Knowledge Centre

Equity markets saw substantial gains in the first quarter of 2024 – many were up more than 5% on the year. The list of markets posting fresh all-time highs is long. Fixed income endured a mildly negative Q1, giving back some of Q4 2023’s outsized gai...

Global stock markets continued to defy various bearish accounts in 2023, and so far in 2024. With the notable exception of China, which is mired in a painful growth slowdown, major stock markets around the world, notably Europe (EURO STOXX 50), North...

February brought more positive macroeconomic data, which ranged from largely good to Goldilocks (not too hot, not too cold). The global economy continues to improve. Fewer investment gurus are predicting recession and the holdouts are finding it toug...

Heading into last year’s Federal Budget, Ottawa was fretting over the economy and how high inflation could damage household finances. Today, those pressures are less pronounced – inflation has cooled and the economy is proving to be resilient....

Everyone knows that markets can rise and fall, but that doesn’t make the ups and downs any easier to stomach. Your first instinct when markets drop might be to reach for an antacid and look for ways to cut your losses, but while that could provide so...

Brent Joyce, Chief Investment Strategist, BMO Private Investment Counsel, discusses the importance of Canadians staying level-headed and focused on the bigger picture throughout this year’s U.S. election....

The long-promised U.S. recession is not even close to materializing. Case in point, and as noted by the excellent BMO Economics team, “Q4 GDP data showed yet another year of solid activity, while price pressures eased (which strengthens the case for...

The clouds hovering over much of the global macroeconomic landscape appear to be clearing, suggesting a return to normal could lie ahead. But when it comes to investing, normal always brings a “normal” level of uncertainty. ...

Between rising geopolitical tensions in Europe and Asia, the growing threat of climate change and the coming elections that will see almost half of the global population heading to the polls, it’s understandable that some investors are on edge....

We are already seeing some optimistic signals. First, far from deteriorating, our recession probability model has shown improvement with the odds of a recession ticking down to about 40%....