Linamar (LNR)

Oil has collapsed on the back of Wuhan coronavirus fears while, but Apple (Mostly Sunny; AAPL) keeps climbing despite the device maker's exposure to China. What could explain the divergence? How about billions of dollars of liquidity being thrown at the financial system from the U.S. Fed and Treasury? That is the opening topic in my latest interview with Jim Goddard on HoweStreet.com.

(Update - elaborates on A Units ownership of the operating entity in paragraph 5) Canadian stocks made their lows for the year on December 24th, right near the end of tax loss selling. Let's take a look to see which insiders were buying around that low. Below are the five individual insiders who have reported the most buying in the public market on a direct holdings basis.

August 10, 2016 - The long anticipated correction, or at least consolidation, in metals stocks appears to have started with the S&P/TSX Composite Gold down 0.5% in the week ended August 5th, and down 4.5% for the previous 30 days as of Friday. We started reporting to subscribers in May that insiders were positioning for a pullback noting that insiders had picked up their selling as we headed into summer which is a traditionally weak period for gold. Indeed, according to Equityclock.com, June and August tend to be the roughest months for the gold price before entering into a seasonally strong fall.

As we suggested in our INK subscriber Monday market comments, we expect market participants to be fixated on what Fed vice-chair Stanley Fischer says about inflation at a key speech to be given at the end of this week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. For more than a year we have been writing about the Fed's failure to achieve its annual inflation rate objective of 2%. The Fed's chickens are coming home to roost as market participants are calling the institution out on its claim to be working towards that 2% aim. So why are insiders buying?

Move over real estate, insiders appear to be setting up for a long-rate rebound. REITs and other defensive stocks such as utilities lost ground in the semi-annual rebalancing of the 50-stock INK Canadian Insider (CIN) Index. Taking their place is a mix of resource and economically-sensitive industrial stocks.