fell by 0.7^% in May from the same month 1-year ago to 215,407 units. Across the border – Autodata reported that the number of American vehicles sold fell by 5.7^% in May to an annualized 16.91-million units.

Lululemon Athletica ‘LULU-Q’ shares surged up by 15^% to a record high of US$122.19 after the yogawear retailer impressed the street with its 1^st-quarter financials.

During the Week – Bombardier Inc. ‘BBD.B-T’ at $4.97, Canada Goose ‘GOOS-T’ at $53.22 and Toromont Industries ‘TIH-T’ at $59.38 all climbed to new TSX 52-week trading highs while Buhler Industries ‘BHI-T’ at $3.61, PrairieSky Royalty ‘PSK-T’ at $25.75 and Trevali Mining ‘TV-T’ at $1.01 all fell to new TSX 52-week trading lows.

For the Week – the Dow industrials fell by 0.48^% to 24,635, while the S&P 500 gained 0.48^% to 2,734 and the NASDAQ rose by 1.61^% to 7554. Up north – the TSX Composite Index fell by 0.20^% to 16,044 and the TSX Venture dropped by 1.16^% to 766.

With Commodities – gold bullion fell by 0.84^% to US$1,298, while copper rose by 0.32^% to US$3.09, as crude oil dropped by 3.39^% to US$65.58 and natural gas gained 0.34^% to US$2.97. Overall, the CRB Spot Commodity Index improved by 0.22^% to end the week at 446.

The Canadian dollar improved by 0.13^% against its American counterpart to finish the week at US$0.7718.

And the closely watched CBOE Volatility Index or VIX rose by 0.32-point to end the week at a little more nervous level of 13.54.

And Finally – Ford Motor Co. ‘F-N’ recently announced the giant automaker was going to discontinue the manufacturing of most of their low margin family sedans and focus on higher margin vehicles like sport utility, pick-up trucks and the very popular Mustang.

And Finally Finally – The Week is taking a break to go to the Okanagan for a little R & R. If all goes as planned – this publication will reappear on or about Monday, June 25^th.