The Globe and Mail attempts to identify value stocks that are not carrying high debt levels and are less sensitive to interest rates hikes in its Friday edition. The Globe's guest columnist Julie Michaels writes in the Number Cruncher column that as 2016 comes to an end, investors turn their focus to their strategies for next year. The Federal Reserve hiked the key rate by a quarter percentage point in December, with many anticipating the trend to continue next year. While the Bank of Canada has not followed suit yet, that might very well change in 2017. With that in mind, Ms. Michaels wanted to identify value buys that also have low sensitivity to interest-rate hikes. To achieve that, she focused on stocks that carry low levels of debt and generate sufficient earnings to pay their interest. She ranked stocks on the best combination of three-month analyst revisions, price-to-trailing earnings, price-to-forward earnings, price to book and price-to-trailing cash flow. Companies had to have a market cap greater than $330-million. Stocks carrying lower levels of debt are Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Rogers Sugar, TFI International, West Fraser Timber and Westshore Terminals Investment.