Forget Molson… Buy This Canadian Six-Pack Instead

Published Thu, Dec 1st, 2011   Martin Denholm

Talk about a timely article…

In this morning’s Wall Street Daily column, my colleague, Louis Basenese, highlighted a “six-pack of high-income Canadian stocks.”

I can assure you that Louis doesn’t have a direct line to the Statistics Canada offices in Ottawa. But his advice came just as the country’s official reporting agency released some excellent growth data, which bodes well for the dividend stocks he profiled.

The headline news: Canadian GDP jumped by an annualized 3.5% rate during the third quarter. It was the biggest three-month gain since 2004 and soundly beat estimates that called for a 3% rise.

On a quarterly basis, the economy expanded by 0.9% – a significant improvement from the 0.1% decline during the second quarter.

Two main sectors led the charge…

Canada’s Dynamic Duo

It’s no secret that Canada is one of the world’s top energy producers, with vast oil and water resources.

So it’s no surprise that the energy sector underpinned the country’s impressive quarterly growth, with a 2.6% gain.

Similarly, investment in Canada’s real estate market climbed by 2.6% – a sharp rise over the 0.4% second-quarter growth. It was the strongest three-month spell since the first quarter of 2010.

Canada also enjoyed a big rebound in its export market. Having declined in the second quarter, increased demand overseas for Canadian goods resulted in 3.4% export growth.

And at the heart of this solid performance? Well, it’s not rocket science…

The Simple Secret Behind Canada’s Success

Amid the litany of debt woes and political infighting plaguing the United States and Europe, Canada has proved that a little common sense can go a long way.

Throughout the global economic crisis, Canada has lived within its means. Lawmakers have controlled spending, employed sensible monetary policy, and let the country’s massive resource-based economy and a booming real estate market (where – and get this for revolutionary! – homebuyers must generally submit a 20% down-payment) do the rest.

It has allowed the country to pay down its debt and remain relatively sheltered from the catastrophes that have hit other nations.

So while our neighbors north of the border were helping themselves to 3.5% third-quarter growth, the United States, by contrast, lagged way behind with a 2% GDP growth rate.

As a result, the Canadian dollar has surged against the U.S. dollar over the past year… and is up 1.5% this week alone.

With such outperformance from Canada economically and currency-wise, do yourself a favor and grab a Canadian six-pack.

Good investing,

Martin Denholm