It appears that U.S. residential house values continue to deteriorate, with one article I read yesterday quoting an average home price deterioration rate of 1% per month.  The importance of this to Main Street America seems to me to be obvious – reduced consumer spending, reduced standards of living for retirees in particular and Main Street Americans in general, likely durable goods price deflation, likely more Quantitative Easing by the U.S. Federal Government after QE2, likely further erosion of the U.S.$ (although as I have said in many of these e-mails, I see that as a currency relativity issue which could result in a strengthening of the U.S.$ against the Euro), etc.

With respect to some of these things, I recommend you read and think about the contents of the following three articles:

·               ‘Reggie Middleton’s Real Estate Recap: As I Have Clearly Illustrated, It’s a Real Estate Depression!!!‘ – reading time 8 minutes.  I think this is an excellent summary of the current U.S. Housing situation.  Middleton does, or so I think, good research, and ‘says what he thinks’, not what his readers may want to hear;

·               ‘The Housing Double Dip, QE3, and Gold‘ by John Rubino – reading time 4 minutes.  Among other things commented on, is a recent study (not specifically identified) that claims that 23% of U.S. mortgagors owe more than the current value of their mortgaged houses.  If true, that seems extraordinary to me; and,

·               ‘Home Prices, Recession and Retirement‘ - reading time 2 minutes.  This article reports on a survey of over 5,000 American workers over 60 years of age with respect to their confidence that they will “have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years”.  About 53% of respondents said they were either “not too confident” (32%) or “not confident at all” (21%).  Only just over 8% said they were ‘very confident’.

There have to be a lot of disillusioned and psychologically harmed people who have worked hard to achieve the ‘American Dream’, only to find it evaporating in ‘real time’ in a short time span ‘before their very eyes’.

Visit Stock Research Portal for free stock market data, analysis, and research on over 1,600 Mining and Oil & Gas Companies listed on the Toronto and Venture Exchanges. See our Legal Disclaimer.

What are they, and why should you use our Normal Course Issuer Bid tables in your research?

A Normal Course Issuer Bid is a bid by a company to purchase its own publicly traded shares with the expressed intent of ‘purchasing them for cancellation’. The number of its shares a company may purchase on in the public market is subject to regulatory approval. Shares purchased by a company pursuant to a Normal Course Issuer Bid are cancelled. This is anti-dilutive to company shareholders who do not sell into the company’s bid.

Where a company makes a Normal Course Issuer Bid it is reasonable to presume it has done this because its Board of Directors (and presumably senior management): believes:

• that the public markets are understating the value of its outstanding shares at the point in time it makes its bid; and,

• that the company has sufficient redundant funds on hand (e.g. funds not required to fund its ongoing operations) to fund its bid.

We think it follows that, appropriately researched, companies who make Normal Course Issuer Bids may prove to be companies worth researching at or shortly after the date at which they make their bid – and as a result may lead to a trader finding a trading opportunity, or to an investor finding an investment opportunity.

Access Companies in Our Company Universe Who Recently Made Normal Course Issuer Bids.

This morning we are introducing two new tables to our daily e-mail, and four new tables to the StockResearchPortal.com website.

Yesterday we introduced to StockResearchPortal.com four more of what eventually will be over forty automated tables of companies in our Company Universe that, by virtue of their recent corporate activities as announced in company Press Releases, assist in identifying companies that may prove to be ‘Worth Researching’.  Beginning today, two of these tables – ‘Companies Who In The Last Seven Days That Made Normal Course Issuer Bids’ and ‘Companies In The Last Seven Days That Announced Shareholder Rights Plans’ – will appear each day in these e-mails.

As a logged-in Subscriber to our website, you can review this same information for not just yesterday, but for the past thirty days, by visiting StockResearchPortal.com.

Visit Stock Research Portal for free stock market data, analysis, and research on over 1,600 Mining and Oil & Gas Companies listed on the Toronto and Venture Exchanges. See our Legal Disclaimer.