When You Hit the Ice, Don’t Skid, Skate Through It

Thursday, November 30th, 2006
By Inya Ivkovic, MA for Profit Confidential

As of late, the greenback has had great difficulty trying to prevent skidding out of control. This is why many Canadians have tweaked their exposure to U.S. stocks in their portfolios. But, just because the U.S. GDP is expected to slow down in 2007 and 2008, it doesn’t mean Canadians should throw in their skates (read “U.S. portfolios”).

In fact, for some U.S. stocks, a slowing down GDP is actually good news. Those would be the ones with high foreign exposure, such as capital goods companies that ship their stuff to Europe, Japan and emerging markets. This is because as long as the U.S. dollar is falling, their goods and services are cheaper, allowing such companies to grab a bigger piece of the pie for themselves. A shaky dollar gives capital goods companies a chance to transform a mere accounting bore of recording foreign exchange transactions into healthy cash flows and sharper competitive edge.

Of course I’m not reinventing the wheel here, but with the greenback hitting new lows against the euro and pound sterling, I’d just like to remind Canadians that there are investment opportunities in all kinds of markets, be they bullish or bearish.

Although our philosophy here at Lombardi Financial is to avoid large-caps, as I’ve said, there is always a chance for profit if you know where to look. For example, companies that are household names all over the world, such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, or Nike, are the first that spring to mind as potential “benefactors” of the wobbly GDP and greenback.

Next Post: Check Your Portfolio Before Letting it all Loose During Holiday Season Shopping
Previous Post: Small Company Breaking into China

Tags: euro, GDP, U.S. dollar