September 2025
Brent Joyce, CFA, Chief Investment Strategist
“If it bleeds, it leads.” – Journalism adage that describes the media’s tendency to prioritize sensational, gory or violent content to capture audience attention.
August’s heatwave extended to global equity markets. Good news outweighed bad and even negatives were spun into positives.
However, if we are counting headlines, negatives dominated the month: a sour U.S. employment reading and mixed results on inflation; weak Canadian GDP on the back of damaged exports; the U.S. president engaging world leaders over ongoing conflicts; turmoil at the U.S. Federal Reserve; questions about the reliability of economic data (and subsequent firings); deployment of troops to U.S. cities and the South Caribbean; unconventional government stakes in private businesses and profit streams that look more like shakedowns than industrial policy; and, of course, more tariff rhetoric (furniture, EU deal maybe not done yet, tariffs on India as a foreign policy tool).
It’s understandably confusing in the face of all this to see equity markets soar. As usual, equity markets largely ignored the discouraging events because they had no clear and immediate impact on the fundamentals of economic growth, corporate earnings growth, and interest rates. In contrast, beyond the headlines, a positive story of brightening global growth, solid corporate earnings, and the prospect of lower borrowing costs is playing out.
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Do not hesitate to give either of us a call at 416 359-7565 or 416-359-7564 or email Sharon Kubicek or Alisa Carli if you have any questions respecting your portfolio and the prevailing investment, economic and political issues at play today.