With the U.S. election behind us it has removed some uncertainty. The new administration coming in looks to be more pro-business for U.S. companies including the desire to reduce regulations. This is a positive however, some potential drawbacks would be the threat of tariffs. The start of 2025 does appear to look good for North America.

     The markets remain at all-time highs and yes by all metrics they appear expensive. I would expect this to continue until year end as most investors do not want to create taxable events before the close of the year. I would welcome a nice pullback at the start of 2025 of which should still be bought. 

     Semi-conductors and technology stocks remain extremely strong, and this is an area I am a little wary of as eventually the huge initial demand will be met and the huge growth models some of these companies project could come back to reality. Now having said that the build out for data centers using power and the need for cooling still remains as viable areas of investment. With the potential for reduced regulation, this could be a huge positive for the financials with central banks around the globe lowering interest rates. We like the financial area going forward.
     In Canada I am sure we will have some political headlines but at the end of the day we are still the main trading partner of the U.S. It could be a nice positive for Canada should the U.S. put more tariffs on China especially for our metal and mining companies and we are watching this area carefully.  Aside from this, copper remains a main component in data center growth, and we are invested accordingly.
     China remains uninvestable for the time being and Europe appears to be in some political turmoil so we will sit on the sidelines and watch how this plays out.
    All in all, it appears to be a good start to 2025 but no matter what happens we will adapt accordingly. Thank you for a good 2024 and on behalf of the whole team I would like to wish you a very good and healthy holiday season.