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Q4 2023 Investment Commentary and Outlook
After being largely range bound for most of 2023, markets rallied substantially in Q4 as inflation continued trending down and the consensus began to price in central bank rate cuts for 2024. The result was a pretty decent year in the markets which saw gains across all major asset classes. This was ...
January 11, 2024 05:18 PM - Comment(s)
Q3 2023 Investment Commentary and Outlook
Similar to Q2, equity markets were largely range-bound in Q3, as positive economic news was offset by stronger inflation and therefore higher interest rates. You can see the impact of this most acutely for Bonds, which were amongst the worst performing asset class on a 3 month and 1 year basis. To u...
October 05, 2023 11:04 PM - Comment(s)
Q2 2023 Investment Commentary and Outlook
Markets were range-bound in Q2, as positive economic news was offset by stronger inflation and therefore higher interest rates. A notable exception was significant upside for companies involved in AI. We are not inclined to chase this trade as big-tech valuations which were high to begin with have b...
July 08, 2023 09:57 PM - Comment(s)
Q1 2023 Investment Commentary and Outlook

Easing inflation and resilient economic growth allowed markets to continue the recovery that began in Q4. While the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was a temporary setback, most major asset classes still ended the quarter higher.




WHERE ARE INTEREST RATES HEADED?


Rising interest rates have alread...

April 10, 2023 11:19 AM - Comment(s)
Market Update
As you may know, last week Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) became the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history. We wanted to provide you with a brief note explaining what happened, what’s next and how it impacts our portfolio strategy. 

WHAT HAPPENED?


During the pandemic, SVB which primarily deals w...
March 14, 2023 09:47 PM - Comment(s)
Q4 2022 Investment Commentary and Outlook
Markets staged a recovery in Q4 on the back of easing inflation and resilient economic growth. This helped recoup some of the losses investors experienced in 2022, but we still saw both global stocks and bonds down double digits through the year. This is quite unusual, as bonds tend to perform well ...
January 13, 2023 11:25 AM - Comment(s)
Q3 2022 Investment Commentary and Outlook

All market cycles are unique, but the last 3 years have been a roller coaster like nothing we’ve seen before. The pandemic prompted the S&P 500 to experience the fastest 30% correction in history, then the second fastest recovery of all time. Exorbitant stimulus and rock-bottom inte...

October 11, 2022 02:26 PM - Comment(s)
Q2 2022 Investment Commentary and Outlook
Markets continued selling off in Q2 as persistently high and rising inflation forces central banks to raise interest rates. The effect was felt most acutely in speculative assets like cryptocurrency (-70% from the highs), ARK Innovation fund (-72%), long-term bonds (-32%), technology stocks (NASDAQ ...
July 07, 2022 09:31 AM - Comment(s)
Q1 2022 Investment Commentary and Outlook
Markets have had an exceptional run since the pandemic lows, in which nearly every major asset class posted significant gains. In sharp contrast, this quarter saw nearly every major asset class fall. Fortunately, our client portfolios outperformed due to our maximum underweight in bonds and growth s...
April 09, 2022 06:22 PM - Comment(s)
Market Update
As you know, on February 24th, Russia launched a large-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The news is unfolding rapidly and covered in great detail by news outlets, brave journalists and individuals, so we will not re-hash those details here. Instead, we’ll be focusing on the impact of this crisis ...
March 06, 2022 09:25 PM - Comment(s)
Q4 2021 Investment Commentary and Outlook

Volatility picked up in Q4 as the underlying strength of the economic recovery was challenged by Omicron and persistently high inflation, which has prompted central banks to discuss interest rate increases. Meanwhile, existing government stimulus measures have been winding down and renewed stimulus ...

January 07, 2022 07:20 PM - Comment(s)
Q3 2021 Investment Commentary and Outlook

Coming into this quarter, markets had already priced in much of the good news. Support from governments and central banks, effective vaccines, economic reopening, strong consumer balance sheets and an expectation this money would unleash a wave of spending. We believe this thesis is still intact, bu...

October 12, 2021 07:09 PM - Comment(s)
Q2 2021 Investment Commentary and Outlook
This past quarter saw markets continue to grind higher, with Canadian equities leading the way. The narrative we’ve held since March 2020, that vaccines and record stimulus from governments and central banks would lead to a broad based recovery, continues to take shape. Identifying these forces earl...
July 04, 2021 09:06 PM - Comment(s)
Q1 2021 Investment Commentary and Outlook
It seems the narrative we’ve had since early March has become the central thesis for investors. Stimulus from central banks and governments has helped the economy weather the pandemic storm and seems set to continue supporting the recovery. The recovery thus far has focused on technology and manufac...
April 05, 2021 11:42 PM - Comment(s)
Q4 2020 Investment Commentary and Outlook

2020 was a roller-coaster for investors who experienced one of the sharpest contractions and subsequent rebounds in history. Looking back, it’s easy to forget just how scary March was and think the subsequent recovery was obvious and predictable, but hindsight is 2020 (sorry, I couldn’t...

January 10, 2021 10:02 PM - Comment(s)
Market Update

With covid-19 cases rising, promising developments on the vaccine front and US election results, we thought it was a good time to provide a brief market update.


Let’s start with the bad news; cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are all trending worryingly higher. This has led to restrictions and targ...

November 09, 2020 06:22 PM - Comment(s)
Q3 2020 Investment Commentary and Outlook

Markets climbed ever higher in Q3 on the back of ongoing monetary and fiscal stimulus from central banks and governments. Balanced portfolios saw gains in the mid single digits as every asset class posted positive returns for the quarter.




While returns since markets bottomed in March have been signif...

October 08, 2020 12:03 PM - Comment(s)
COVID-19 Update
Since our last quarterly update markets have continued to climb, benefiting from government and central bank stimulus and the gradual economic reopening. While we remain positive about the long-term outlook, thee are some cracks beginning to show that make us more cautious over the near-term. In sho...
August 13, 2020 01:03 PM - Comment(s)
Q2 2020 Investment Commentary and Outlook
2020 has taken investors on a record setting roller coaster with the S&P 500 experiencing the fastest 30% correction in history, followed by the largest 50-day rally in history.




While we were caught off guard in the initial sell-off, diversification softened the blow and provided us the opportuni...
July 04, 2020 09:15 PM - Comment(s)
Q1 2020 Investment Commentary and Outlook

As always, I like to start off each quarterly commentary discussing how the market has performed, then we’ll talk about the outlook. Q1 2020 has been a rough ride for investors to put it mildly. We experienced the fastest bear market in history with global markets falling roughly 30% in less than 1 ...

April 07, 2020 09:31 PM - Comment(s)

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