Weekly Insight

January 27, 2018 | Ronald J. Wilcock


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January 27, 2018 - Insights into the equity , fixed-income, currency and commodity markets from RBC Wealth Management.

Diane and I are headed to the Leadership Waterloo Region “Fire and Ice” Gala tonight at Bingemans Ballroom with some friends. Rotary is presenting a very prestigious Paul Harris award to Pat Singleton, Executive Director of the Cambridge Self Help Food Bank. There will also be dinner, an auction, live band, and other entertainment. Proceeds from the fundraiser go to support community leadership development programs.

 

This Past Week; So far this year North America has been the tale of two markets. While US equity markets have had a great start, moving up fairly steadily; by contrast, the Canadian market has gone up a little, down a little, up a little, down a little. As of Thursday, the TSX was flat at 0% for the month and year to date. Friday it was 0.2% - up a little. The two countries’ currencies have continued to move in opposite directions as well, with the CAD continuing to gain ground. This is partly due to the Bank of Canada rate hikes, but also due to weakness in the USD. Although he denied it this week, President Trump has spoken numerous times about wanting a weak US dollar to help with their foreign trade. At some point we feel the CAD should move lower again, especially if NAFTA negotiations do not end well. How the currencies move in the meantime is dependent on a number of transpiring factors.

 

 

2017 – The numbers are in and it was another fantastic year of results for our Proprietary Guided Portfolios! The RBC DS system of, by far the most and the best analysts, along with the highest level of Wealth Management offerings in the industry, then combined with a 34 year track record of Outperforming the Markets/Benchmarks, is unmatched in the industry and continues!

 

2018 – Our analysts see a very low chance of recession historically speaking. While we never know what can happen, at this point our main recessionary indicators are not even yellow never mind red. We are all green for go or growth. One of my favorite and most seasoned analysts, DS Portfolio Strategist Jim Allworth, likes to say we can predict recessions but, we can’t predict pullbacks. They are a normal part of a Secular Bull Market. Given everything we know at this point in time, we wouldn’t be surprised at all to see a normal market pullback in 2018 (especially since we did not have one in 2017). We would expect though, that it will be a buying opportunity and markets would move upward and onward from that. There are certainly no promises, guarantees, or assurances. There are different geographical regions and markets, and potential uncertainties so we never know what regional markets and the year will give us. Having said that; our analysts believe we should give equities the benefit of the doubt.

 

Global Insight WEEKLY

Stocks haven’t been slowed by the yield sign

January 25, 2018

 

The Weekend/Weather; There is drizzle in the forecast for today. Then colder weather moves in with the possibility of snow Sunday and Monday.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

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