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the week’s highlights

Every day ROB Insight delivers exclusive analysis on breaking business news and market-moving events. Streetwise offers news and analysis on Bay Street and the world of finance. Inside the Market delivers up-to-the-minute insights on market news as it develops.

Here are our editors' picks of some of the best reads available to Globe Unlimited subscribers this week.

Reading the tea leaves on housing market

Dire warnings of a big and sudden correction in housing prices have been bandied about for some time. Other market observers, however, suggest any correction will be gradual and relatively pain-free. So who's right? In Inside the Market, Scott Barlow digs down into the data on consumer spending and housing price growth to uncover a correlation that may offer a clue as to what's to come.

When will Power get its mojo back?

The financial services sector has had a pretty solid record of dividend hikes, but the onset of the financial crisis six years ago put an end to that winning streak. Most of the Canadian firms in the sector have returned to form since then, with the notable holdouts of Power Corp. of Canada and subsidiary Power Financial. To get a bead on when they might join their peers, writes Sean Silcoff in ROB Insight, it's necessary to take a look at what's going on at the unit that is Power Financial's main driver of profits, and its own prospects for getting the payout train back on its tracks.

TSX lays down new law on reverse takeovers

While the appointment of a new CEO this week was certainly big news for the TSX, the new rules that came into effect regarding reverse takeovers may be an even bigger story. Previously, such deals were deemed "backdoor listings" when there was an effective change in control of the listed issuer or certain share ownership thresholds were breached – essentially a matter of crunching the numbers. Now a much wider range of criteria must be satisfied before the TSX gives its blessing on transactions. In Streetwise, Niall McGee looks at the altered landscape for reverse takeovers.

A REIT worth looking at

REITs this year have been a little like the guy standing alone in the corner at the prom. The sector as a whole this year has advanced a mere 4 per cent to date, less than half the overall gain made by the S&P/TSX composite. Concerns about the likelihood of interest rates rising in 2015 has hovered over REITs – the likely culprit for depressed unit prices. But it's not all bleak, writes Gordon Pape in Inside the Market, who explains why one TSX-listed REIT based in Texas and holding a portfolio consisting of U.S. properties has caught his eye and may be attractive for investors looking for a little more yield.

Hong Kong nears tipping point

For the most part, Beijing has exercised restraint in its response to the masses that have taken to the streets of Hong Kong to demand democracy, but tensions have been rising and a more vigorous crackdown is looming into view. With the region's economy already suffering a contraction in the second quarter, what will happen next could have serious repercussions for Hong Kong, its economy, and China itself. In ROB Insight, Brian Milner examines the stakes.

Insider trading prosecutions get harder

Proving illegal insider trading has taken place has never been easy in Canada, a fact which may account for the relatively small number of prosecutions brought. Even when adjusting for differences in population the U.S. prosecutes 17 time more cases than Canadian regulators do. And now the job isn't going to get any easier for them in Alberta, Adrian Myers writes in Streetwise, where he examines a case that may well make it more difficult to secure successful prosecutions.

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