Couple Gold Stocks to Get Long

Minera Andes, MAI, $2.41
US Gold, UGX, $6.62

I'm banking on a triple. One's in production, the other's in exploration. Great merger. Great Management. Rob McEwan has 350M at stake. The guys a beauty. Gold will be 5k/oz in 36 months.

Sino-Forest TRE, LinkedIn LNKD, Groupon GRPN, Research In Motion RIMM

Markets have been trending a little lower week after week, and not too much has been going on..The Greek debt crisis seems to be under control, or for whatever nobody cares anymore. The US using creative accounting to stave off a debt default/congress dodging raising the debt ceiling, not having any impact on markets at this point.

Oil, not trading on fundamentals, still holding up around that psychological barrier of $100, despite talk of OPEC upping output and increasing crude inventory builds in the US. Gold hasn't done much, and silver trading has been real choppy since it fell off a cliff at $50/ounce.

But if you sniff around there are a couple corners of the stock market where money can be made. Of course  you gotta take on some risk.

First, Sino-Forest. Ticker TRE-tsx, 4 weeks ago this puppy was at 25$ and the company was worth almost $6B. Today its trading just over $5, with a mkt cap just over 1 B. What cause the drop was a short seller, analyst, last name Block, who works for Muddy Waters. They published a report alleging that Sino had been overstating the lumber yields or something I dont care. Moody'salways late to the party put the company under review for a debt downgrade. Bottom line here is that the company has strong earnings, has demonstrated decent growth, and present individuals with a great opportunity to buy a stock less than book value, trading a 3x earnings. Lots of upside. I picked up some shares at $4.52 yesterday.

Second, LinkedIn. Still the easiest short of my life. Here we are a couple weeks in and the stock continues to slide. After opening at $82 a share, trading up to $122, and closing at $104 on the first day, I was licking my chops. Stock closed down over 5% today at $72. Still trading at over 1000x earnings. Slowing  growth, weak job data, things are not looking good here. Should see $50 by the end of the month. Easy short here. 

Groupon. First, Mason values the company at 25B. The company hass lost 540M in three years, so yet to turn a profit. IPO getting rushed to market, one of these low floaters like LKND. Easy short.

RIMM, still a great company, slowing growth, under 20B mkt cap, potential take out target. Speculative buy. Dont own any RIMM, but im watching it closely. Just set a fresh 52 week low yesterday. keep it on your radar screen. Mid-low thirties great entry. Not trying to be a hero here, but seems compelling.

LinkedIn Shares Continue to Slide; Breaks $80

LNKD shares fell below $80 for the first time since the company went public. Could it be the crazy valuation or could it be this weak job/economic data coming out of the US weighing on the stock.  Could it be incomes are stagnant...bad news  for LNKD charging 300/year for a premium membership.

TSX, Oil, Loonie Advance; Crude Inventories Build

Crude Oil Inventories at 2 year high

Crude oil stocks continue to build, now at the highest levels in two years. As crude oil stocks see sharp drawdowns, we see prices spike. One would expect prices to fall as inventories build, yet upon the release of recent EIA petroleum data, oil got a bump to just over $100/bbl.

11:30 am EIA report release, oil jumps nearly $3 on inventory build

Canadian Dollar Slides on Lower Oil

The loonie broke below support at 1.024 and trades at 1.021 USD, a level we haven't seen since March 24th. The loonie has nearly a 90% correlation with commodity prices,  and as oil continues to fall the loonie is dragged down with it.  But lower oil isn't the only factor putting downward pressure on the CAD, there are two other items worthy of discussion. Firstly, the recent Europe debt crisis has caused a flight to quality where investors pour out of emerging markets (ie.Canada) and into perceived safe havens like dollars, francs, and gold. Also, speculators are dropping the CAD as a result of an expected rate hike that won't at the next BoC meeting. Tough to call a bottom, there is enough evidence to support a loonie above parity.