With 2024 coming to a close we will likely see these strong markets continue until year end. A lot of talk on how overstretched the market is and I agree in certain areas it does feel a little over extended and definitely not cheap.

     With the U.S. election over in the US it now presents us with policies regarding potential tariffs as a negative but many positives with the potential to remove a lot of over-regulation policies and reduced taxes and a pro U.S. business bias. On top of all of this we have the huge growth potential of Artificial Intelligence and the build out of data centers that will require large power demands.  All of these factors have been a big benefit to U.S. markets and this theme looks to continue into 2025.

     Until we know what the new administration is going to levy in tariffs to our country we remain in a state of uncertainty and have been demonstrating this in our large Canadian companies. Our central bank continues on a path to lowering rates as our economy is not showing the same strength as the U.S. We are the largest trading partner to the U.S. so I expect this short term positioning playing out in the media will be solved early in the new administrations tenure. The demand for AI power will be a benefit to our country be it in nuclear (which I feel is years away) or Natural Gas (the most likely) this provides a nice potential growth going forward.

     In the portfolios we have been building up some more money on the sidelines as I do feel we are due for some sort of sell on the news but with all the above mentioned facts we will be taking advantage of these pullbacks to purchase financials (lower regulation) and oil & gas with a leaning to more natural gas and some more U.S. technology (cybersecurity).

     I would like to wish everyone a great holiday season and a Happy New Year and I look forward to a great 2025. Thank you for your continued trust in our team.