Report
Dave Nicoski ...
  • Ross LaDuke
EUR 233.43 For Business Accounts Only

Vermilion Compass: Weekly Equity Strategy

Caution remains warranted

We have noted several times throughout the month of August that key support levels were being tested for global equities (8/6 Compass and 8/8, 8/15, & 8/22 Int'l Compass), and while there has yet to be a decisive breakdown, as time has passed there has been new negative developments which lead us to be even more cautious. This past Friday's test of support is no different, and we believe the market is more vulnerable to a breakdown than it has been at any other point this year. Below we highlight the new concerning developments which lead us to believe the market remains vulnerable to a breakdown.

• Sector Relative Strength Rankings & Weighting Recommendations. Relative strength for both cap- and equal-weighted Utilities notched a new YTD high (barely) amid Friday's precipitous market drop, leading us to contemplate an upgrade to overweight. New RS highs for defensives is often a characteristic of bear markets, leading us to believe the market is vulnerable to further weakness... see pages 2-3.

• Copper hits multi-year lows, copper vs. gold ratio downtrend intact. We often look at copper prices to get a gauge on where global growth is headed. New lows in copper would suggest that global growth is poised to weaken, leading us to believe the market may be vulnerable to further downside. Additionally, the copper vs. gold ratio is yet another measure of risk appetites giving a risk-off signal... see page 4.

• Growth vs. value; small- vs. large-caps. Growth continues to outperform value -- remain overweight growth. Additionally, large-caps remain leadership, however we get a slightly different picture when comparing the Russell 2000 vs. 1000 and S&P 600 vs. 500... see page 5.

In today's report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary, Financials, and Materials: CD-07 Homebuilding, Small-Cap, FN-53 REITs, Storage, and MA-26 & -27 Gold, Western Hemisphere, Large- and Small-Cap (respectively)... see pages 12-29.
Underlyings
Agnico Eagle Mines Limited

Agnico-Eagle Mines is a gold mining company with mining operations in Canada, Mexico and Finland. Co. earns a proportion of its revenues from the production and sale of gold in both dore bar and concentrate form. The remainder of revenue and cash flow is generated by the production and sale of byproduct metals. The revenue from byproduct metals is mainly generated by production at the LaRonde mine in Canada (silver, zinc, copper and lead) and the Pinos Altos mine in Mexico (silver).

Alamos Gold Inc.

Alamos Gold is engaged in the exploration, mine development, and the mining and extraction of precious metals, primarily gold. Co.'s s primary asset is the Mulatos Mine and holds the mineral rights to the Salamandra group of concessions in the State of Sonora, Mexico, which includes several known satellite gold occurrences.

B2Gold Corp.

B2Gold is a Vancouver-based gold producer with three operating mines (two in Nicaragua and one in the Philippines), a fourth mine which has entered into the commissioning and testing phase in Namibia and a portfolio of development and exploration assets in Mali, Colombia, Burkina Faso and Nicaragua. Co.'s reportable operating segments include its mining operations and development projects. The Other Mineral Properties segment consists of Co.'s interests in mineral properties which are at various stages of exploration. The Corporate and Other segment includes corporate operations and the Bellavista property in Costa Rica which is classified as held for sale.

Barrick Gold Corporation

Barrick Gold is engaged in the production and sale of gold, as well as related activities such as exploration and mine development. Co. also produces copper and hold interests in oil and gas properties located in Canada. Co.'s mining operations are concentrated in three regional business units: North America, South America and Australia Pacific. Co. also hold a 73.9% equity interest in African Barrick Gold plc that owns gold mines and exploration properties in Africa. Co.'s copper business unit contains producing copper mines located in Chile and Zambia; and a mine under construction located in Saudi Arabia.

Beazer Homes USA Inc.

Beazer Homes USA is engaged as a homebuilder. The company's homebuilding operations consist of the design, sale, and construction of single-family and multi-family homes. The company purchases land or obtains an option to purchase land, which, in either case, requires certain site improvements prior to home construction. When available in certain markets, the company also buys finished lots that are ready for home construction. The company has investments with land developers, other homebuilders and financial partners to acquire land positions, to manage its risk profile and to utilize its capital base. The company also acts as the general contractor for the construction of its new home communities.

Cavco Industries Inc.

Cavco Industries designs and produces factory-built homes distributed through a network of independent and the company-owned retailers, planned community operators and residential developers, marketed under a variety of brand names including Cavco, Fleetwood, Palm Harbor, Fairmont, Friendship, Chariot Eagle and Lexington. The company is also a producer of park model RVs, vacation cabins and systems-built commercial structures, as well as modular homes built under the Nationwide Homes brand. Each home contains a living room, dining area, kitchen, one to five bedrooms and one or more bathrooms, is equipped with central heat and hot water systems, kitchen appliances, floor coverings and window treatments.

Century Communities Inc.

Century Communities is engaged in the development, design, construction, marketing and sale of single-family attached and detached homes. The company builds and sells homes under its Century Communities and Wade Jurney Homes brands. The company's Century Communities brand targets a range of buyer profiles including: first time, first and second time move up, and lifestyle homebuyers, and provides its homebuyers with the ability to personalize their homes through certain option and upgrade selections. The company's Wade Jurney Homes brand targets first time homebuyers, primarily sells homes through retail studios and over the internet and provides no option or upgrade selections.

CubeSmart

CubeSmart is a self-administered and self-managed real estate company focused primarily on the ownership, operation, management, acquisition, and development of self-storage properties in the U.S. The company's self-storage facilities provide storage space for its residential and commercial customers. The company's customers rent storage cubes for their use on a month-to-month basis. Additionally, some of the company's stores provide outside storage areas for vehicles and boats. The company's stores are designed to accommodate both residential and commercial customers, with features such as aisles and load-bearing capabilities for truck access.

Eldorado Gold Corp.

Eldorado Gold is engaged in the exploration, development, mining and production of gold and other mining resources in Brazil, China, Turkey and Greece.

EXTRA SPACE STORAGE INC

Extra Space Storage is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust, which is engaged in owning, operating, managing, acquiring, developing and redeveloping self-storage properties. Substantially all of the company's business is conducted through Extra Space Storage LP. The company operates in two segments: self-storage operations; and tenant reinsurance. Co's self-storage operations activities include rental operations of wholly-owned stores. Tenant reinsurance activities include the reinsurance of risks relating to the loss of goods stored by tenants in the company's stores.

Franco-Nevada Corporation

Franco-Nevada is a gold-focused royalty and stream company with additional interests in silver, platinum group metals, oil and gas and other resource assets located in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Africa. Co.'s portfolio includes 340 mineral and oil and gas assets covering properties at various stages from production to early stage exploration.

KB Home

KB Home is a homebuilding company. The company builds a variety of homes designed primarily for first-time and first move-up, as well as second move-up and active adult homebuyers, including attached and detached single-family residential homes, townhomes and condominiums. The company's financial services operations provide various insurance products to its homebuyers in the markets where it builds homes and provide title services in certain of those markets. The company's financial services operations also provide mortgage banking services, including residential consumer mortgage loan originations, to its homebuyers indirectly through KBHS Home Loans, LLC, a joint venture the company formed with Stearns Lending, LLC.

Kinross Gold Corporation

Kinross Gold is engaged in the mining and processing of gold and, as a by-product, silver ore and the exploration for, and the acquisition of, gold bearing properties in the Americas, the Russian Federation, West Africa and worldwide. As of Dec 31 2013, Co.'s proven mineral reserves for gold and silver were 1,122 ounces and 1,179 ounces respectively.7,883 7,883 7,883

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.

Kirkland Lake Gold is a Canadian gold mining and exploration company with three producing mines in Australia: the Fosterville Gold Mine and the Stawell Gold Mine in the State of Victoria and the Cosmo Gold Mine in the Northern Territory. Co. also has a portfolio of development opportunities on its significant land package, including the Big Hill Project at Stawell and various projects in the Northern Territories. In addition, Co. owns title to a mining lease located in north-central Newfoundland, Canada.

LGI Homes Inc.

LGI Homes is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is engaged in the design, construction, and sale of new homes in markets in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington, Tennessee, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Alabama, California, Oregon, and Nevada. The company's product offerings include entry-level homes, including both detached homes and townhomes, and move-up homes sold, which are sold under its LGI Homes brand, and its luxury series homes, which are sold under its Terrata Homes brand. The company's homebuilding operations are organized and managed by seven divisions: West, Northwest, Central, Midwest, Florida, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.

Life Storage Inc.

Life Storage is a real estate investment trust, that owns its assets and conducts its operations through Life Storage LP (the Operating Partnership) and subsidiaries of the Operating Partnership. The company acquires, owns and manages self-storage properties. The company's self-storage properties in the United States conduct business under the name Life Storage?. The company manages certain properties located in the province of Ontario, Canada, under the Bluebird Self Storage brand. The company's self-storage facilities provide storage space to residential and commercial users. In addition to storage space, various facilities also provide outside storage for automobiles, recreational vehicles and boats.

M/I Homes Inc.

M/I Homes is engaged in the construction and sale of single-family residential homes. The company designs, sells and builds single-family homes on developed lots, which it develops or purchases ready for home construction. The company also purchases undeveloped land to develop into developed lots for future construction of single-family homes and, on a limited basis, for sale to others. The company has two operations: homebuilding and financial services. The company's homebuilding operations have two reporting segments: the Northern and Southern regions. The company's financial services operations support its homebuilding operations by providing mortgage loans and title services to the customers of its homebuilding operations.

McEwen Mining Inc.

McEwen Mining is a mining and minerals production and exploration company focused on precious and base metals in Argentina, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The company owns the Black Fox Mine and Stock Mill in Ontario, Canada, the Gold Bar mine in Nevada, the formerly-producing El Gallo Project in Sinaloa, Mexico, and Minera Santa Cruz S.A. (MSC), the owner and operator of the San Jose mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina. In addition to its operating properties, the company holds interests in advanced-stage and exploration-stage properties and projects in Argentina, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., including the Los Azules copper project in Argentina. The company's segments include Mexico, MSC, Nevada, Los Azules and Canada.

Meritage Homes Corporation

Meritage Homes is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is engaged in designing and building single-family homes. The company provides homes that are designed with a focus on first-time and first move-up buyers. The company also operates a title company, Carefree Title Agency, Inc. (Carefree Title). Carefree Title's core business includes title insurance and closing/settlement services the company provides to its homebuyers. The company operates an insurance broker, Meritage Homes Insurance Agency (Meritage Insurance). Meritage Insurance works in collaboration with insurance companies to provide homeowners insurance and other various insurance products to its homebuyers in the markets where the company builds homes.

National Storage Affiliates Trust

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust focused on the self storage sector. The company serves as the sole general partner of its operating partnership subsidiary, NSA OP, LP (operating partnership), to conduct its business, which is focused on the ownership, operation, and acquisition of self storage properties located within metropolitan statistical areas throughout the U.S. The company also owns certain of its self storage properties through other consolidated limited partnership subsidiaries of its operating partnership.

Newmont Corporation

Newmont is primarily a gold producer with operations and/or assets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Peru, Suriname, Argentina, Chile, Australia and Ghana. The company is also engaged in the production of copper, silver, lead and zinc. The company's operations are organized in five geographic regions; North America, South America, Australia, Africa and Nevada.

NovaGold Resources Inc.

NovaGold Resources is a mineral exploration company engaged in the exploration and development of gold and copper mineral properties. Co.'s primary focus is on the Donlin Gold project in Alaska. The Donlin Gold project is owned and operated by Donlin Gold LLC, a limited liability company that is owned equally by wholly owned subsidiaries of Co. and Barrick Gold Corporation. Co. also has an interest in the Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project in British Columbia, Canada. The Galore Creek project is held by a partnership owned equally by NOVAGOLD Canada Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Co., and by Teck Resources Limited.

Public Storage

Public Storage is a real estate investment trust. The company's business activities include: Self-storage Operations, which acquires, develops, owns and operates self-storage facilities that provide storage spaces for lease on a month-to-month basis, for personal and business use; Ancillary Operations, which reinsures policies against losses to goods stored by customers in the company's self-storage facilities and sells merchandise, mainly locks and cardboard boxes, at its self-storage facilities; and Investment in PS Business Parks Inc. (PSB), in which the company has an equity interest in PSB that owns, operates, acquires and develops commercial properties, mainly multi-tenant flex, office, and industrial parks.

ROYAL GOLD INC

Royal Gold acquires and manages precious metal streams, royalties and similar interests. The company acquires existing stream and royalty interests or finances projects that are in production or in the development stage in exchange for stream or royalty interests. A metal stream is a purchase agreement that provides, in exchange for an upfront deposit payment, the right to purchase all or a portion of one or more metals produced from a mine, at a price determined for the life of the transaction by the purchase agreement. Royalties are non-operating interests in mining projects that provide the right to a portion of revenue or metals produced from the project after deducting specified costs, if any.

Seabridge Gold

Seabridge Gold is a development stage company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of gold properties located in North America.

Skyline Champion Corporation

Skyline Champion is a producer of factory-built housing in the United States and Canada. The company serves as a solution provider across complementary and vertically integrated businesses including manufactured construction, company-owned retail locations, and transportation logistics services. The company produces a range of manufactured and modular homes under a variety of brand names and in a variety of floor plans and price ranges. While most of the homes the company builds are single-family, multi-section, ranch-style homes, it also builds two-story, single-section, and Cape Cod style homes as well as multi-family units such as town homes, apartments, duplexes, and triplexes.

Taylor Morrison Home Corporation

Taylor Morrison Home is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company owns and operates a residential homebuilding business and is a developer of lifestyle communities. The company provides a variety of homes across a range of price points. The company operates under the Taylor Morrison and Darling Homes brand names. The company also provides financial services to customers through its mortgage subsidiary, Taylor Morrison Home Funding, LLC, title insurance and closing settlement services through its title company, Inspired Title Services, LLC, and homeowner's insurance policies through its insurance agency, Taylor Morrison Insurance Services, LLC. The company's segments are: East, Central, West and Financial Services.

William Lyon Homes Class A

Lyon (William) Homes is a regional homebuilder. The company is primarily engaged in the design, construction, marketing and sale of single-family detached and attached homes in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Texas. The company's primary markets include Orange County, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Austin and San Antonio. The company builds and sells across a range of product lines at a variety of price points with sales to entry-level, first-time move-up and second-time move-up homebuyers, as well as a luxury brand and an active adult target segment.

Provider
Vermilion Research
Vermilion Research

Vermilion Research delivers timely, actionable, and unique research inputs to professional investors. Our research strategists highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various proprietary technical indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. We believe our research methodology, which is not limited by industry sector or market capitalization, enables us to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing all actively traded stocks into coherent sectors, then into logical industry groups. We then apply our proprietary relative strength tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sectors or groups, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. Vermilion offers U.S. and global equity market research products. Vermilion’s research team, which has received numerous awards and accolades, has a combined 70 year of experience in the analysis of investment securities.

Analysts
Dave Nicoski

Ross LaDuke

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