Washington DC became intensely angry at British Petroleum during the Gulf oil spill, partly because BP was stingy with information. Washington should remember its anger, because that’s what many American investors and businesses leaders feel right now about the lack of information about what tax rates will be in 2011.

This isn’t a surprise. For almost a decade, everyone has known this day was coming. On January 1, 2011, the top income tax rate on ordinary income and dividends will go back to 39.6%, the top tax rate on capital gains will revert to 20%, and the top tax rate on estates will go back to 55%.-continued

The Raymond James Canadian Focus Picks Portfolio is a mutual fund that invests in securities that make up the Raymond James Canadian Focus Picks List.

Stock selection for the Fund is a bottom-up process anchored by recommendations from Raymond James Canadian Research Analysts.-continued

Resulting primarily from successful stock selection whereby several holdings had particularly large gains, the portfolio outperformed the benchmark during July, generating a total return of 5.06%.

With investors proving to be less risk averse, all but one sector moved higher during the period, led by Technology, Consumer Staples, and Utilities, while Materials was the only declining group-continued

The technical outlook continues to be that the market will likely trade in a downward saw tooth pattern. This trading pattern is similar to what was seen in the second year of past recoveries in 2004 and 1994, and most akin to 1983-1984. If the market were to follow the 1983-1984 pattern, the consolidation phase could last until Q1 of next year.

This consolidation phase occurs, as is being seen again today, with a peak in earnings momentum (i.e., rate of change) and economic momentum. From a technical trading perspective, the market will likely continue to rotate from cyclicals to defensives, following seasonal trading patterns, some of which are discussed below.-continued

During the month we added Metro Inc. (MRU.A). Based on our updated price survey of the grocery industry, pricing among the incumbents relative to Wal-Mart has stabilized over the past year.

Going forward, we expect industry participants to behave in a disciplined fashion, which will be positive for the incumbents, including MRU.A.-continued

The objective of the First Trust Global Capital Strength Portfolio, a mutual fund trust (the “Fund”), is to provide investors potential long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities traded on a U.S. exchange or market.

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in equity securities of companies that are based in a global market or have significant business operations in global markets. The equity securities in which the Fund will invest include common shares and American Depository Receipts (“ADRs”) traded on a U.S. exchange or market.-continued