To my clients:

It was an up week for North American stock markets with the Canadian TSX finishing up 0,7%; the U.S. Dow Jones Index up 0.7%; and the U.S.S&P 500 up 2.7%.

Short update this week…

Solid earnings were reported by a number of U.S. client holdings this week, notably Alphabet (aka Google), Microsoft and Union Pacific. These results contributed to an overall good week for U.S. client portfolios, and supports the recent shift to a slightly heavier weighting in U.S. equities vs. Canadian equities. As I’ve mentioned, I’ll likely stretch this weighting a bit more toward the U.S. in the weeks ahead. Next week, two more U.S. heavyweights (also held in client portfolios) report – Amazon and Apple.

As I said when 2024 began, the “heavy lifting” of solid portfolio returns in 2023 attributed largely to a recovery in stock valuations (i.e. how much an investor is willing to pay for every $1 in earnings) from the declines seen in these same valuations 2022. As I also noted when the year began, given that stock valuations have now recovered to the high end of their historical range, the concomitant heavy lifting in 2024 would necessarily need to shift to better earnings. So far (in the U.S at least), I’d have to give a “check” to this particular expectation.

That’s it for this week. All the best,

Nick

Nick Scholte, CIM, FCSI

Senior Portfolio Manager

Scholte Wealth Management
RBC Dominion Securities Inc. │ Tel: 604.257.7569 │ Fax: 604.235.9950
3200-1055 West Georgia │ Vancouver, BC │ V6E 3P3
Toll Free: 1.844.665.9900 │Email: nick.scholte@rbc.com

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