Lower Unemployment
Last year ended very positive for the Canadian job market. In December we hired 40,000 new workers and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.1%, it’s lowest point in four years! This number affects both confidence in the stock market, and housing prices. Hope we can continue helping our unemployed and under-employed friends in 2013 and get the number even lower.
Precious Black Gold
The oil industry made a big announcement this week and it’s going to benefit Canadians! A group of companies including Suncor, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil, have said they will start a major offshore project in the Hebron Oil Field, near St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador. This project will create thousands of jobs which won’t just help those employed in the oil and gas industry, but also the local economy in NL and other nearby provinces. Not only that but the provincial government will also likely be getting some sort of royalty (~_~) from this new project. This is much needed news for people on the east coast as Newfoundland and Labrador’s unemployment rate is 11.5%, the highest in the country!
The companies lead by Exxon plan to spend $14 billion extracting the oil but costs could go up higher. There’s an estimated 700 million barrels of oil in this field. At today’s oil prices if they manage to drill up all the oil they can sell it for $63 billion. Pretty good deal for them. How can the average person benefit from this new announcement? A few ways. 1) Invest in local companies in St. John’s 2) Invest in oil companies 3) Learn skills to work on offshore oil rigs.
disclaimer: I’m a shareholder of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Suncor stocks. In the last week all 3 stocks have gone up in price! I also have Trican and Halliburton stocks. They are oil services companies and provide equipment and expertise to help energy companies actually drill the oil out of the ground from hard to reach areas, such as offshore 😀 This is why I love investing. Large multinational energy giants love to make money and are really good at doing it. Anyone can invest in them today and benefit from their profits in the future :0) Readers, if you don’t already own some oil companies what are you waiting for?
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I don’t know where to begin to buy stocks but I’m hoping to learn more in 2013 as we will have money to invest. Glad to hear there will be some work in Nfld created as they really could use the boost. So many people are looking for work so I’m sure they will be happy to hear all of this. Thanks for the mention and here’s hoping I can start investing on my own a bit in 2013 without messing it up too bad lol. Mr.CBB
I messed up a lot when I got started, but you’re wiser than I am so I’m sure you’ll avoid some of my mistakes. The good thing is just like with everyone else, learning about the stock market gets easier as you become more familiar with it 😀
Thanks for including my link.
Interesting news on the oil field, although it concerns me that we have resorted to drilling in the ocean for oil, that tells me all the easy oil is gone and we as a population are living on borrowed time.
It’s such a big problem that isn’t getting enough attention. We will hit a time in our lives where new oil will become so expensive to obtain that people will just have to learn to consume less.
Thanks for the mention!
I don’t own XOM or CVX yet but would like to at some point. I own them indirectly with VTI.
Great news for the folks in Newfoundland & Labrador. In another 5-10 years, it will be Alberta East 🙂
Have a great weekend,
Mark
Cool, you are more diversified than I am. VTI is a great etf for any passive investor. One of the things people in Alberta was concerned about is more skilled laborers will move to the east once drilling begins at this project in 2017. I guess this means gas prices are probably going up in the future. But at the same time, there’s never been a better time than to get a degree in petroleum engineering :0)
Thanks for the mention, Liquid!
I hope 2013 is full of lots of good buys and dividend increases!
Me too. I’m expecting at least 5 companies I have to raise dividends :0)
Hey thanks for the mention!
No prob. Good luck with your financial goals this year.
Thanks for the mention. I’m invested in Husky, which hasn’t gone up add much But has still been very strong for me. The only problem is I don’t really have enough to consider selling any shares for a bit of profit as I’m counting on the dividends!
Husky is a great company. It seems to be very popular among the Canadian PF community I find. They have a great yield, I would keep it 😀
No prob. Thanks for letting me know :0)