Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The pace of installations for new solar electricity production continues to surprise everyone, even industry insiders. Close to 400 gigawatts of capacity will be installed worldwide in 2023, with forecasts for as much as 563 gigawatts in 2025. Solar is now cheap and easy to install, especially on residential rooftops where permitting is not a […]

HoweStreet.com Radio - Can you expect more housing on the market this fall?

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The headline measure was recorded as 3.2 percent from a year ago, while the closely watched core CPI was a more troublesome 4.7 percent. Is inflation beaten yet? In the mid-1970s a concentrated advertising campaign was orchestrated by the U. S. government to demonstrate a willingness to beat inflation at all costs. President Ford named […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The risk of deflation in China is real. A moderating pace of growth, large private sector debts and a slowdown in the crucial property sector suggest lower income, prices and deflation. Is China entering a debt deflation spiral? China has enjoyed a longer-than-four-decades income and wealth expansion that has rarely happened in the thousands of […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook -   The U.S. government bonds were downgraded a notch by the ratings agency, Fitch. This means the safety of the US treasuries has slipped and there is growing concern about the longer-term outlook for debt. Is the U.S. government at risk of default? Economists reacted negatively to the downgrade with Larry Summers calling it “absurd” […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates again, to 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent. This is the highest Federal Funds rate in 22 years. The Fed has stated that it is determined to wrestle inflation back under control, which means getting to its 2 percent target or lower. Has the Fed gone too far in this […]

HoweStreet.com Radio - Are generous bonuses at CMHC justified?

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - China began a new stage in its multi-year struggle with insolvency among property developers. One of the biggest, China Evergrande, reported losses of US$81 billion this week. Will massive debts of US$207 billion dollars in the property sector drag China down? The property sector started to contract in 2021, after a brief post-COVID surge.  Recent […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The Bank of Canada raised its interest rate again this week, the tenth increase since March 2022. The new level, at 5 percent, means that many borrowers will face rates of 7 percent and higher on bank loans and mortgages. Why does the Bank of Canada keep raising rates? The Bank of Canada (BOC) set […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Value investing as a style should be doing better during this period of rising interest rates and growing recession fears. But growth investing continues to perform better than value investing by a wide margin. Will value investors ever dominate again? Value stocks are defined as “cheap” when using metrics like share price to book value […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged a coup or mutiny, making accusations about Russian army leadership and the conduct of the war and threatening to bring 25,000 of his mercenaries to Moscow. But he backed down and is now in exile in Belarus. Is the coup a sign of more upheaval to […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The bear market that started in early 2022 is still intact. Many pundits are making noise about a new bull market, but it is best to ignore those people. The stock market has not completed its full correction yet. What indicators confirm the bear market? A normal bear market lasts until valuations are reasonable again, […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The Federal Reserve delivered a “hawkish pause” this week. The Fed funds rate was held steady, as the Fed continued to tighten monetary policy and suggested that further rate hikes are inevitable. Will the Fed stay the course until inflation is at its 2 percent target? The official statement says that the Fed is committed to a […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The Bank of Canada delivered a surprise rate hike to 4.75 percent on Wednesday, reversing an April 2023 decision that paused the interest rate hiking cycle. As a result, mortgage rates, prime lending loans and almost everything else in the debt business will get more expensive. At what point will the BOC stop its rate […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The latest investment hype is based on widespread investor interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Nvidia, a company that makes computer chips for AI, is trading at huge multiples of earnings that have only been seen in extreme bubbles like the dot-com era of 1999. Is AI a genuine investing opportunity? AI is generating a frenzy […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The Bank of Canada uses more alarmist language in its latest Financial System Review (FSR), a regular report that discusses the risks to the Canadian financial system. Should we be more worried about Canadian banks? Canadian central bankers write an assessment of the health of the Canadian financial system on a regular basis, highlighting risks […]

HoweStreet.com Radio - Commercial Real Estate – empty office towers

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook -   Geopolitical events can move markets, if only temporarily. Crises on a world scale frighten investors, causing them to make hasty decisions that can be harmful to their financial success. Could a geopolitical event cause investor panic? The history of geopolitical events shows that markets can survive most events without much trouble. For example, a […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The concentration of economic activity in the residential real estate sector is hurting Canada’s future. Residential real estate investment is not desirable when compared to other activities that generate intellectual property, jobs and increased productivity. Why are Canadians so enthralled with investing in non-productive residential real estate? In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, Dr. […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The looming fight over a statutory limit on borrowing by the U.S. federal government is getting close to a red alert situation. If the disagreement is not resolved the government will run out of money to spend. Could the government default on its payments? What would the consequences be? Source: Milwaukee Independent At the most […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook -   Elon Musk, founder and CEO of the leading electric vehicle company Tesla, is making a possibly reckless gamble that will affect the automobile industry deeply. After several price cuts the most popular Tesla Model Y is now less expensive than the average new car in the U.S. Will Elon’s latest gamble pay off? Tesla’s […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - A recession in the US is inevitable; probably coming later this year. The increase in interest rates that came from a surge in inflation guarantees that the consumer will reduce spending, probably pushing the economy into recession. Many analysts and economists are now accepting the inevitability of a new recession which may have started already. […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Inflation moderated slightly in March but remains stubbornly high. The consensus is that central banks must cut rates later this year, but the latest CPI for March puts that type of wishful thinking into doubt. Will central banks hold the line on interest rates even as demands to cut rates grow louder? The CPI showed […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Gold prices took off higher this week as doubts about the US dollar spread throughout the markets. The gold bugs have been very quiet during this inflationary period, until now. Are gold and gold miners about to catch a bid? Early articles I’ve written in this weekend note series were on gold, in 2015 and […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - If there is another shoe to fall for the troubled regional banks, commercial real estate is a likely catalyst. Reports arrive daily that many sectors, especially office towers, continue to struggle to meet their commitments. Regional banks hold most of the debt for commercial real estate. As of mid-week, the banking crisis was shuffled to […]