Cardinal Quarterly – Jan 2017
Market Outlook – After a weak 2015 and a dismal start to 2016, global markets ended up doing reasonably well with Canada being a star performer. The fact that oil prices increased by 70% from their 2016 lows certainly helped, but so too did the continued strength of the U.S. economy. This allowed the market to shrug off concerns of slowing Chinese growth earlier in the year as well as surprise negative events like Brexit. Markets even jumped after Donald Trump’s election victory even though up to the election they had been falling every time he inched ahead in the polls. There is a saying that bull markets climb a wall of worry as they move higher and 2016 certainly fits the bill.
Click here to read more: Cardinal Quarterly – January 2017
Provisus – Investment Review Q4 2016
MARKET COMMENT – Dramatic twists and turns in politics, economics and finance have turned 2016 on its head. Extreme events have bombarded investors virtually every day of late but thankfully they appear to be isolated occurrences. Still, the potential blight on the global economic and financial markets (i.e. political uncertainty; the steep increases in bond yields; a potential hard landing in China; and trade wars) could be looked upon with trepidation during the next year. This would be a very wrong outlook as a bevy of market stimulating activities are just over the horizon.
Click here to read more – Investment Review – Q4 2016
DM Monthly Newsletter – Jan 2017
IN EQUITY MANAGEMENT, SIZE CAN MATTER – Investment management is one of the new businesses in which size can be a detriment. Manufacturers with great scale are able to undercut competition on project bids, huge retailers can secure lower prices from product makers by buying in volume, and large pharma companies often maintain their edge by snapping up smaller competitors with successful or promising innovations. In managing portfolios, though, being big can be a significant hindrance to performance, especially in Canada where our equity markets lack the liquidity of large exchangers. In opening a portfolio position, a manager must not only be sure that the required number of shares can be purchased without flooding the market and driving up price, he or she must think about the possible future exit point and whether there are typically enough shares traded to absorb the holding in a timely fashion.
Click here to read more: DM-Monthly-Report-Jan-17
Three trends that will drive Canada’s economy in 2017
There are three trends that will guide the Canadian economy in 2017. Those are:
- the strength, or lack thereof, of oil prices;
- domestic housing developments; and
- whether the U.S. economy continues to improve.
So says Russell Investments’ 2017 Global Market Outlook, which calls for modest growth in the coming year for Canada.
“Moderate improvement in the price of oil and reasonable growth of the U.S. economy are weighed down by debt-laden households,” says Shailesh Kshatriya, director of Canadian strategies at Russell Investments Canada Limited. “We expect domestic equities to be positive, but without the exuberance of 2016. However, domestic bonds likely will be challenged as lacklustre fundamentals may be partially offset by rising yields in the U.S. […] On balance, we see 2017 economic growth in the range of 1.6% to 2%.”
