Uranium next to rally...Yes Buy EFR-TSX

EFR-TSX

2 week target .50 cents current price .33 cents

Shares Public Float: 76,482,602

52 week high= .71

52 week low= .11

Energy Fuels is an Ontario Corporation trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX - “EFR”). The principal business activity of the company is development and mining of uranium & vanadium property interests located in the States of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, and exploration activities to define and acquire additonal recoverable resources. Energy Fuels' wholly-owned US subsidiary, Energy Fuels Resources Corp. conducts these activities. To date, the Company has acquired property interests covering six former operating uranium mines. Since September 30, 2006, Energy Fuels has been aggressively pursuing the refurbishment of two formerly producing uranium/vanadium mines, along with the licensing of its 1000 tpd Pinõn Ridge uranium/vanadium mill, the first facility of its kind to be built in the US in over 25 years.

The Company continues to pursue opportunities to acquire additional property interests and to seek out other opportunities that create strategic value for the Company and its shareholders. Our land position, controlling in excess of 40,000 acres of BLM mineral claims and fee leases in highly prospective uranium provinces, and our proven ability to develop production from several historically producing uranium mines, puts Energy Fuels in a strong position to accomplish the mission set by our management team. With our established team of experienced uranium professionals, our mission is to build a fully integrated uranium and vanadium production company through exploration, development, mining, milling & sales, targeting primarily uranium properties which are immediately economic, on the Colorado plateau and the western United States.

Heres a cheap way to play...EFR-TSX

Energy Fuels Announces Additional DOE Lease Acquisitions, Positive Drilling Results, and Grant of Options

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 30, 2009) - Energy Fuels Inc. (TSX:EFR) ("Energy Fuels" or the "Company"), has been informed by the Department of Energy (DOE) that the Company has been awarded two additional DOE lease tracts (C-AM-19-A and C-AM-20) released for bid in the May 2008 DOE lease sale. These tracts are in western Montrose County, Colorado, (within the Uravan Mineral Belt) about 30 highway miles from the Company's Pinon Ridge Mill site currently being permitted.

Based on pre-bid public information provided by DOE in February of 2008, these two tracts combined contain about 2.3 million lbs. of historical resource (not NI 43-101 compliant) in a region of well developed historical mining by Union Carbide Corporation. The DOE data was from an estimate originally prepared by the Atomic Energy Commission (or AEC, predecessor of the DOE), based on US Geological Survey and AEC drilling conducted during 1951 - 1953. AEC/DOE do not apply resource categories or qualifiers. After 1974, private lease holders on these two tracts drilled another 367 holes. The Company has yet to acquire data from the private drilling.

Energy Fuels has also initiated its 2009 drilling program on other Uravan Mineral Belt properties held by the Company in western Colorado. Much of this drilling budget will be applied to exploring DOE leased tracts obtained as announced in May 2008 following the same DOE lease sale referenced above.

Early drilling on the Henry Claim Group in the Club Mesa area encountered a highly mineralized intercept of 4.5 feet with a grade of 0.33% U3O8. Historical data from this area indicates the potential for a V2O5 / U3O8 grade ratio of about 5:1. Drilling is continuing on this claim group and will progress onto the adjacent DOE lease block, (C-CM-24).

Drilling should begin in about 60 days on the HC Claim Block and the contiguous C-G-26 DOE lease, both of which are located on Calamity Mesa. This drilling has been planned utilizing the data on the DOE lease obtained by Energy Fuels as announced February 23, 2009, and is planned to develop additional resources with infill drilling.

Additionally, Energy Fuels has granted 850,000 options for a term of five years to employees, officers, and consultants to the Company.

Stephen P. Antony, P.E., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the content of this press release.

Energy Fuels Inc. is a Toronto-based uranium and vanadium mineral development company actively rehabilitating and developing formerly producing mines. With more than 55,000 acres of highly prospective uranium and vanadium property located in the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, and New Mexico, and exploration properties in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin totaling almost 50,000 additional acres, the Company has a full pipeline of additional development prospects. Energy Fuels, through its wholly-owned Colorado subsidiary, Energy Fuels Resources Corporation and its recently acquired Magnum Uranium subsidiary, has assembled this property portfolio along with a first class management team, including highly skilled technical mining and milling professionals based in Lakewood and Nucla, Colorado and Kanab, Utah.

This news release contains certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and "Forward Looking Information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements and forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time with the British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario Securities Commissions.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Energy Fuels Inc. Gary Steele Investor Relations (303) 974-2147 or Toll free:  1-888-864-2125

Pescod says this about NatGas

NATURAL GAS

As one of the few commodities to have yet have a

good run as the world economies seems to be appear-

ing, natural gas continues to be the center of debate.

Some are expecting a short-term rally, others are

thinking this could be the winter that Santa Claus visits

the natural gas patch and many others figure that this

winter will be a write-off—that there is too much gas in

inventory and it will be next winter before natural gas

prices and gas stocks take flight from ultra-depressed

levels.

We caught up with Doug Bartole last Friday as he is

on one of those IR trips, trying to get the Vero Energy

story out there and we have to mention that Vero is one

of those companies much admired for their management

skills, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have debt and

concerns about gas prices either.

We own a bunch, hoping that sooner or later gas

does recover and Bartole e-mails us these comments

about natural gas:

“I always thought we would see a rally in the stocks

not the gas price in the fall as the market should look

forward. Natural Gas is one of the only commodities that

haven't ran. As we have known for months we would

end injection season at the highest storage levels ever.

We are now getting close to that time. Still going to have

some volatility and short term pain but still optimisti-

cally bullish that it will turn in 2010.

If that is confusing

then welcome to natural gas lately. Supply is continuing

to drop and rig counts are still low and not increasing on

any relevant basis.

Next is winter, even if normal I think we get back in

the $6 for 2010. It goes higher if colder and lower if

warmer. The good thing is we are optimistic because

the incentives out there from the government are phe-

nomenal and Vero will show good growth even at $5. So

that is why we are in plan mode for a potential aggres-

sive program and have more jump in our step than we

have in a while.”

Further Proof Of The Ongoing Sucker rally In Nat gas :ITX Running In spite Of Being Dropped By S+P/TSX

Iteration Energy deleted from S&P/TSX SmallCap

2009-09-11 21:05 ET - Miscellaneous

Standard & Poor's Canadian index operations have made index changes as a result of the quarterly S&P/TSX Composite Index review. These changes will be effective at the open on Monday, Sept. 21, 2009.

Changes to the S&P/TSX Composite Index will also affect the S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index. Stocks added to or removed from the S&P/TSX Composite Index will also be added to or removed from the appropriate global industry classification standard (GICS) sector index.

S&P/TSX SMALLCAP INDEX -- SEPTEMBER, 2009,
ANNUAL REVIEW, DELETIONS

Issue name Symbol

Iteration Energy Ltd. ITX

Company additions to and deletions from an S&P index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.

Dee + QEC House Buy/Sells

Anonymous Dumps 10x Buys QEC Shares

Natural gas prices to continue rise, says analyst By MARKUS ERMISCH, SUN MEDIA

Natural gas prices are on an upward trajectory that can likely be sustained into the winter and the new year, says a Calgary energy analyst.

Benchmark natural gas prices rose by 13% yesterday, as the NYMEX natural gas futures for October delivery closed at $3.30 per thousand cubic feet.

"It's recovering," said Peter Linder, noting he expects natural gas prices to continue rising for the remainder of this year and into 2010.

"I'm 99% certain the doomsday prophets are wrong," he said.

Several factors have been pushing natural gas from prices below $3 to current levels, Linder said.

One reason are that hedge funds, anticipating more stringent regulations of commodities markets in the U.S. are buying back their gas contracts.

Another reason is that traders are short-covering, which means they are speculating prices will rise.

But there are also more fundamental changes underway, Linder said: low drilling levels in North America, and the associated drop in production, are gradually having an impact.

Source

The approach of the heating season is another factor.

"People are recognizing that fundamentally, gas can stay so low for only so long," Linder said.

A recovery of Alberta's natural gas sector, however, also hinges on whether the province will further tweak its royalty regime to spur drilling.

"I think all this pessimism within this province will dissipate next year, subject to our premier putting out a reasonable, proper fiscal regime," Linder said.

Alberta's government is currently examining how the province's competitiveness in terms of taxation, regulation and royalties compares to other provinces.

MARKUS.ERMISCH@SUNMEDIA.CA

And This:

Natural gas prices posted significant increases at all market locations since last Wednesday, September 2. The Henry Hub spot price increased 47 cents from the previous Wednesday’s price of $2.25 per MMBtu. However, intraweek trading was volatile, with natural gas prices falling below $2 per million Btu (MMBtu) at the Henry Hub on Friday, September 4 and rising to $2.72 per MMBtu yesterday.


At the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the price of the near-month natural gas contract for delivery in October 2009 rose by 11.4 cents to $2.829 per MMBtu, an increase of about 4 percent from the previous week’s level of $2.715. While the price of the near-month contract also fell lower during the week before rebounding, price changes in the near-month contract during the report week were much less pronounced than they were in the spot market.


As of Friday, September 4, working natural gas in storage was 3,392 billion cubic feet (Bcf) following an implied net injection of 69 Bcf.


The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil contract ended trading at $71.27 per barrel yesterday, an increase of $3.24 or about 5 percent, from the previous Wednesday’s price of $68.03 per barrel. On a heat-content basis, the oil price settled yesterday at $12.29 per MMBtu.


The natural gas rotary rig count increased by 2 to 701 as of September 4, according to data Baker Hughes Incorporated released, marking the seventh consecutive weekly increase in the rig count. The total rig count, which includes oil and miscellaneous rigs, also rose by 10 to 1,009.

Despite increases during the week, natural gas prices were very volatile, reaching lows not seen in seven years. Natural gas prices varied significantly during the report week, with prices at the Henry Hub in Erath, Louisiana, falling below $2 for the first time in more than 7 years and its lowest level in nearly 8 years. On September 4, heading into the Labor Day weekend, prices at the Henry Hub closed at $1.84 per MMBtu, the lowest level since December 6, 2001.

Following the long weekend, the spot price at the Henry Hub rebounded by 59 cents or 32 percent, closing at $2.43 per MMBtu on Tuesday, September 8. By the close of the report week, prices gained another 29 cents, closing at $2.72 per MMBtu. Over the week, changes in prices in the lower 48 States ranged between 33 cents and 65 cents, with no locations showing a decrease. However, prices remain at historical lows. EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook projects an average September price of $2.35 per MMBtu at the Henry Hub, as moderate temperatures and robust supply push prices lower.

Prices throughout the country mirrored the pattern at the Henry Hub. Prices at most market locations fell below $2 per MMBtu on Friday, September 4. However, the exceptions to the below $2-price level occurred in the Northeast and Western United States. Natural gas at California locations generally traded above $2, with the Pacific Gas & Electric Citygate recording the highest price of $2.63 on Friday. Some trading locations in the Rocky Mountains - where prices generally are lower than other areas in the lower 48 States—remained above $2 per MMBtu on Friday. Prices generally rose in trading since Friday.

Despite large increases during the report week, prices remain at historical lows. During the past few weeks, prices at the Henry Hub have been below $3 per MMBtu, levels which have not been seen since August 2002. Prices at most trading points in the lower 48 States closed below $3 on Wednesday, with exceptions in the Northeast, Florida, and California. Prices are highest at the Florida Gas Transmission Citygate trading area, increasing by 65 cents to $3.35 per MMBtu during the report week, likely as a result of temperatures in the 80s.

Source

Private Placement, Petrolifera now has 121,758,510 Common Shares

Petrolifera Petroleum announces closing of private placement

cnw






<<
/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR
DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/
>>






CALGARY, Sept. 15 /CNW/ - Petrolifera Petroleum Limited ("Petrolifera" or the "Corporation") (PDP - TSX) announces that it has closed a non-brokered private placement of 1,137,500 units ("Units") at a price of $0.88 per Unit to directors and officers of the Corporation for gross proceeds of $1,001,000 (the "Private Placement"). Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Corporation (each, a "Common Share") and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant of the Corporation (each whole Common Share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share (each a "Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $1.20 per Warrant Share at any time up to 5:00 pm (Calgary time) on August 28, 2011. In the event that the 20-day volume weighted average price of the Common Shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange (or such other stock exchange or quotation system on which the Common Shares are listed and where a majority of the trading volume occurs), exceeds $2.50, the Corporation may, within five business days after such an event, provide notice to the holders of Warrants ("Warrantholders") of early expiry and thereafter the Warrants will expire on the date which is 30 days after the date of the notice to the Warrantholders.


The Units offered pursuant to the Private Placement were issued on the same terms as those offered pursuant to the recent public offering (the "Public Offering") by the Corporation of 56,820,000 Units and 8,523,000 Units upon the exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option, as previously announced on August 28, 2009 and September 4, 2009, respectively.


The net proceeds of the Private Placement will be added to the proceeds from the Public Offering and will be used to fund a portion of the Corporation's exploration capital expenditure program, primarily in Colombia during the balance of 2009 and into 2010, to reduce indebtedness relating to the Corporation's reserve-backed credit facility and for working capital.


After giving effect to the Private Placement, Petrolifera now has 121,758,510 Common Shares and 33,240,250 Warrants outstanding.

Pescod sees this Nat Gas Rally As Buyer Beware

We wrote just last week about what next for natural gas, according to Bob Hoye and his team at Chart Works that had predicted a natural gas rally on September 2nd,and they’ve certainly gotten it.

However, they are look-ing for a ten to 12 day event, followed by something that might not be a lot of joy in the natural gas sector.

We caught up with Bobby Lamond, the Calgary vet-eran and long-time player in the natural gas sector whohas spent much of the last year sending people chartsand warning everyone about how ugly it could get in thissector.

When we caught up with him on Friday, he says,“it’s been the perfect storm for natural gas” over the lastyear. “Anything that could go wrong” he says, “hadgone wrong” and he has never seen a worse time for the natural gas sector.

Click Here For The Entire Article

QEC Running Up In Nat Gas Pump Up By Brokerages

Questerre's Utica has up to 4.28 tcf, says NSAI report

2009-09-01 06:19 ET - News Release

Mr. Anela Dido reports

QUESTERRE UTICA SHALE DISCOVERY ASSESSED AT OVER 4 TCF

Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc. (NSAI), an independent reservoir engineering firm based in Texas, has estimated the prospective original gas in place for Questerre Energy Corp.'s Utica shale in the deep fairway in the St. Lawrence Lowlands at 150 billion cubic feet per square mile, which is 66 per cent higher than earlier industry figures. NSAI has further estimated Questerre's prospective recoverable resources to range between 2.2 trillion cubic feet to eight trillion cubic feet with a best estimate of 4.28 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 360 million to 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Michael Binnion, president and chief executive officer of Questerre, commented: "We are very pleased the report confirms the significance of our discovery in Quebec. This is the first time we have released estimates of our Utica gas discovery.

"We took time to ensure there is significant and material technical data to support them and we have had them independently verified by a highly reputable engineering firm. The estimates relate only to our lands that have geology validated by successful wells. The independent estimates are materially higher than past industry figures which we believe reflects the additional data, technical work and advancement on the learning curve."

The company commissioned NSAI to complete an evaluation of the resource potential of the Utica shale. Using its extensive expertise evaluating other established and emerging shale plays, the evaluation includes detailed petrophysical and geologic analysis, including a review of the available core and lab analysis data. Preliminary results have been prepared in accordance with the regulations pursuant to National Instrument 51-101, standards for disclosure for oil and gas activities of the Canadian securities administrators.

The evaluation is focused on the acreage between the two main geological features, the Yamaska growth fault and Logan's Line, where Questerre holds approximately 833,000 gross acres in the deep fairway. Preliminary results include:

• Prospective original gas-in-place (OGIP) volumes for the Utica shale range between 96 billion cubic feet to 210 billion cubic feet per square mile with a best estimate of 150 billion cubic feet per square mile.
• Total prospective OGIP volumes for Questerre's gross acreage are between a low estimate of 82.7 trillion cubic feet to a high estimate of 180.5 trillion cubic feet with a best estimate of 129.2 trillion cubic feet.
• Prospective resources estimated to be recoverable for Questerre's interest range from 2.18 trillion cubic feet to eight trillion cubic feet with a best estimate of 4.28 trillion cubic feet.

The assessment is being updated to include results from the recently completed St. Edouard No. 1 well that tested at rates of 700,000 cubic feet per day from the target middle Utica interval. A final report is expected this fall. The estimates do not include the gross overriding royalty held by Questerre nor an assessment of the shallower Lorraine interval.

OGIP is not a defined term within National Instrument 51-101 and is considered equivalent to petroleum initially in place (PIIP).

We seek Safe Harbor.

Brokers Running Dee Up During Financing- Sucker Rally

Delphi Energy arranges $15-million financing

2009-09-09 17:33 ET - News Release

Mr. David Reid reports

DELPHI ENERGY ANNOUNCES FINANCING

Delphi Energy Corp. has entered into a financing agreement with a syndicate of underwriters, led by National Bank Financial, to issue and sell, on a bought-deal basis, 12 million common shares of Delphi at an issue price of $1.25 each, resulting in gross proceeds of $15-million. The underwriters will have the option to acquire up to an additional 1.2 million common shares at an issue price of $1.25 per common share for additional gross proceeds of up to $1.5-million for total gross proceeds of up to $16.5-million. Proceeds of the offering will be used to finance Delphi's continuing light oil development program in Hythe and additional potential acquisition opportunities. The offering is subject to normal regulatory approvals, including approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Closing is expected to occur on or before Sept. 30, 2009.

We seek Safe Harbor.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Shannon Stapleton/Reuters On anniversary of Lehman collapse, author of The Black Swan can say 'I told you so'

On anniversary of Lehman collapse, author of The Black Swan can say 'I told you so'

Margaret Wente

Originally published on Sunday, Sep. 13, 2009 11:09PM EDT">Last updated on Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2009 02:57AM EDT

On the anniversary of the spectacular collapse of Lehman Brothers, Nassim Nicholas Taleb is one of those people who can say, “I told you so.” For the past decade, he's been warning that the global economy has become far more vulnerable to unpredictable events that can cause vast disruption. He famously foresaw the credit crunch that brought the financial system to its knees.

Mr. Taleb is a Wall Street derivatives trader who became an academic specializing in the study of randomness and probability. In May of 2008 he published The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. It argued that most economists and bankers live in a dangerous fantasy world in which they imagine they can control the future. The book takes its name from the fact that all swans were once believed to be white – until black swans turned up in Australia. He loathes bankers, central bankers, and economists, not necessarily in that order, and thinks that banks should be run like public utilities. “My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves and the quality of their knowledge too seriously,” he says. He has advised British Conservative Leader David Cameron, and last week testified before the U.S. Congress on the financial crisis.

Mr. Taleb will speak Tuesday in Toronto to kick off the new season of the Grano lecture series. The theme of this season's series is risk and the next global crisis. Margaret Wente caught up with him on Friday to ask him what (if anything) we've learned.

Margaret Wente: Happy days are here again. The central bankers say the recession is over. The markets are buoyant. Can we relax?

Nassim Taleb: Not at all. Central bankers have no clue. In the first place, the financial crisis was not a black swan. It was perfectly predictable. They ignored the phenomenal buildup in leverage since 1980. They acted like airline pilots who'd never heard of hurricanes.

After finishing The Black Swan, I realized there was a cancer. The cancer was a huge buildup of risk-taking based on the lack of understanding of reality. The second problem is the hidden risk with new financial products. And the third is the interdependence among financial institutions.

MW: But aren't those the very problems we're supposed to be fixing?

MT: They're all still here. Today we still have the same amount of debt, but it belongs to governments. Normally debt would get destroyed and turn to air. Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both should suffer. But the government is socializing all these losses by transforming them into liabilities for your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. What is the effect? The doctor has shown up and relieved the patient's symptoms – and transformed the tumour into a metastatic tumour. We still have the same disease. We still have too much debt, too many big banks, too much state sponsorship of risk-taking. And now we have six million more Americans who are unemployed – a lot more than that if you count hidden unemployment.

MW: Are you saying the U.S. shouldn't have done all those bailouts? What was the alternative?

NT: Blood , sweat and tears. A lot of the growth of the past few years was fake growth from debt. So swallow the losses, be dignified and move on. Suck it up. I gather you're not too impressed with the folks in Washington who are handling this crisis.

Ben Bernanke saved nothing! He shouldn't be allowed in Washington. He's like a doctor who misses the metastatic tumour and says the patient is doing very well. The first thing I would tell Chinese officials is, how can you buy U.S. bonds as long as Larry Summers is there? He's a textbook case of overconfidence. Look what happened to Harvard's finances. They took a lot of risk they didn't understand, and it was a disaster. That's the Larry Summers mentality.

MW: You argue that globalization and modern technology have made the world financial system far more fragile than ever before. How?

NT: Globalization and the Web create worldwide mass effects, whether positive or negative. We have planetary fads that cause random variables to have bigger spikes than ever before. Variables that used to move 10 per cent now move 30 per cent. The whole planet can pull its money out on the same day. The Internet is what bankrupted Iceland! You in Canada destroyed things with your BlackBerry.

MW: You also say that competition among big companies is the Achilles heel of capitalism. What do you mean by that?

NT: If you make corporations compete, sometimes the one that appears most fit for survival is really the one that is most exposed to the negative black swan. What happens is that if you make $4 a share but you're betting the ranch, like GE, the analysts will love you. But if you make only $2 a share with no risk on your book, they'll say you're not doing well. All the incentives are perverse.

MW: We here in Canada feel pretty good because our banks are in good shape and we've escaped relatively lightly. What's your take?

NT: That's true. You guys are slightly more insulated than others. But there's no way you can escape the mistakes made by others. They'll just cost you somewhat less. But if we wind up with hyperinflation, Canada will be the best place in the world to be. You've got energy and minerals. You're not overspecialized. You're self-sufficient.

MW: Up here our government is promising we can get rid of our deficit by 2015. Any views on that?

NT: Governments never got projections right before, so why should they now?

MW: So if everyone is still on the wrong track, what's the right track?

NT: My whole idea is to lower risk in society by developing a system that can resist human error, rather than one where human error rules. The first step is to make sure that no financial institution is too big to fail. Next, make sure governments don't favour big companies. Governments should also decrease the role of economists – they're no more reliable than astrologers, and they do more damage.

MW: Now that you've painted such a rosy outlook, do you have any advice on how individuals can guard against losing 40 per cent of their money in this extremely risky world?

NT: My advice is that instead of investing in medium-risk securities, you should put most of your money in very low-risk securities, and a little bit in high-risk securities. Then you might get a good black swan. Also, it's good to have more than one profession, in case your own profession goes out of style. A Wall Street trader who's also a belly dancer will do a lot better than a trader who winds up driving a taxi.

With mortgage rates dropping, it’s strategy time

Mortgage broker Robert McLister says variable-rate mortgages won’t fall to pre-crisis lows any time soon

It was a little less than a year ago that the global financial crisis began to hit home, which is to say that mortgage rates spiked higher.

Now, the cost of mortgages is coming down. If you're buying a home or renewing a mortgage, it's time to review your options.

Fixed-rate mortgages declined a little last week, but the most dramatic changes can be seen in variable-rate mortgages. For the first time in almost a year, it's possible to get a variable-rate mortgage at the prime rate used by most major financial institutions, which is currently 2.25 per cent.

Pre-crisis, variable-rate mortgages came with discounts that ranged from 0.75 percentage points to as much as 0.9 points off prime. By late last fall, crisis conditions prompted lenders to start charging prime plus a full percentage point or more. Now, some lenders are starting to unwind their crisis-rate premiums.

“Variable-rate mortgages are all over the map right now,” said Gary Siegle, regional manager with the mortgage brokerage firm Invis Inc. in Calgary. “We're seeing them right in the area of prime with some lenders.”

An example of a variable-rate mortgage at prime: ResMor Trust, a small player that deals through mortgage brokers, is offering four-year variable-rate mortgages at prime in all provinces except Quebec. The catch: You have to have your mortgage approved by Sept. 30 and close the purchase within 45 days.

Can variable-rate mortgages fall back to their pre-crisis lows any time soon?

“Definitely, 100 per cent, no,” said Robert McLister, a mortgage broker and author of the Canadian Mortgage Trends blog (canadianmortgagetrends.com). “Could they get a little below prime? Definitely.”

Canadian household wealth rebounds

For the first time in three quarters, Canadian household net worth grew, reflecting stock market gains; use of credit also increased, but this was more than offset by asset growth

Virginia Galt

Globe and Mail Update Last updated on Monday, Sep. 14, 2009 01:42PM EDT

Canadian households were wealthier in the second quarter of this year after losing ground in the three previous quarters, with stock market gains leading the recovery, Statistics Canada said Monday.

Household net worth advanced by $141-billion to $5.6-trillion.

“Canadian stock markets recovered partially in the second quarter, with the S&P/Toronto Stock Exchange composite index up nearly 20 per cent,” Statscan said.

“The resulting increase in the value of household financial assets (including shares, mutual funds and pension assets) was the principal factor behind the rise in household net worth,” Statscan wrote in a report on national balance sheet accounts.

The use of credit also rose more quickly in the quarter, with notable borrowing for mortgages as resale housing markets picked up, and an upswing in consumer credit as car sales increased.

“Despite the growth in credit market debt, households' debt relative to net worth edged down during the second quarter, as gains in assets more than offset the increase in liabilities,” Statscan said.

Households had 24.8 cents of debt for every dollar of net worth, compared with 24.9 cents in the first quarter.

On balance, “this was a positive report as it suggests that, with the worst of the economic and financial crises now behind us, Canadian householders are beginning the slow process of repairing the damage done to their balance sheets,” Toronto-Dominion Bank economist Millan Mulraine said in a research note.

“Moreover, with the recession appearing to have come to an end, we are likely to see further improvement in households' net worth in the coming quarters as the economy grows,” Mr. Mulraine said.

He noted that, despite the improvement in the second quarter, household net worth remains 6.1 per cent below its peak of $6-trillion, reached in the second quarter of 2008.

Although household net worth increased, Statistics Canada reported that net worth of corporations fell by $208-billion in the second quarter.

In the public sector, government levels of debt rose in the second quarter to 39.8 per cent of the economy from 38.3 per cent in the previous three months and from 36 per cent last year.

With a file from The Canadian Press

Its almost over, a natural gas rally on September 2nd

We wrote just last week about what next for natural gas, according to Bob Hoye and his team at Chart Works that had predicted a natural gas rally on September 2nd,and they’ve certainly gotten it. However, they are look-ing for a ten to 12 day event, followed by something thatmight not be a lot of joy in the natural gas sector.We caught up with Bobby Lamond, the Calgary vet-eran and long-time player in the natural gas sector whohas spent much of the last year sending people chartsand warning everyone about how ugly it could get in thissector. When we caught up with him on Friday, he says,“it’s been the perfect storm for natural gas” over the lastyear. “Anything that could go wrong” he says, “hadgone wrong” and he has never seen a worse time for thenatural gas sector.

Click Here For The Entire Article

Globe says Barrick, others show deal making is back

Globe says Barrick, others show deal making is back

2009-09-14 07:26 ET - In the News

See In the News (C-ABX) Barrick Gold Corp

The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that deal making is back. The Globe's Boyd Erman and Tara Perkins write revitalized capital markets allowed a sudden burst of major financings last week, on top of continued rallies in equity and debt markets. Canadian companies, led by Barrick Gold and Fairfax Financial, raised nearly $5.9-billion by selling stock -- more than in any other week in history. Thanks to a receptive credit market, energy giant EnCana revived its plan to split into two companies, which requires $5-billion in loans.

Long-dead initial public offerings are once again doable, with Montreal retailer Dollarama filing to go public in a transaction expected to raise $250-million. The corporate financing resurgence has a more sober, purposeful tone compared with the capital casino that underpinned the credit bubble.

Compton Petroleum raised $172-million Friday. The flurry of deals is not likely to end soon, said Paul Donnelly at Macquarie Capital Markets. "I don't think the pipeline is exhausted for a second," Mr. Donnelly said.

However, for now stock sales will mostly be of a relatively low-risk variety designed to appeal to investors who are still wary after being once burned.

Canada's new national lottery, Lotto Max, launches ticket sales next Saturday

As new contest launches nationwide next week, a look at some pitfalls of having winning ticket

September 13, 2009

Nancy J. White

The winner's curse looms large in lottery lore.

There's Buddy Post, a former circus cook who won $16.2 million in a 1988 Pennsylvania lottery. Six years later, he was bankrupt, divorced and the subject of a bungled murder plot – his brother had hired a hit man to kill him.

Ontario's Ibi Roncaioli claimed a $5 million lottery prize in 1991. Last year, her husband was convicted in her 2003 poisoning death.

Jack Whittaker from West Virginia scored $315 million in a Powerball jackpot in 2002. In addition to numerous legal run-ins, he suffered terrible personal loss: his beloved only granddaughter, with whom he shared the fortune, turned drug addict and was found dead. "I wish," Whittaker told ABC News, "I'd torn that ticket up."

Ah, the perils of sudden wealth. As Canada's new national lottery, Lotto Max, launches ticket sales next Saturday with a first draw on Sept. 25, there will be big jackpots and more million-dollar prizes, more happy dance delirium and more down-the-road pitfalls.

"None of us appreciate the difficulties and challenges," says financial planner Susan Bradley, founder of the Florida-based Sudden Money Institute. A lottery win, "ends the way life is for you."

Boo-hoo. A financially-flush new life sure sounds appealing: Caribbean getaways, a Paris pied-à-terre, a spanking new medical wing in your very own name. The downside? An identity crisis, increased wariness, strained relationships and a flood of strangers' sob stories.

"We should all have their problems," laughs H. Roy Kaplan, a sociologist at the University of South Florida, who has written about lottery winners.

Over the years, he has met about 500 of them, the prudent and the impulsive. While American winners tend to buy showy mansions, Canadians, he found, renovate.

"Although there may be tough times," says Kaplan, "by and large people's lives are enhanced by winning."

That was Jan's experience. The office worker, who asked that her last name not be used, is one of Bray Motors' 25 employees – the entire full-time staff – who shared $22.5 million last summer. A sweet $900,000 each.

She bought a new Chevrolet Equinox, renovated the house and put away a nest egg. Some of the older employees retired from the GM dealership in Sundridge, but others are still on the job.

"Life is just a little easier," she says. "I think we all benefited because it wasn't enough money to go wild and crazy. No one did."

So how much do you need to go wild and crazy?

One person's chump change is another's pot of gold. Bradley, whose clients include professional athletes and heirs, as well as the lottery lucky, has witnessed people spin out of control after a prize of a few hundred thousand.

One woman, a city worker in her early 30s, won $250,000 in a settlement and started buying houses and cars. Says Bradley: "She told me, `People like me need a Lexus.' She got herself into financial trouble that will take the rest of her working career to get out of."

Instant millionaires can easily slide into ruin, she says. "There's a stress response with winning. The fight or flight part of your brain starts operating. The person's ability to see the big picture is diminished."

Personality quirks come into play. The party person lives large until the money runs out. A shy, inhibited person may withdraw further, suspicious of people's motives.

Bad feelings are not uncommon. Few winners are prepared for all the expectations of largesse, says Kaplan.

Raymond Sobeski, of Princeton, Ont., had an inkling of this in 2003. He waited almost a year to claim his $30 million during which time he divorced his wife. His ex then launched a lawsuit for her share that turned into an ugly legal battle. They did reach a support settlement in 2005.

Winning is an isolating experience, explains Bradley. "You're suddenly different than your peers."

So if you win the lottery, what should you do?

Nothing precipitous, say the experts. Forget the one-way ticket to the Riviera. Get a good financial planner and stay calm.

"I've met people who complained that winning was full of headaches," says Kaplan. "But nobody ever told me they were giving it back."

Barrick, Fairfax Push Canadian Stock Sales to Decade High

By Doug Alexander

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks sales in Canada surged to the highest in a decade this year after Barrick Gold Corp. and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. led the biggest one-day sale of equity in Canadian history.

Barrick, the world’s largest gold producer, raised $3.5 billion selling common shares to unwind gold-price hedging contracts. Fairfax, the Canadian insurer, sold $1 billion in shares on Sept. 8 to finance an acquisition.

“It’s a very strong sign for the economy,” said Roman Dubczak, vice chairman and head of equity capital markets at CIBC World Markets, which led the Fairfax sale. “It’s quite positive for the economic environment if corporations are able to finance quite readily in equity and fixed-income markets.”

The stock sales this week add to $25.1 billion in new Canadian equity financings between January and August, on track for the highest nine-month total since at least 1999, when Bloomberg began collecting data. Canadian stock sales rose in the first half of the year as Royal Bank of Canada and other lenders sold more preferred shares.

“The rebound in the market is suggesting, rightly or wrongly, that there is a recovery coming,” said Paul Hand, managing director of equity capital markets at Royal Bank’s investment banking unit in Toronto.

A rally in Canadian stock prices is driving companies to sell common shares as well. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index has risen 45 percent since its March 9 low, led by financial stocks. The S&P 500 jumped 53 percent since then.

New Issues

“Investors are putting a lot of their money back into equity markets and enjoying new issues,” CIBC’s Dubczak said. “A year ago the markets were quite shut down from an equity perspective, so there’s a catch-up as well.”

Canadian equity offerings fell 6.6 percent to $32.2 billion in 2008 from the previous year, as initial stock sales plunged 81 percent, according to Bloomberg data. The value of IPOs this year has already doubled, led by a C$500 million ($463 million) spinoff of an energy unit by Epcor Utilities Inc. of Edmonton, Alberta.

“Investors are evaluating opportunities to reposition portfolios and deploy cash, which has led to significant investor demand in North America and overseas,” said Kirby Gavelin, co-head of equity capital markets at RBC Capital Markets, which led the Barrick sale.

Paladin Energy Ltd., the Toronto-listed uranium producer, said Sept. 8 it would sell shares worth as much as 15 percent of its capital. Brookfield Properties Corp., owner of New York’s World Financial Center, raised $1.04 billion last month to refinance debt and make investments.

Osisko Mining

Other firms that sold shares this month included Osisko Mining Corp., which raised C$149.5 million. Silver Wheaton Corp. may offer as much as $287.5 million of stock to buy silver assets from Barrick. WestJet Airlines Ltd., the country’s second-biggest carrier, said yesterday it plans to raise as much as C$172.5 million.

Barrick’s stock sale may rise to $4 billion if the banks leading the sale unload additional shares to meet demand. The Barrick offering topped the C$3.19 billion sale of the federal government’s stake in Petro-Canada in September 2004, previously the largest in Canadian history. Barrick had originally planned to sell $3 billion in stock, and increased the sale to $3.5 billion yesterday.

Barrick’s sale “makes a lot of sense” to help them reduce hedging contracts, said Gijsbert Groenewegen, a partner at Gold Arrow Capital Management in New York, which owns the stock. “The fact that they increased it by another half a billion was an indication for the appetite in the market.”

A bank group led by RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Securities and Scotia Capital will share $122.5 million from arranging the Barrick sale, based on a 3.5 percent fee, according to sale documents.

Beware of Rental Car Contracts and Gotchya Clauses

Read car-rental terms carefully to avoid extra costs TheStar.com - Business - Read car-rental terms carefully to avoid extra costs

September 05, 2009

Ellen Roseman

When renting a car, do you read the rental agreement carefully before driving off?

If not, pay heed to this story.

Jacqueline Boone, who lives in England, had an accident in a rented car while visiting Toronto in 2006. While driving out of an underground parking lot downtown, she swerved to avoid a head-on collision with a car coming down and hit a wall.

Boone called the company, Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, immediately to report the damage.

She believed she was protected from extra costs since she had paid $25 a day for a loss-damage waiver, which is supposed to cover repairs to a rental car in an accident.

But when she checked her credit card bill online, she found an extra $5,558 in costs for the transaction.

Advantage later wrote to say repair costs weren't covered because of a clause in its contract that excluded collisions with a stationary object – that is, a wall.

With her husband, Boone decided to fight Advantage in Ontario's small claims court. She found the forms online and prepared a case.

She said the car rental office near the airport was poorly lit in the evening when she arrived. It was virtually impossible to read the terms and conditions in the agreement. Also, the clause excluding collisions with stationary objects was never brought to her attention. She wasn't asked to initial it, as with other parts of the contract.

"Jackie asked the clerk whether we would be covered for everything with the loss-damage waiver that we purchased at an exorbitant rate. He said we would be," Robert Boone says.

In July 2008, Boone flew to Toronto for her day in court. She faced several lawyers on the other side. "My wife has no legal training, but with help from guidelines downloaded from the Attorney General's website, she put the case together and won it," her proud husband says.

She cited another case, Tilden Rent-A-Car vs. Clendenning, in which the contract denied coverage for accidents if the driver had consumed any alcohol.

Clendenning hit a pole after having consumed alcohol and pleaded guilty to impaired driving. He won in court when the rental company wouldn't pay for the damage.

In the Ontario court of appeal in 1978, Justice Charles Dubin said many standard-form contracts are signed without being read and understood.

A company seeking to rely on "stringent and onerous provisions" in a contract shouldn't be able to do so without having first taken reasonable measures to draw the terms to the other party's attention, he said.

Advantage launched an appeal, which was dismissed on June 2 of this year.

Superior court judge Andromache Karakatsanis said the small claims court judge had not made any errors.

In the circumstances of the case, a reasonable person would have known that Boone was not consenting to the exclusion, notwithstanding the clause in the written contract, she said.

"Advantage stands behind the facts and allegations made by it in the court proceedings, which are now a matter of public record," company spokesman Bruce Taylor says about the case.

The company was ordered to pay for the repair costs, plus $8,000 in court costs.

The Boones hired a lawyer for the appeal, so they're still out of pocket.

They hope to inspire others to fight against contracts with unfair terms.

"We are the kind of people who stand up for what they believe in and will not be bullied when we have been wronged," Boone says.

"I hope that a precedent has been set for all those who are wrongly treated by car rental firms to stand up and be counted."

Economy: The Worst Is Yet to Come?

Economy: The Worst Is Yet to Come?

Shared via AddThis

Petrolifera Petroleum announces closing of over-allotment option

Petrolifera Petroleum announces closing of over-allotment option

cnw


CALGARY, Sept. 4 /CNW/ - Petrolifera Petroleum Limited ("Petrolifera" or the "Corporation") announced today that it has closed its previously announced over-allotment option (the "Over-Allotment Option") pursuant to the Corporation's equity offering of units ("Units") announced on August 12, 2009 (the "Offering").

The exercise of the Over-Allotment Option resulted in the issuance of 8,523,000 Units at a price of $0.88 per Unit for gross proceeds of $7,500,240. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Corporation (each, a "Common Share") and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant of the Corporation (each whole Common Share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share (each a "Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $1.20 per Warrant Share at any time up to 5:00 pm (Calgary time) on August 28, 2011. In the event that the 20-day volume weighted average price of the Common Shares on the

Toronto Stock Exchange (or such other stock exchange or quotation system on which the Common Shares are listed and where a majority of the trading volume occurs), exceeds $2.50 per Common Share, the Corporation may, within five business days after such an event, provide notice to the holders of Warrants ("Warrantholders") of early expiry and thereafter the Warrants will expire on the date which is 30 days after the date of the notice to the Warrantholders. As a result of the exercise of the

Over-Allotment Option, the aggregate gross proceeds to Petrolifera of the Offering was approximately $57.5 million. Upon closing of the Over-Allotment Option, the Corporation has 120,621,010 Common Shares and 32,671,500 Warrants issued and outstanding on a basic basis and 156,631,677 Common Shares issued and outstanding on a fully diluted basis.

TSX spikes 220 points

Last Updated: Thursday, September 3, 2009 | 4:32 PM ET

The Toronto stock market rose sharply Thursday as economic indicators from the United States remained gloomy but earnings reports from Canadian companies came up rosy.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 220 points to 10,921, a gain of 2.1 per cent, led higher by commodity stocks and financials.

Montreal-based Laurentian Bank climbed 4.7 per cent to $37.93 after it announced better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter of 2008, ending July 31. Canadian Western Bank also beat analysts' expectations for its quarterly profit report and registered a 4.3 per cent gain to $18.36.

Shares in Nexen Inc. were ahead 95 cents to $21.90 on the TSX after the Calgary-based oil and gas company said it has made a "substantial" discovery of additional North Sea resources in the Golden Eagle area. Nexen estimated Golden Eagle contains the equivalent of between 150 million and 275 million barrels of oil.

Lukewarm U.S. figures

The rally in Toronto seemed to shrug off tepid economic and financial data from south of the border.

New U.S. jobless claims fell slightly last week while the number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. The number of laid-off American workers applying for benefits dipped to 570,000 last week from an upwardly revised 574,000, but that was still a weaker performance than the drop to 560,000 claims that economists had expected.

Economists closely watch new jobless claims, which are considered a gauge of layoffs and an indication of companies' willingness to hire new workers.

The U.S. economy's service sector inched closer to growth in August, but still shrank for the 11th straight month in the face of weak consumer spending. The Institute for Supply Management said Thursday that its service index, which covers hospitals, retailers, financial services companies and more and tracks more than 80 per cent of the country's economic activity, came in at 48.4, up from 46.4 in July.

It was the best reading in 11 months and beat the estimates of a 48 from economists polled by Thomson Reuters. Still, any reading below 50 indicates the service sector is shrinking.

In New York the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 were all higher. Profits were down from last year at Costco and the Gap, nevertheless better-than-expected results saw shares of the U.S. retailers advance 8.6 per cent and 7.6 per cent, respectively.

Market optimism will be tested on Friday when the U.S. government releases its non-farm payrolls report for August. Economists expect the report to show another 275,000 American job losses last month. With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press

Petrolifera raises $7.5-million through overallotment

Sep 2.2009

Petrolifera Petroleum Limited (PDP-T C$0.80) Gavin Wylie - 403-213-7333Financing Closes Craig Butchko - 403-213-7762

Proceeds from Petrolifera's $50M equity financing have been earmarked for debt repaymentand to fund its high-impact exploration through 2009 and into early 2010.

That said, drillingin Peru could be pushed further into 2010 unless a suitable farm-out can be established.Implications¦

Factoring in the newly issued shares (54M) and proceeds, our revised 2P NAV stands at$1.47/share (vs. $2.11/share).

Our estimates assume no proceeds from a potential farm-outin Peru that could recover a portion of the US$28M (100%) spent thus far.¦ For the balance of 2009, Petrolifera's $23M capital budget will include minimal drilling andwell conversions in Argentina, and potential spending associated with a La Pinta re-entry ifthe company can secure a snub-unit.¦

We maintain our 2-Sector Perform rating on Petrolifera and have lowered our one-yeartarget to $1.20 per share (vs. $1.75), which is based on our revised risked NAV of $1.20 pershare (vs. $1.77/share).Recommendation¦

The added cash should help to alleviate Petrolifera's near-term constraints and refocus itsattention to exploration activity in Colombia and Peru..

Thomas Weisel Partners Canada Inc.,

Cormark Securities Inc. and RBC Capital Markets,

Underwriters have a invested HUGE at .88 cents

What do they know that you don't?

They know this was 3.55 cents in June 2009

And this is a possibility again!

Time to get the money back?

I say yes I'm in at .77 cents which is better then .88!

Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd., a significant shareholder of the corporation, did not acquire any additional securities of Petrolifera pursuant to the overallotment option. Following closing of the overallotment option, Connacher will own 26,898,859 common shares and 6,778,000 warrants (approximately 22 per cent of the outstanding common shares) on a basic basis and will own 33,676,859 common shares (approximately 22 per cent of the outstanding common shares) on a fully diluted basis

2009-09-02 09:08 ET - News Release
Mr. Richard Gusella reports

UNDERWRITERS EXERCISE FULL OVER-ALLOTMENT OPTION
Petrolifera Petroleum Ltd. has received notice from Thomas Weisel Partners Canada Inc., Cormark Securities Inc. and RBC Capital Markets, on behalf of the underwriters of the corporation's equity financing announced in Stockwatch on Aug. 12, 2009, that the underwriters have exercised their overallotment option in full to purchase an additional 8,523,000 units at a price of 88 cents per unit for gross proceeds of $7,500,240.

Each unit consists of one common share in the capital of the corporation and one-half of one common share purchase warrant of the corporation. Each warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one common share at an exercise price of $1.20 per warrant share at any time up to 5 pm (Calgary time) on Aug. 28, 2011.

In the event that the 20-day volume weighted average price of the common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange (or such other stock exchange or quotation system on which the common shares are listed and where a majority of the trading volume occurs), exceeds $2.50, the corporation may, within five business days after such an event, provide notice to the holders of warrants of early expiry and thereafter the warrants will expire on the date which is 30 days after the date of the notice to the warrantholders.

As a result of the exercise of the overallotment option, the total gross proceeds to Petrolifera of the offering will now be approximately $57.5-million. The closing of the overallotment option is expected to occur on or about Sept. 4, 2009. Upon closing of the overallotment option, the corporation will have 120,621,010 common shares and 32,671,500 warrants issued and outstanding on a basic basis and 156,631,677 common shares issued and outstanding on a fully diluted basis.

Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd., a significant shareholder of the corporation, did not acquire any additional securities of Petrolifera pursuant to the overallotment option. Following closing of the overallotment option, Connacher will own 26,898,859 common shares and 6,778,000 warrants (approximately 22 per cent of the outstanding common shares) on a basic basis and will own 33,676,859 common shares (approximately 22 per cent of the outstanding common shares) on a fully diluted basi

China firm set for oil sands joint venture

Calgary
China firm set for oil sands joint venture
Nathan VanderKlippe
RTGAM






Calgary - A Chinese interest is prepared to announce what a Calgary banking source called a "big" joint venture agreement with privately-owned oil sands firm Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.

Rumours of the impending deal, which is scheduled for release later Monday, pushed up shares in several small junior oil sands companies, including UTS Energy Corp. and Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. , on a belief that major outside investment interests are once again prepared to invest in the oil sands.

"It's great news for the oil sands business. It shows that there are still large, sophisticated, deep-pocketed companies out there prepared to write big cheques," said one Calgary banker.

UTS shares are up about seven per cent; Connacher rose five per cent on morning trading.

Athabasca calls itself the largest leaseholder in the Athabasca region of the oil sands, with 526,000 hectares of net land. It believes it can recover anywhere from seven to 11-billion barrels of crude from that land.

Sveinung Svarte, the president and chief executive of Athabasca, was not immediately available Monday morning. However, in an interview this May, he said the company had spent months searching for joint venture partners.

"That has always been our philosophy to finance our projects," he said then. "We are talking about quite a few billion dollars [in] long-term [capital requirements], and to have a partner coming in and finance a large part of that has been our model."

At the time, he said even with low oil prices, large oil sands properties continued to attract "a lot of interest."

"Even in this market. I would say maybe even more in this market, because I think the buyers have recognized that it's easy to make a deal today," he said. "Because the sellers are a bit more, what shall I say, they expect a bit less than with the price at $147 oil."

The rumoured partner in the deal is the China National Petroleum Corp., which made a $449-million deal for Verenex Energy Inc. in February - although that deal has had troubles proceeding thanks to difficulties in acquiring permission from authorities in Libya, where Verenex has the bulk of its holdings.

CNPC is not, however, the only Chinese company that has moved on Canada's oil sands. Late last year, Sinopec paid about $2-billion for another Calgary company, Tanganyika Oil, which has production-sharing agreements in Syria.

The Athabasca deal shows "that major international companies are game to put up big dough for Canadian oil sands projects. So I'm sure people are looking at that and saying another potentially ready-to-go project is obviously Fort Hills," said another Calgary investment source. "So UTS could be a beneficiary of that."

UTS holds a 20 per cent stake in the proposed Fort Hills oil sands mine, which is majority owned by Suncor Energy Inc. after its acquisition of Petro-Canada. UTS rebuffed a bid by French energy giant Total S.A. to buy that share earlier this year.

Lottery retailers, employees and their families won $198 million in prizes over 13 years, dating from 1996.

OLG boss in crosshairs as Liberals scramble to pre-empt new onslaught on error-prone agency

August 29, 2009

Rob Ferguson
Robert Benzie

A Good Samaritan treated shabbily when he tried to turn in a cache of lost tickets;

A malfunctioning slot machine erroneously informing a player he'd won $42.9 million when the maximum payout was $9,025;

A misprinted scratch-and-win ticket that led a man to believe he had won $135,000 when he hadn't.

But the straw that broke the camel's back appears to be Liberal fears of a reprise of the eHealth Ontario debacle at OLG...

...McDougald was not in her office yesterday afternoon and did not return emails and calls from the Star.

She was put in the top job after previous troubles at the Crown agency, where it was found that lottery retailers, employees and their families won $198 million in prizes over 13 years, dating from 1996.

Read the complete article click here

S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city, U.S. home price index is a key measure to make $$$

August 29, 2009
Bill Carrigan

Early last week we learned that the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city, U.S. home price index and the 10-city home price index both rose 1.4% in June, more than double the rate of increase seen in May. One component, home prices in the Phoenix area, rose 1.1 per cent from the first quarter to second quarter of this year. That is considered to be good news because Phoenix home values are down 31.6 per cent from a year ago.

Cleveland had the greatest month-to-month home price rise in June, 4.2 per cent, followed by San Francisco (3.8 per cent), Minneapolis (3.1 per cent), Washington (2.8 per cent), Dallas (2.7 per cent) and Boston (2.6 per cent).

Now with the good news out perhaps we should jump into the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction ETF (NYSE-ITB). According to Barclays Global Fund Advisors, the fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones U.S. select home construction index. The index measures the performance of the home construction sector of the United States equity market, and includes companies that are constructors of residential homes,

Our chart this week shows the weekly closes of the ITB, spanning about 30 months. Note the price peak around $40 (U.S.) in the first quarter of 2007.

Keep in mind most of the components such as Pulte Homes Inc., D.R. Horton Inc., Lennar Corp. and Toll Brothers Inc. had broken under their long-term moving averages in late 2005 and early 2006 – long before the housing bubble became apparent.

Note the subsequent decline to the March 2009 lows at the $6 level followed by the stunning, 25-week, 117 per cent rebound to the $13 level. Clearly, we are too late to play the bottom fishing housing recovery game.

Late Wednesday, meanwhile, we learned that the number of new homes sold in the U.S. rose for a fourth consecutive month, posting an advance of 9.6 per cent month over month. The market consensus was for an advance of only 1.6 per cent.

Confused?

Perhaps the following quote from a book I read years ago will help.

"I didn't ask the tape why when I was 14, and I don't ask today, at 40. Your business with the tape is now – not tomorrow. The reason can wait."

(Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Lefèvre.)

The message here is clear, stocks will rise and fall for reasons we discover only after the price movement. That is, bull and bear markets will be caused by circumstances that may not be known for weeks or months after the fact.

Birds of a feather fly together. When the components of the housing ETF are scanned for price movement we find the group is highly price correlated.

Another example is the Canadian financial sector, with most of the component banks posting quarterly earnings this week that surpassed expectations.

By the same token, another bottom fishing opportunity is lost because the iShares CDN S&P/TSX Financials Index Fund (XFN-T) has almost doubled in price from the March lows in anticipation of the banks' good news.

Once again ,when the components of the financial ETF are scanned for price movement, we find the group is highly price correlated.

These are examples of the powerful effect of bull and bear markets on equity returns. I believe investors would be better served by putting less emphasis on stock selection and chasing so-called compelling stories and more on adopting a sound investment strategy.

These can vary from using seasonal patterns, rotating through the various market sectors to simple quarterly rebalancing between fixed and equity exposure.

I prefer to use the long-term charts of stock sectors and the major stock indices to identify bull and bear cycles operating in these diverse asset classes. The strategy is to use any trend following tool and if upward adopt a buy-and-hold strategy.

If downward, take some profits and reduce your equity exposure.

Try this on Excel: Download the weekly closes of the S&P/TSX60 index from Yahoo Canada finance and identify the weekly high and low of the past 30 weeks. When the current close is above the highest 30-week high the trend is upward. When it is below the lowest 30-week low the trend is downward

The batting average has been good at 83 per cent from January 1994 to date, with the last signal a buy on May 29, 2009

Globe/CP say Delphi sees a future in owning Fairmount

BUY 1.15

Globe/CP say Delphi sees a future in owning Fairmount

2009-08-24 05:04 ET - In the News

Also In the News (C-FMT) Fairmount Energy Inc

The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Delphi Energy is buying Fairmount Energy. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that Delphi will swap 0.3571 of a common share for each common share of Fairmount. The deal is worth $14.5-million, including the assumption of $7.3-million of debt and transaction costs of $1.4-million.

The friendly bid will be mailed to Fairmount shareholders on Aug. 28 and will expire 35 days later, the Calgary-based oil patch junior said. The deal is backed by the boards of both companies. Directors and senior executives of Fairmount holding more than 23.4 per cent of the company's shares have agreed to tender their stock to the bid under lockup arrangements.

Delphi stock jumped a nickel Friday to close on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $1.05. Fairmount stock shed half a penny to close on the TSX at 39.5 cents.

Schachter Asset Management president Josef Schachter recommended buying Delphi stock in The Globe on Nov. 19 when it could be had for $1.20.

Aston Hill Financial vice-president Joanne Hruska was bullish on Delphi in The Globe on Dec. 7, 2007, when it was worth $1.72.

Mr. Schachter said buy Delphi in The Globe on June 5, 2007. It was then trading at $1.96.

Cro Gets Financing $0.05 flow-through share and $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $2,500,000.

Canadian Arrow Announces Non-Brokered Private Placement


10:34 EDT Wednesday, August 19, 2009

/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES/


SUDBURY, ON, Aug. 19 /CNW/ - Canadian Arrow Mines Limited (CRO: TSX-V) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that subject to regulatory acceptance, the Company is arranging a non-brokered private placement consisting of up to 30,000,000 flow-through shares and up to 20,000,000 units of the Company ("Units") at a price of $0.05 flow-through share and $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $2,500,000. Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company and half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole such warrant, a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company for a period of 18 months at a price of $0.10 per common share.

The proceeds from the private placement will be used to advance exploration on its Kenbridge nickel project, its other regional projects and to provide the Company with additional working capital.

All securities issued in connection with this financing will be subject to a four-month hold period.

The Company may pay a finders' fee of up to 5% of the gross proceeds in connection with a portion of the financing.

It is anticipated that the financing will close on or about August 28, 2009.


This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company does not intend, and does not assume, any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.


<<>>


For further information: visit the website at www.canadianarrowmines.ca, or contact Kim Tyler, President and Director, toll free, 1-877-262-6354

© Copyright Canada Newswire

Time To Cash Out Of BNK- Its Run On MoMo Now Cash Out!

Sucker Rally As Hot Money Exits The Stock Look at The Biggest Sellers This is topping just in time for Pros to cash out. The party looks like its over.

Lundin refreshes Bankers Petroleum buy

2009-08-20 17:41 ET - In the News

Brien Lundin, in the August, 2009, edition of the Gold Newsletter, refreshes his buy of Bankers Petroleum Ltd., recently $2.76. Mr. Lundin said buy Bankers in October, 2005, at 56 cents, and in March, 2005, at $1.30.

He then said sell some -- half, perhaps -- in April, 2005, at $1.80. Assuming a $1,000 investment for each of the two buys, selling half of the $2,000 investment at $1.80 would have yielded a profit of $1,241.

He said buy again five times between August, 2005, and March, 2009, at prices ranging from 52 cents to $2.14. (The stock consolidated 1:3 on July 30, 2008.) Assuming a $1,000 investment for of the five new buys, and taking into consideration the remaining $1,000 investment after the previous half sale, the total $6,000 investment is now worth $6,883.

On July 13, the company shipped its first batch of oil from Vlore, its new port in Albania. The newsletter editor says Vlore will give the company a chance to ship more oil, more safely. Production is also going well.

At Bankers's Patos Marinza oil field, the company averaged 6,385 barrels of oil per day in the second quarter of 2009, up from 5,864 barrels of oil per day in the previous quarter. Mr. Lundin says the company's liquidity has improved, production has increased and oil prices have risen, making Bankers Petroleum a buy.

Pescod on Crude

CRUDE OIL
$72.75
+1.33
At $70 a barrel for crude oil there are more
than a few people in the oil patch a little grateful
for what is going on there considering how ugly
things are in natural gas.

With 4 million barrels of production locked
in, in Saudi Arabia and inventory still signifi-
cantly above average levels in the United
States, the price of oil still looks like it could be
vulnerable to some bumps along the way but
for those looking for a little hand-holding about
oil this is probably the chart that will do it for
you.

This shows the production coming out of
Cantarell which was the second biggest oil field
in the world named after a fisherman who found
oil floating to the surface offshore Mexico.
Cantarell is the jewel in the crown of Mexico’s
national oil company Pemex.
The chart to the left shows you what is hap-
pening to this old producer...it’s declining pro-
duction recently at unbelievable rates of as
much as 35,000 barrels a month. One doesn’t
know if it could continue to drop at a level like
this but if it did this field would stop producing
within two years.

That has many implications first of all for
Mexico, suggesting that Mexico an exporter of
oil wouldn’t be able to do that within two years,
plus the national economy of Mexico is so
much dependent on the one third of its’ reve-
nue it collects from Pemex that if Pemex is in
trouble try and balance Mexico’s budget.
Cantarell is all about peak oil and suggests
that down the road oil does have a future.

Globe/CP say Delphi sees a future in owning Fairmount

Globe/CP say Delphi sees a future in owning Fairmount

2009-08-24 05:04 ET - In the News

Also In the News (C-FMT) Fairmount Energy Inc

The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Delphi Energy is buying Fairmount Energy. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that Delphi will swap 0.3571 of a common share for each common share of Fairmount.

The deal is worth $14.5-million, including the assumption of $7.3-million of debt and transaction costs of $1.4-million. The friendly bid will be mailed to Fairmount shareholders on Aug. 28 and will expire 35 days later, the Calgary-based oil patch junior said. The deal is backed by the boards of both companies.

Directors and senior executives of Fairmount holding more than 23.4 per cent of the company's shares have agreed to tender their stock to the bid under lockup arrangements. Delphi stock jumped a nickel Friday to close on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $1.05.

Fairmount stock shed half a penny to close on the TSX at 39.5 cents. Schachter Asset Management president Josef Schachter recommended buying Delphi stock in The Globe on Nov. 19 when it could be had for $1.20. Aston Hill Financial vice-president Joanne Hruska was bullish on Delphi in The Globe on Dec. 7, 2007, when it was worth $1.72. Mr. Schachter said buy Delphi in The Globe on June 5, 2007. It was then trading at $1.96.

Beaten down Weston, Loblaw cheap at the moment

Beaten down Weston, Loblaw cheap at the moment


Dianne Maley
Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Source:

Paul Gardner, partner and portfolio manager, Avenue Investment Management Inc.

The Idea:

Buy shares of George Weston Ltd.

Given how much stocks and bonds have rallied from their recent lows – 40 per cent to 50 per cent in some cases – good buys are difficult to find, Mr. Gardner says.

“You have to hope the economy comes out of recession because that's what the markets are pricing in.”

An ideal investment candidate would be a company with a strong balance sheet, trading at an attractive price that has the ability to grow. “That's where Weston comes in,” he says. At just shy of $57 a share and yielding 2.6 per cent, “It's a value trade,” he says. Weston shares traded in the $80 range as recently as 2007.


Weston's main asset is the grocery retailer, Loblaw Cos. Ltd., which accounts for about $44 of Weston's $57 share price, he estimates. Weston has $10 a share in cash, largely from the sale of its U.S. bakery business. Add about $2 a share for the real estate under Loblaws stores and, “You're getting what's left, the bakery business in Canada, for next to nothing.” That business earned $1.50 of Weston's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) last year.

Loblaw, at about $33, is also looking cheap, Mr. Gardner figures. After subtracting the value of the company's real estate, which accounts for about $25 of a Loblaw share, “in a way you're getting Loblaw for next to nothing” too, he says. Loblaw shares have been held back over the past few years because of management and supply chain problems, issues Mr. Gardner thinks have been largely resolved. This year, the shares have been lifted along with the market but are still well below their historic highs.

“They've worked on the supply chain and warehousing problems, renovated stores and initiated real change on the operational side,” he notes. The company's second quarter earnings “surprised on the upside,” although it warned of a difficult second half.

Loblaw is also expanding into the ethnic food market, announcing the purchase of T&T Supermarket, with 17 stores, in July. (Loblaw also owns Zehrs, Fortinos and Real Canadian Superstores.) T&T's big takeout Chinese food business “gives them some higher margins.”

The Payoff:

A potential double-digit capital gain in a relatively short time if the economy recovers, price cutting abates and Loblaw and George Weston shares come to be looked on more favourably by the market, Mr. Gardner says. What would a more “normal valuation” for Weston be?

“I don't like to put a number on it, but you could see a 30-per-cent return over the next year and a half.”

The Big Risk:

Fierce price cutting among grocery retailers squeezes profits more than expected at Loblaw as the economy struggles, leading to a long stretch of disappointing earnings and depressing the share price of both Loblaw and its parent, Weston.

Why Listen to Paul Gardner?

Mr. Gardner has more than 20 years' experience in the investment business, much of it on the fixed-income side. Avenue Investment Management is an independent investment counsellor and portfolio manager for individuals with $500,000 or more to invest.

© Copyright The Globe and Mail

TSX may rise with commodity prices, eyes CIBC

CANADA STOCKS-TSX may rise with commodity prices, eyes CIBC


08:12 EDT Wednesday, August 26, 2009

TORONTO, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index may rise at the open on Wednesday, bolstered by higher commodity prices, while investors will also digest quarterly results from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce .

The S&P/TSX composite index <.GSPTSE> finished Tuesday's session 1.21 percent higher at 10,920.53, boosted by financials as Bank of Montreal reported solid results.

Quarterly results from the country's big banks this week remain the key focus for market direction. Financials are the most heavily-weighted group on the TSX, about a third of the weighting.

Here is some of the news that may affect the market.

CIBC

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the country's fifth-largest bank, reported a higher quarterly profit, mainly on strong performance of its core retail and wholesale banking businesses and lower expenses. [ID:nN24133906]

ELDORADO GOLD

Eldorado Gold Corp said it will buy Sino Gold Mining for C$2.0 billion, in an all-share transaction to give it greater exposure to China's growing gold industry. The offer was worth A$7.24 per Sino Gold share, a premium of 21.3 percent, based on the companies' closing share prices on Tuesday. [ID:nSYD472825]

COMMODITIES

Gold rose towards $950 an ounce as the dollar weakened against the euro, boosting interest in the precious metal as an alternative asset. [ID:nLQ723905] Oil prices recovered early losses but remained below the 10-month high hit in the previous session. [ID:nSP475982]

CAE

Flight simulator maker and aviation training company CAE Inc said it received a series of military contracts valued at more than C$100 million. Key customers included Eurocopter, Airbus Military and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc , the company said. [ID:nBNG489391]

RESEARCH ROUNDUP:

Following is a summary of research actions on Canadian companies reported by Reuters on Wednesday. For more, please double click [RCH/CA]

* Genuity raises Bank of Montreal price target

* RBC raises Alimentation Couche Tard price target

($1=$1.09 Canadian)

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Petrolifera rolls on desperation financing

Petrolifera rolls on desperation financing
Andrew Willis
RTGAM






Shedding debt can be tough on equity holders, as Petrolifera Petroleum showed with a recent financing.

Petrolifera found itself in a bind after cancelling a planned sale of oil and gas properties in Argentina. The properties went on the block as the junior oil company moved to pay down loans, only to find there no buyers at an acceptable price. Tristone Capital was the financial advisor on the failed sale.

A debt-heavy balance sheet meant a sea change in sentiment on Petrolifera, which was a market darling last summer, selling stock at $9.

This year, the stock has underperformed oil and gas peers, touching lows of 75 cents.

To put its finances back in order, Petrolifera raised $50-million in a deal that closed last week/ The company sold 56.8 million units at 88 cents each. Each unit consists of a Petrolifera share and half a warrant, and the warrant can be converted into stock at $1.20 per share over the next two years.

Thomas Weisel Partners, Cormark Securities and RBC Dominion Securities led the financing. Connacher Oil and Gas, a minority shareholder, bought a portion of the underwriting to maintain a 24 per cent stake in Petrolifera.

"While highly dilutive, the financing materially improves Petrolifera's balance sheet," said a report Monday from CIBC World Markets analyst Robert Par�. He said the company now has considerable financial flexibility, with $50-million available on a $100-million credit facility, and Mr. Par� has a $1 target price on the stock, down from $1.50, to reflect the dilution that came with last week's financing