Stocks

The Internet is a great educator. Anybody willing to expend some time and effort can bring themselves to speed on practically any topic under the sun. That includes money and investing. For free. Well, usually. So here’s a collection of websites that an investor in Canada can browse to expand his investing and financial knowledge base, and get on with building wealth.

The markets cheered the move. Company stock rose 11% after Dorsey said he was leaving the company he founded. Twitter has been a bad investment since its IPO in 2013. It closed at $41.65 on day one. Eight years later, it is trading at $42.07. During this same period, the Nasdaq has moved up from 4,500 levels to over 15,000 and the S&P 500 has gained around 160%.

The world has bought upon itself a self-inflicted energy crisis. In a rush to make the earth green again and control carbon emission, many major governments accelerated the shift from coal to other renewable energy. They discouraged investment in oil and gas production and infrastructure without preparing reliable alternatives. Many banks and pension funds followed suit and removed their funds from fossil fuel assets.

The S&P/TSX Index has seen a drop of over 2% from 21,610 on November 26 to 21,110 as of this article. The reason for this is the rise of the new COVID variant which has caused chaos across financial markets.

Markets are expected to be volatile for some time now and investors will look to safe havens as they tumble and fall and rise. Here are four stocks that have proven their resilience over markets.

Stock market investments have grown in popularity among many individuals over the world. With multiple benefits ranging from capital growth, higher income, to stability, the investment scene in India has grown in recent years. It’s no surprise that the number of Indian retail investors has surged in the last 18 months. The number of active investors accounts has increased by 10.4 million since the pandemic. According to this article, “The total number of retail investors increased by an astonishing 14.2 million in FY21.”

It’s official. People can travel again. The US lifted its travel ban on November 8, and this will likely lead to a slew of travelers into the country. The ban which lasted for 19 months is gone now and visitors from 33 countries can now visit the US again. Hotels and travel companies like Airbnb are likely to see a massive surge in bookings.

Suncor Energy (TSX: SU) stock has frustrated its investors since the pandemic. The stock price fell from $40 levels in early 2020 to $22 levels in March 2020 and then below $16 in October 2020. Come August 2021, and the stock was still at $24 at a time when stock markets around the world had already recovered from their pandemic falls and were hitting new highs.

The company, one of Canada’s largest integrated energy companies, looked to have completely missed out on the crude oil rally. However, since August, Suncor has steadily moved up. It posted its numbers for Q3 2021 recently, and the stock has climbed up to $32.55 as of October 29. Is this the right time to get into Suncor? Will the stock hit its $40 pre-pandemic levels?

The US Energy Information Administration, in its Winter Fuels Outlook, October 2021, made a cold announcement. It said, “As we head into the winter of 2021–22, retail prices for energy are at or near multiyear highs in the United States. The high prices follow changes to energy supply and demand patterns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

China is the world’s second-largest economy which is experiencing serious headwinds now. Its middle-class which was booming once upon a time thanks to the dreams laid out by entrepreneurs like Jack Ma is now reevaluating its choices. The country is facing a coal shortage, has cracked down on sectors like cryptocurrency and online education, and wants to redistribute private wealth.

The marijuana industry is getting a lot of attention from investors of all ages and trading styles because cannabis is moving forward in a major way, and the industry, as a whole, is experiencing a pretty good time. Despite such tremendous growth prospects, the major disadvantage with this industry is it suffers from high market volatility which makes the investors are susceptible to high losses. However, there are still some excellent stocks engaged in the business that consistently generate high revenues and earnings for investors.

Amazon is one of the top 5 largest companies in the United States with its operations spread around the world. It is an e-commerce giant and has made heavy inroads into cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. The company is an incredibly successful one and over the past years has provided phenomenal returns to all its stakeholders in general. Notably, over the past decade, the company has grown itself by a massive 1,380% and is currently sitting at over $3189.78 per share.

On September 21, the Canadian market rallied after the re-election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals Party with the assurance that Canada’s economy would keep improving. Economic and regulatory environments have a huge influence on an economy’s performance because government policies hugely affect business operations. Investors should decide their investment strategies depending on how these government policies impact each industry and its elements.

US-based Airbnb is one of the most well-known companies for millennials and Generation Z renowned in the travel and hospitality segment. The company uses its own website-enabled and mobile-application-based online platform to help travelers across the globe find homestays for an array of purposes including lodging, primary homestays, vacation rentals, and tourism.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to the normalization of the work-from-home culture and many organizations have found it as a good cost controlling mechanism that doesn’t hamper employee productivity levels. Due to this condition, the gig economy got a major boost. Gig websites give people the opportunity to make additional income while they were working from their homes and some also started finding it more appealing as they could set their own schedules and follow their respective passions.

Based in California, Robinhood Markets Inc. is a financial services company that provides an online investment platform to its users (31 million as of 2021) for trading in various types of listed securities and exchange-traded funds without charging any commission. The platform also lists down several other facilities like high-yield cash management offerings, margin trading, and access to initial public offering (IPO) investments. The company is a FINRA-regulated broker-dealer and is registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Moreover, it is also a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.