Michael's Blog

Artificial intelligence is seldom out of the headlines in 2025, with defining developments coming one after another. Today we’ll examine where AI is today and how its promise is matched against technological, economic, and geopolitical challenges. In...

The U.S. Recession Scorecard created and maintained by our investment committee at RBC has historically been a very useful tool in its ability to decipher the state of the U.S. Economy. There could not be a more timely moment to revisit this. For those...

I have written somewhat regularly about the importance of emerging economies. Today we’ll examine this theme from the lens of globe trade & geo-politics. The geopolitical order continues to shift amid fracturing trade ties and high tariff levels, raising...

While U.S. tariffs revenue continues to rise, trade exemptions have softened the macro impact. As uncertainty looms and costs gradually pass through, balancing resilient corporate fundamentals against policy is the order of the day. The weighted average...

A clear winner from the Fed’s 25 basis point rate cut was the U.S. Treasury, which can roll over maturing debt at lower costs. Lower rates however, are unlikely to make the country’s fiscal policy sustainable. Even with the Fed’s assistance, U.S. borrowing...

With the Fed poised to lower overnight interest rates next week, investors may be disappointed with the ultimate outcome. Rate cuts are too blunt to deal with many of the issues facing the U.S. economy. Let’s look at the potential asset-class implications...

September has rarely been a favourable time for investors. Let’s examine to why stocks tend to fall off this time of year (pun intended). The S&P 500 is up 30 % since the tariff scare low in April and 10 % year to date. Since 1928, the S&P 500 has declined...

Let’s take a detailed examination of the attractive areas of the European equity market. This summer has brought heavy news flow in Europe – namely German infrastructure spending to the U.S.-EU trade deal and diplomatic talks on the war in Ukraine. The...

The S&P 500 uptrend reached an all-time high this week, but there could be more challenges for the remainder of Q3 and moving into Q4. Momentum indicators are now overbought and turning down following a 30 % rebound by the S&P 500 from the oversold levels...