Today we had a demonstration of the Law of Conservation of Hardware Manufacturers. RIM had a good day:
RIM shares rallied 10 per cent on Thursday, as of late afternoon, sending them to their highest level since July. The jump followed an update on its BlackBerry 10 device on Wednesday: RIM is testing the new smartphone among 50 wireless carriers, marking a big step toward launching the product early next year – likely some time between January and April.
Scott Anthony of Bloomberg has some colour on why RIM isn’t dead yet:
RIM’s proprietary network and tightly interconnected system allow it to use data incredibly efficiently. Here’s one illustration. The other week I was on an 18-hour flight between Newark and Singapore. Singapore Airlines has started rolling out Internet connectivity on this flight. It isn’t cheap, running $1 per megabyte of data. I didn’t dare turn on my iPhone, or open up Outlook, but I thought going to Web mail would be safe. 15 minutes later I had a $15.30 bill. Then I remembered the Blackberry in my bag. I connected it to the WiFi network, and had roughly 14 hours of email connectivity. By the end of the trip my bill had gone from $15.30 to $15.45.
… and Sharp had a bad one:
Sharp Corp. (6753), the world’s worst- performing major stock, dropped in Tokyo trading after forecasting a record $5.6 billion full-year loss and saying there is “material doubt” about its ability to survive.
The shares fell as much as 5.3 percent to 160 yen and changed hands at 163 yen as of 10:00 a.m., extending this year’s decline to 76 percent, the worst performer among more than 1,600 companies in the MSCI World (MXWO) Index.
Sharp follows Panasonic Corp. (6752) in predicting losses worse than analysts estimated after losing ground to Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) in TVs. Sharp has failed to win a planned 67 billion-yen ($835 million) investment from Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group and has had difficulty selling commercial paper as it burns through cash.
Samsung is eating everybody’s lunch … for now:
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), the world’s biggest maker of TVs and mobile phones, reported record profit that beat analysts’ estimates and forecast intensifying competition as the global economy slows.
Net income in the three months ended Sept. 30 rose 91 percent to 6.56 trillion won ($6 billion), the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a statement today. That compares with the 6.25 trillion-won average of 27 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Operating profit from telecommunications more than doubled as Samsung’s Galaxy devices widened their lead over Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Samsung shares dropped amid concern growth in smartphone demand may have peaked after Apple (AAPL) reported earnings that missed estimates and Microsoft Corp. released its Surface tablet, escalating competition for mobile devices.
There’s some bad news for Canadian capital spending:
Suncor Energy Inc.’s three major oil sands projects are facing delays as soaring costs and competitive oil markets force the energy giant to join the growing ranks of Canadian resource companies pulling back from expensive growth plans.
Canada’s largest oil company said its planned Voyageur upgrader is “struggling” to make financial sense, its undeveloped Fort Hills bitumen mine has likely been delayed by about a year, and the timetable for its Joslyn mine remains up in the air. As Suncor reviews the economics of all three projects, it sliced its 2012 budget by 11 per cent.
It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums down 8bp, FixedResets off 2bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 3bp. Volatility picked up a little, but it’s still pretty quiet! Volume was a little below average.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.6913 % | 2,457.2 |
| FixedFloater | 4.11 % | 3.45 % | 34,847 | 18.44 | 1 | 1.0941 % | 3,912.6 |
| Floater | 2.81 % | 3.00 % | 61,105 | 19.71 | 4 | -0.6913 % | 2,653.1 |
| OpRet | 4.61 % | -0.00 % | 40,599 | 0.65 | 4 | 0.3335 % | 2,579.3 |
| SplitShare | 5.37 % | 4.58 % | 65,896 | 4.47 | 3 | 0.3929 % | 2,859.7 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.3335 % | 2,358.5 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.28 % | 1.69 % | 74,370 | 0.31 | 29 | -0.0808 % | 2,312.2 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 4.92 % | 4.94 % | 106,696 | 15.55 | 3 | 0.1798 % | 2,587.1 |
| FixedReset | 5.00 % | 3.00 % | 205,815 | 3.94 | 74 | -0.0209 % | 2,444.8 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 4.92 % | 3.15 % | 130,681 | 0.80 | 46 | 0.0288 % | 2,390.8 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| TRI.PR.B | Floater | -2.31 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-11-01 Maturity Price : 21.75 Evaluated at bid price : 22.00 Bid-YTW : 2.37 % |
| BAM.PR.G | FixedFloater | 1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-11-01 Maturity Price : 23.36 Evaluated at bid price : 23.10 Bid-YTW : 3.45 % |
| BAM.PR.O | OpRet | 1.33 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Option Certainty Maturity Date : 2013-06-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.94 Bid-YTW : -0.00 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BAM.PR.M | Perpetual-Discount | 238,869 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-11-01 Maturity Price : 23.93 Evaluated at bid price : 24.22 Bid-YTW : 4.94 % |
| IGM.PR.B | Perpetual-Premium | 72,740 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-12-31 Maturity Price : 26.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.37 Bid-YTW : 3.16 % |
| CU.PR.E | Perpetual-Premium | 66,200 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2021-09-01 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.60 Bid-YTW : 4.16 % |
| TD.PR.A | FixedReset | 42,290 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.65 Bid-YTW : 2.89 % |
| FTS.PR.F | Perpetual-Premium | 40,570 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-12-01 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 25.90 Bid-YTW : 3.99 % |
| RY.PR.P | FixedReset | 34,858 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-02-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.26 Bid-YTW : 2.06 % |
| There were 25 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| TRI.PR.B | Floater | Quote: 22.00 – 22.50 Spot Rate : 0.5000 Average : 0.3351 YTW SCENARIO |
| CU.PR.D | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 26.60 – 26.94 Spot Rate : 0.3400 Average : 0.2145 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.M | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 26.71 – 26.95 Spot Rate : 0.2400 Average : 0.1504 YTW SCENARIO |
| ENB.PR.F | FixedReset | Quote: 25.53 – 25.75 Spot Rate : 0.2200 Average : 0.1441 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.K | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.03 – 25.30 Spot Rate : 0.2700 Average : 0.2066 YTW SCENARIO |
| SLF.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 23.82 – 23.99 Spot Rate : 0.1700 Average : 0.1087 YTW SCENARIO |