North American Investment Summary – Third Quarter 2025
The third quarter of 2025 brought encouraging signs that the North American economy is finding better balance. Inflation continued to ease in both Canada and the U.S., giving households and businesses some breathing room after a few challenging years.
The first half of the year is in the books, we are cautiously optimistic about the second half
As the dust settles from a bumpy first two quarters of the year, portfolios have traded higher even with the U.S. policy adjustments we have experienced. Even though it may feel like risks are high, as we often say, it’s time in the market, not timing the market, that is key.
Panic hits the markets as Trump tariffs are enacted
As the first quarter ended this week, we saw U.S. markets lower from January and Canadian markets slightly higher for the quarter. As mentioned in our last update, volatility was likely to increase and the Trump administrations on again off again tariff approach caused just that over the months of February and March.
Q4 Market Update: A great year is behind us, now we start an uncertain one…
2024 will go down in the books as a great year financially for most risk assets. U.S. markets led the way but decent returns in Canada and in fixed income added to total returns. As we look forward to the year ahead there are many opportunities but there are potential pitfalls that could derail our outlook.
Quarterly Market Update: Another decent quarter, are we in for an October surprise?
The markets were well behaved in the third quarter, playing out as we expected with a few bouts of volatility at the start of August and September. Market participants have moved their focus away from inflation, as it looks to be under control, and instead, the key data point each month has been the jobs reports.
Q2 Market Update: Another solid quarter but there may be some volatility ahead?
The second quarter turned out to be another strong one as artificial intelligence (AI) and technology names continued to power indexes higher. From November of last year until April of this year we’ve seen most equities performing well.
Q1 Market Update: A great start to the year, is there more to come?
The first quarter is now behind us and what a first quarter it was for equity markets. The fears of recession that we have been living with the last couple of years are fading into the background as the global economy continues to perform better than many expected as inflation continues to soften. The expectation is that inflation will need more time to get to the 2% level that central banks are aiming for, but it is moving in the right direction.
Q4 Market Update: Happy New Year! Where do we go from here?
At the start of 2023, economic and market forecasters were negative in anticipation of a potential recession.