If 2022 was the year that Central banks waged war on an overheated economy, then 2023 was the year that markets fought back. In the face of persistent inflation central bankers in North America continued to hike interest rates for the first half of the year. Investors, at least south of the border, had different ideas. The S&P500 took flight in the middle of March and didn’t look back until the end of July. It’s no secret that Artificial Intelligence was the catalyst as ordin

Public Market Highlights The third quarter was a quieter one for central bankers, as only one rate hiked was announced in each Canada and the US. Inflation numbers did not see much movement, and public investors responded by selling assets for fear of more hikes to come. Bond prices and equity prices in North America fell in Q3, meanwhile those investors with a private investment allocation in their portfolios faired better with less volatility. Overall, the S&P 500 (in CAD)

The second quarter offered positive but mixed results for equity investors. Strong gains in big tech facilitated a welcome rebound for investors who suffered the biggest declines on their growth portfolios in 2022. Once again, a small handful of the stocks on the S&P500 accounted for most of the return, suggesting that it remains a marketplace with very little breadth (strength across multiple sectors). The S&P500 USD total return was 8.74%, however the Canadian dollar invest

It seems like every quarter there is something new to discuss. Some piece of financial news that grabs our attention and has people speculating about a roll on effect. The big news story this quarter was the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. In a nutshell, the decision makers of this mid-sized US bank made a bad judgement call and invested the majority of the banks reserve assets into long term bonds that lost value as interest rates rose. A classic bank run starts with rumour

The fourth quarter brought some relief to investors as most asset classes experienced strong rallies. On the equity front, major North American indexes were up roughly 5-7% while the MSCI World index rallied 9.4%. The recovery in Q4 was welcome news after a disappointing year during which both the S&P500 and the MSCI World index fell roughly 20%. With rising costs and slowing growth, the technology sector was hit the hardest, falling 33% last year (NASDAQ) and failing to rega

The month of July, and some of August, offered a brief reprieve from the Bearish sentiment that has dominated public markets since the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, for most investors, that reprieve did not last and capital flowed back to treasuries and other short term instruments. By September 30th the most broadly held Balanced funds in Canada were down over 14% on the year. When investing in individual companies our portfolio management team is not guided by near

Public markets continued to trend steeply downward in Q2, as hawkish central bank policy and higher interest rates sent investors running for safety. News headlines about geopolitical conflicts, like the war in Ukraine, were replaced by recession talk and uncertain financial guidance from corporate executives. Some of the hardest hit stocks were those that carried the market to new highest only a few months ago (Tesla, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft to name a few). Bonds price

Our last commentary touched on the dramatic drop in global markets that occurred in January, as investors began to digest the removal of monetary stimulus from the system by central banks. After a brief reprieve from the indiscriminate selling in January, the picture again turned negative as Russia’s impending invasion of Ukraine become ever more apparent. When all was said and done it was one of the poorest starts to a year for global stocks as the S&P500 fell 5.7% in CAD in

After taking a breather in the middle of July, North American stock markets continued their climb through the summer before ultimately dropping off in the Month of September for a negative finish to the quarter. Historically speaking, September has been the worst month for markets so it should come as no surprise to investors to experience some volatility in the fall. This September the US “Debt Ceiling” headlines resurfaced in parallel with well-foreshadowed news that the US

Q3 2020 - Investment Update Equity markets had another strong quarter led by mega-cap technology stocks, which we increased in our Balanced and Growth portfolios this quarter. The main story continues to be global central banks and government stimulus driving money into markets, most specifically the largest and most liquid companies on the planet, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. More recently, we seem to be witnessing a tug-of war between “stay-at-home” stocks

After a strong month of October, volatility roared back into equity markets in November and December. The S&P 500 delivered 9.4% in the 4th Quarter while the TSX delivered 6.91%. Mega-cap companies have been the largest beneficiaries of easy monetary policy as they have soaked up most of the liquidity. Looking back at 2021, an analysis completed by Goldman Sachs shows that the majority of the growth on the S&P 500 was attributed to the 5 most popular technology companies: App

Global stock markets got off to a good start in 2021 with most markets rising quickly for the first 6 weeks of the year. What followed was a sell-off lasting nearly 3 weeks as markets re-treated before stabilizing and recovering later in March. Bonds had a poor start to the year, reversing all the gains they made in 2020, with the Canadian Universe Bond Index falling 5.60% for the quarter. With more economies poised to reopen later this year, the three major central banks (Ja

Summer is here, and it couldn’t have come soon enough! After what was initially perceived by many as an underwhelming vaccine rollout, Canada has surged into the lead globally with regards to vaccinating its population against COVID19, and with that much of Canada finally entered their long-awaited re-opening phases! Hooray! With more economies re-opening, stock markets have begun shifting priorities. In Q2 there was a large dispersion amongst equity sectors with cyclical sec

After experiencing a massive market shock in February and March, global stock markets responded much more quickly than most asset managers anticipated in Q2. The unquestionable driving factor behind this rally was massive financial stimulus from central banks and governments alike. As the pandemic driven shut-down of the economy wore on however, the stock market quickly disconnected from fundamental data and a steep rally continued through the end of May. One popular thesis f

The sky is falling, or so it would seem. After all, the situation we are finding ourselves in is not one that has occurred in anyone’s lifetime – young or old. We have seen viruses before. We have also seen diseases, wars, famines, and great recessions to name a few. Never have we, as a global society, been faced with such a common threat, such commonality in our vulnerabilities. Make no mistake, humanity will overcome this challenge. There will be some tragic loss alon

Write or type out all of the expenses that are coming due at the beginning of the month these include things like rent/mortgage, food, utilities, gas, insurance, and other debt like car payments and credit cards. It is possible you may need to tap into emergency funds to pay these amounts because your income slowed down or even stopped the past couple of weeks. Determine the “must-pays” Food and rent/mortgage should be at the top of this list while the other items come after.

So much has happened since our last Quarterly update, it is hard to compile these thoughts into a concise message. When the year began, we were all marveling at the images of Chinese construction workers scrambling to build an entirely new hospital in just seven days. “How could they accomplish such an incredible feat in such a small amount of time?” Taken aback by the “how”, many of us were distracted from understanding “why”, and what would ultimately follow. When the year

A year to remem…..forget? 2020 has come and gone. What a wild and weird year it was – one that will most certinaly be remembered as a year to be forgotten. After global markets suffered a major shock amid the early stages of the COVID pandemic, stock prices rallied through the back half of the year. In the fourth quarter, the S&P 500 (CAD) rose 6.61% and the TSX Composite gained 8.97%. Meanwhile, the COVID pandemic has raged on. Phenomenally, the US market appears immune to t

Looking back at 2019 Looking back at 2019 Most global markets got off to a roaring start as they recovered from the sharp selling behavior seen in Q4 2018. For the following 6 months, markets struggled to gain traction as investors digested an overwhelming amount of geo-political news. A US China trade war, a tightly contested Canadian Election, and the Impeachment of US President Donald Trump were among the headlines dominating the investment news cycle in 2019. Meanwhile, o

Market Update Once again global markets were led by North America in the third Quarter. Most countries struggled to keep up with Canada and the United States which squeaked out 1.69% and 1.19% growth respectively. Several economic indicators in Canada and the US – such as wage and employment growth, and consumer spending – remain strong. However, cracks are appearing in the manufacturing sector and investors began to rotate away from growth sectors in Q3 in anticipation of a