Monthly Message

The Wutherich & Co. Composite was down 1.4% in December. This compares with the S&P 500, down 1.6%, the DJIA down 1.5%, the NASDAQ down 2.0%, the S&P/TSX down 3.1%, while the BMO Small Cap Index was down 2.7%.

December marked the close of another difficult year for the Wutherich & Co. Portfolio. This time we were not alone. The markets, in general, were weak. Low commodity prices, oil in particular, were a main culprit as ripple effects were felt throughout the world economy. While our direct exposure to the energy space in the Wutherich & Co Portfolio is less than 15%, many of our names have indirect exposure. Examples would be ZCL Composites, Parkland Fuel, Badger Daylighting and Stantec, which generate a portion of their revenues from energy companies. The market may be ignoring how strong the balances of their businesses are. And so, we are happy to own them and add more when we get a chance. With perhaps one or two exceptions, we feel that all of our names can survive a sustained weak environment and many of them will be able to grow. Consequently, we are optimistic on the long term appreciation potential of the portfolio.

Note: We have reclassified several of our stocks in our Portfolio Composition section. This has caused significant changes in the weightings that you will see on the next page.

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