Commodity Gyrations

The Economist has a fascinating article about the long-term price patterns of commodities, based on a new paper by David Jacks, an economist at Simon Fraser University, which assembles figures on inflation-adjusted prices for 30 commodities over 160 years. Amongst other things, Jacks’ study has shown that long-run rises have been most pronounced for commodities that are “in the ground”, like minerals and natural gas, while prices for resources that can be grown have trended downwards.

Payment Transparency

It was announced by Prime Minister Harper this week that Canadian resource companies working in foreign jurisdictions will be facing new regulations regarding payout disclosures. CBC.ca reports: “Canada is adopting a G8 initiative that would require companies to disclose any payments they make to foreign governments, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday in London at a meeting with oil, gas and mining executives.” (with video)

Retail Therapy

Is the retail investor back? According to Bloomberg, positive signs are emerging that mom and pop may be getting back into the markets. Two of their reporters “delved into how shares of discount brokers have risen the most since 2003, compared with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a sign that the retail investor is participating in the equity bull market and will devote more cash to keep it running.”

Pump & Dump

Investors need to be on the lookout for scams. Investment Executive reported that the “U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a warning Wednesday indicating that the latest McAfee Threats Report signals a steep rise in spam email linked to pump-and-dump stock schemes designed to trick unsuspecting investors.”

High Finance

Here’s a novel – if expensive! – way to teach high schoolers about investing. CNN Money reports that “Thousands of high schools across the country participate in stock market simulation games every year, but one small private school in Dallas has taken it up a notch. Greenhill School gave its Business Club $100,000 in real money to invest.” (with video)

Market Mover

The Toronto Star reports: “TMX Group Ltd., the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the TSX Venture Exchange, the Montreal Exchange and other securities markets, said Wednesday it will move into a new 40-storey tower that’s being built by Oxford Properties Group.” TMX Group, it should be noted, is also parent company to TMX Equicom. There’s no word yet on whether TMX Equicom will be joining the parent company in its new digs (we’re currently at 20 Toronto St). As reported by UrbanToronto.ca, the new Oxford tower, to be erected at 100 Adelaide St West, looks like it is going to be pretty spectacular, incorporating the façade of the existing 16-storey Concourse Building, which itself was completed in 1928 and includes mosaic works by Group of Seven artist J.E.H. MacDonald.

Author: Shaun Smith

Manager, Media Relations. At TMX Equicom, our Media Relations group keeps its finger on the pulse of the financial media in Canada and around the world. Our clients benefit from our strong relationships with independent major national and local media outlets, as well as with numerous sector trade publications. Lets us help your company tell its story to the media, to drive greater awareness of its capital markets brand with investors. Contact us now to learn what our Media Relations group can do for you.

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A round-up of interesting articles on the capital markets, business, economics, investor relations and related matters that caught our attention this week.

Buffett Bonoed

This is kinda weird, but also kinda fun. Bono (yes, the Irish rocker) presented a Forbes philanthropy award to Warren Buffett this week. That’s not so weird in and of itself, since Bono is widely recognized for his own philanthropic leadership. The weird part was how he did it: in song.

Proxy Problems

In the Financial Post, Barbara Shecter reports that an investor rights group backed by some of Canada’s largest pension plans is urging the Ontario Securities Commission to fix what the group calls “‘systemic problems’ with the country’s proxy voting system and impose majority voting standards at all public companies.”

Real-time Transparency

Think it’s a lot of work just getting out those quarterly reports? The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki takes a look at trends in insider trading in the US and wonders if greater transparency in the form of real-time financial updates from issuers might be a viable method to level the playing field.

Board Study

We’ve all seen the reports that women are underrepresented on corporate Boards. And we’ve seen the news that regulators are looking at ways to correct the situation. Now, the Financial Post reports that a new study from US-based research firm GMI Ratings has put an even finer point on the problem: “According to findings released Tuesday, over one-quarter of boards seats in the U.S. are held by men with at least ten years’ tenure. And that represents a formidable impediment to increased diversity because ‘it is difficult to add more women (or members of other under-represented groups) to boards if there are few open seats to begin with,’ GMI noted.”

Patent Exchange

The New York Times’ Deal B%K blog reported this week that a new exchange has been launched in Chicago for the trading of patent rights. Called the Intellectual Property Exchange International, or IPXI (we’re taking guesses on how that’s pronounced), the new exchange “has attracted a handful of blue-chip companies and prominent universities as its initial members….The product traded on the exchange is called a unit license right, a contract that allows the holder to use the underlying technology a certain number of times.”

Doggy Duds

Gents who want look sharp in this summer’s most stylish business attire will want to check out the sartorial splendor of this very fashionable pooch on Bloomberg.

Author: Shaun Smith

Manager, Media Relations. At TMX Equicom, our Media Relations group keeps its finger on the pulse of the financial media in Canada and around the world. Our clients benefit from our strong relationships with independent major national and local media outlets, as well as with numerous sector trade publications. Lets us help your company tell its story to the media, to drive greater awareness of its capital markets brand with investors. Contact us now to learn what our Media Relations group can do for you.

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Below are the links to the full articles:

1. IA Clarington - Going global through consumer stocks
2. WPT REIT - BNN
3. IA Clarington Canadian Focused Canadian Equity Class - BNN
4. Trez Capital - Trez plans to raise additional capital
5. Forsys Metals - BNN
6. Legumex Walker - BNN
7. Orbite Aluminae - Orbite shares bounce as new directors assume board positions
8. Royal Canadian Mint - On sale now: Canada’s gold reserves
9. Timbercreek Global Real Estate Securities - Q&A: Top REITs and other real estate picks for investors

Author: Crystal Quast

Sr. Director, Media Relations.

Contact us now to learn what our Media Relations group can do for you.

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Skyscraper Index

China has announced plans to break ground next month on “Sky City”, expected to be the world’s tallest building, and a former holder of that record, New York’s venerable Empire State Building, received approval to go public this week. Amidst all the skyscraper news, Business Insider took a fascinating look back at the historic structures in Barclay’s Skyscraper Index, which “suggests that construction booms, especially those highlighted by record-breaking skyscrapers, coincide with the beginning of economic downturns.”

New Rules

BNN reports that the Ontario government is working with the Ontario Securities Commission to craft new rules requiring public companies to set targets for the number of women in senior roles, a move with national implications that could reverse Canada’s decline in global standings for gender diversity in the corporate world. 

Kid Biz

Is it ever too early to start training for the world of business? According to International Business Times, “Chinese parents have been prepping their children for their futures in preschool MBA programs beginning as young as three years old.”

Boot Up

Meanwhile in New York, the Times reports that because newly minted MBA grads often lack “nuts-and-bolts skills like spreadsheet building and database extraction”, they are often sent by the firms that hire them to so-called Wall St boot camps to learn the crucial technical stuff not covered in biz school.

Crisis Case

You may have noticed (how could you not?) there’s been a bit of news over the past few weeks about Toronto’s Mayor, Rob Ford, who is facing accusations of an alleged video showing him smoking crack cocaine. In the Toronto Star, Bill Walker, a member of the Global Crisis Practice team for FleishmanHillard, presents an excellent summary of why Ford’s handling of the situation has been a study in crisis mismanagement.

Author: Shaun Smith

Manager, Media Relations. At TMX Equicom, our Media Relations group keeps its finger on the pulse of the financial media in Canada and around the world. Our clients benefit from our strong relationships with independent major national and local media outlets, as well as with numerous sector trade publications. Lets us help your company tell its story to the media, to drive greater awareness of its capital markets brand with investors. Contact us now to learn what our Media Relations group can do for you.

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A round-up of interesting articles on the capital markets, business, economics, investor relations and related matters that caught our attention this week.

Big Brother

The financial media seemed to be relishing eating one of its own this week as news broke (last Friday actually) that journalists working for Bloomberg’s newswire had access to information about Bloomberg Terminal subscribers that those subscribers may have thought was private and confidential. Here are some of the meatier bits:

• The New York Post broke the story, after Goldman Sachs raised complaints.
• Quartz detailed what snoopy Bloomberg reporters could see.
• The Financial Times (syndicated to The Globe and Mail) reported that various central banks were not overly pleased by the news.
• Bloomberg News EIC, Matthew Winkler, penned an apology.
• Bloomberg CEO, Daniel L. Doctoroff, issued a statement.
• The Wall St Journal reports that JP Morgan wants names.

Hot Book

I got right up out of my chair, left the office (it was lunchtime), walked to my favourite bookstore and bought a copy of Jaron Lanier’s new book, Who Owns the Future?, after reading just half of this fascinating interview on Salon about how the Internet appears to be devolving formal economies into informal economies, and how that may not be such a good thing.

Going Up

The Financial Times’ Lucy Kellaway (syndicated to The Globe and Mail) provides some entertaining insight into corporate elevator etiquette.

Looking Back

Lucy Kellaway also provided a humorous gallery looking back at some of the worst management fads over the last few decades.

Bonus Story

Speaking of odd ideas, wouldn’t it be great if company bonus structures looked more like a Secret Santa game? Er, maybe not, right? Well, according to Bloomberg’s Drake Bennet, new research shows that such structures, called “prosocial bonuses” (where other people spend your bonus on what they think you might like!), may actually have some merit.

Author: Shaun Smith

Manager, Media Relations. At TMX Equicom, our Media Relations group keeps its finger on the pulse of the financial media in Canada and around the world. Our clients benefit from our strong relationships with independent major national and local media outlets, as well as with numerous sector trade publications. Lets us help your company tell its story to the media, to drive greater awareness of its capital markets brand with investors. Contact us now to learn what our Media Relations group can do for you.

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