I recently attended the Fall Due Diligence meeting for one of North America’s largest fixed income money management firms - Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO for short).  Within the walls of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), I had the opportunity to interact with PIMCO’s portfolio managers, investment professionals, and other industry colleagues to discuss and debate the outlook for the global markets and the economy. 

On October 5, 2017 while on the floor of the NYSE for the closing bell, we experienced a truly remarkable day as the DOW Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all closed the day with new record highs! Here is the television clip from that historic day. 

If you look closely at the photo, you might notice that I celebrated this event by "accidentally photobombing” CNBC’s coverage of the closing bell …..

 

 

President Donald Trump’s Agenda

One of my favorite presentations was Libby Cantrill’s presentation on PIMCO’s outlook for President Trump’s Agenda. Libby is a Vice President and Head of Public Policy at PIMCO and has a strong background in politics, including working directly with U.S. Congress members focusing on fiscal and economic policy.  I feel that this makes her uniquely qualified to address the issues facing President Trump and the Republicans.

In her presentation one of the biggest points Libby made was how policy uncertainty is here to stay in the United States and that the troubles that Trump and the Republicans have faced with healthcare will likely continue as they try to push to get their tax reform approved.

U.S. Federal Reserve

While on the airplane to New York, I read a very interesting piece published by RBC Global Asset Management detailing their outlook on the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed). In the report it shared that 12 out of 16 Fed participants expect to see another U.S. interest rate hike by the end of 2017, with three more to follow in 2018. The publication also included a number of RBC’s market estimates that I wanted to share with you as well:

• The Canadian Dollar is currently sitting around 80 cents U.S., and in September RBC’s analysts forecasted that we can expect to see it drop by 2% to be worth 78 cents U.S. in September 2018.
• RBC’s current expectation for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Oil is for the price per barrel to be $48.47 U.S. at the end of 2017 and expect to see it rise to $50 U.S. per barrel by the end of 2018. For comparison the current price for WTI Oil is around $51.10 U.S. per barrel.
• RBC’s expectation for Natural Gas is that it will be worth $3.01 U.S. per mmBTU at the end of 2017 with a slight decrease to $3 U.S. per mmBTU by the end of 2018 (mmBTU is a measurement of energy in fuel in case you didn’t know). The current price is around the $2.94 U.S. per mmBTU.
• Our analysts predict that by the end of 2017 the price of gold will be $1,269 U.S. per ounce and that by the end of 2018 we will see the price of gold reach $1,300 U.S. per ounce. Currently the price of gold is sitting around $1,286 U.S. per ounce.

New Investment Opportunities

I have been a long-term supporter of PIMCO and more specifically two of their investment mandates (PIMCO Monthly Income Fund and PIMCO Investment Grade Credit). In New York I was able to discuss the PIMCO products I already recommend with the managers making the decisions within the portfolios.  I also had the opportunity to learn about new and innovative products I had yet to consider. Although my team and I are still in the process of performing our internal due diligence on this investment opportunity we are always on the lookout for the right opportunity to improve investment returns while reducing volatility within the portfolios that we manage.   

My mandate is to provide an investment experience that goes beyond the numbers to ensure that we maintain our “unparalleled service & professionalism” commitment to client service.  One key component of providing unparalleled service is ensuring that we are doing everything possible to make sure we are providing timely and effective wealth management solutions. To help achieve this objective I met with a number of industry colleagues in New York and with their stories of positive experiences, I have decided to continue my industry training and become Private Investment Management (PIM) licensed. Adding PIM to my qualifications will allow my team and I to become more efficient and effective at managing the ever-changing wealth management needs of the families, business owners, healthcare professionals, and not for profit mandates that we serve.

New York City Down Time

While in the Big Apple I had the opportunity to explore the city with my daughter Chelsey who is currently attending school there.  Michelle, my wife, joined us a couple days later and we enjoyed a bike ride through Central Park, a Rangers game at Madison Square Gardens, and a Broadway show.  We were hoping to watch Chelsey play ball there, on the Sunday, but unfortunately her game was rained out. 

 

Here is a shot of Chelsey and I in front of the Wall Street Bull!

 

Thank you for reading my first blog post.  I am looking forward to continuing to share my thoughts and opinions with you in the future. Stay tuned for more!

Take care,

Brad