August 2025 - Monthly Update

 

 

Hi ,

 

Hope this note finds you and your family well as we immerse ourselves in the summer.

 

Your portfolio posted gains in July. It remains with positive performance over the past twelve months.

 

The trends we’ve been writing about for the past few months carried over into July with the summer months truly resembling a quiet period for investment markets.

Stock markets remain stable with a positive bias and corporate earnings continued in line with expectations.

Interest rates also remain steady with the expectation of a renewed cycle of interest rate cuts to begin in September for both Canada and the United States (U.S.).

Inflation sparked by tariffs has yet to materialize in an enduring or meaningful way.

The cycle of broad based, slow economic growth for North America is reflected in the present conditions.

Now seems a good time to touch on one of the medium to long-term trends that may have been forgotten with all the negative headlines of 2025.

 

In July, the United Nations (U.N.) and the International Renewable Energy Agency released reports on renewable energy generation data and trends in 2024:

• 74% of the growth in worldwide electricity generation was from wind, solar and other green sources
• 92.5% of all new electricity capacity added to the grid worldwide came from renewables
• Power generation from solar and wind power are 41% and 53% less expensive globally than the energy produced by the lowest cost fossil fuel.
• The three least expensive sources of electricity globally were onshore wind, solar panels and new hydropower.

Our investment strategy is unchanged, and steady.

 

You and your wealth are in a strong position.

 

The view from Brian Belski, BMO’s Chief Investment Strategist:

“US stocks had another strong month during July with the S&P 500 gaining … its third consecutive month of gains with the index hitting a series of fresh records along the way. The market was driven primarily by positive earnings reports, particularly from tech companies and optimism surrounding potential trade agreements but also to a lesser extent some relatively upbeat economic reports during the month. However, US stocks did dip slightly toward the end of the month following the FOMC meeting, as Fed caution regarding upcoming rate cuts seemingly disappointed investors. And unfortunately, the economy got some bad news to start August as the monthly US jobs report came in below all expectations with some significant downward revisions to prior months as well. While this data certainly surprised us, we will continue to take our clues from upcoming data because, as we have always contended, one good or bad report does not necessarily make a trend. So, looking ahead we continue to expect “more of the same” with investors likely reacting sharply to headlines in both directions in the short term, but with the longer-term upward trend in US stocks remaining intact. As such, we continue to recommend that investors use any potential periods of weakness as a buying opportunity to increase exposure to favored positions…The S&P/TSX gained … in July but continued to lag the S&P 500... Sector performance was relatively broad … From our perspective, this broadening strength remains indicative of a market that is continuing down the normalization process. Fundamentally, profitability metrics continued to improve during the month, earnings growth began stabilizing in the low double-digit range, breadth of positive revisions continued to strengthen and valuations trended modestly higher. All signs of a fundamentally healthy market and supportive of further price gains in the months and quarters ahead. Overall, nothing in our overarching view on Canada has changed … Canada continues to provide strong relative value, a converging growth profile with the US and improving revision momentum”

 

• Stocks in your portfolio that made a new 52 week high this past month: (Brookfield Corp*), Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft*, Oracle*,Royal Bank*, TD Bank*, Thomson Reuters*

• Stocks in your portfolio that made a new 52 week low this past month: Accenture*, Canadian National Rail*, United Health

• The Loonie gained half a cent versus the U.S. dollar to $0.735

 

Thank you,

Ian, Gab, Kaitlyn, Naina, and Meeral