With the stock market on a tear, closing up five straight weeks in a row, many dividend bloggers have begun to echo the sentiment about finding relative bargains again.

China caused waves across our portfolio. First of all, in an admission that something was needed to set GNP growth back on track, China cut interest rates in a new stimulus initiative.

Realistically, a 5% tax rise should prompt a 5% spending cut, with the earning power lost to inflation adding more belt tightening. You can't squeeze blood from a stone. Workers have no money.

The Eurozone is suffering from restricted growth according to the European Commission which now forecasts that 2014 growth will be 0.8% overall for the 18 countries in the currency bloc. This is well below the earlier forecast of 1.2% growth, which was already low.

BMO currently yields a generous 3.80% with a moderate payout ratio of 51.1%.

Commodity prices do not move in lockstep with each other. In the olden days, people used the price of copper to forecast economic growth.