While my last newsletter talked about the record highs that we had in North American markets, that momentum didn't keep up in May. The ongoing trade dispute between China and the United States played a big part in this. We've seen stock markets around the world sell off on this uncertainty and more fears about a global slowdown. Closer to home, we've dealt with the price of Western Canadian Select falling dramatically in May. The price fell to under $40 USD by the end of the month.
On top of all this ugliness in the market, we've also seen more Forest Fires in Western Canada. This year, it seems that Northern Alberta has been hit the hardest. Similar to the last couple of years, there has been a lot of smoke in the sky around Calgary. That has led to air quality advisories here so we can only imagine what those in the fire-stricken areas are experiencing. Our hearts go out to anyone who is directly affected by this natural disaster.
We plan to stay in Alberta and close to home to start the summer this year. We often take a trip as soon as the girls get out of school but this year, we'll spend some time out of the office in August. Our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary is coming up at the beginning of September so we'll celebrate by taking a couple of weeks off just before then. We plan to be out of the office from Aug. 18th to the 30th. A close friend of mine, and excellent advisor, Stephan Sulek, will field anything that comes up while we're on vacation. I'm actually not going to be working on this vacation!! If you need anything, you'll be able to contact Stephan at (403) 863-2152 or ssulek@efscanadainc.ca.
We're still around for a couple of months so let us know if there's anything that you'd like to discuss!
Bryce A. Borden