Last evening over dinner I had the privilege of reaffirming valued connection with Mark Kennedy, Executive Director, Forest Products Equity Research at CIBC World Markets. Mark was in Vancouver ahead of CIBC’s 17th Annual Whistler Institutional Investor Conference, happening tomorrow through Saturday at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. This prestigious conference is invitation only, with presentations from over 90 prominent North American companies forming the agenda. The forest products component will feature senior executives presenting from Interfor, Conifex, Western Forest, West Fraser, and Canfor.

Mark described the U.S. housing market as “red hot” in 2013, while suggesting growth will continue more gradually in 2014. He emphasized that new home building in the U.S. is occurring at a much lower rate than fundamental long-term demand. In anticipation of a strong North American lumber market through 2015, Mark continues to recommend building products equities, including CFP, WFT, IFP.A, WEF, CFF, and NBD.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Andrey Omelchak, Portfolio Manager at Montrusco Bolton Investments, and Ali Qureshi, Institutional Equity Sales at CIBC World Markets. Evidence of fragility in all market elements these days came to the fore in the lively exchange of questions streaming between financial markets expertise and a lumber trader’s cash-wood implication interests.

With Mark Kennedy, 1-21-14