The Importance of Pricing Power: Inflation has been a hot topic in the investment community in the last two years. Every investor wants to protect their portfolio from losing purchasing power by diversifying into different asset classes such as real estate, foreign currencies, gold, real estate, crypto, etc. We think one of the best hedges against inflation is through the ownership of great businesses with significant pricing power that could raise prices to offset costs pressure without losing volumes. We believe that companies with strong pricing power have the ability to do well in an inflationary environment for these particular reasons: 1) The ability to raise prices to offset inflation without losing volumes helps companies maintain their profit margins 2) Pricing power allows companies to price their with flexibility, sometimes even faster than average inflation rates of 3-4%, leading to operating profit margin expansion 3) A high gross margin can be a powerful lever for organic growth over the long term, especially for companies with mature volume growth.
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Believes US Federal Reserve is losing money due to the inverted yield curve.
Borrowing short & lending long creating shortfall in revenues (assets yielding less than paying on obligations).
Expecting ~$100 billion shortfall in US Federal Reserve. Taxpayer will be on the hook.
Deficit will grow as a result.
Rising debt and deficits will impact portfolios.
Expecting inflation to persist over the next 5 years (will be hard to remove).
Canadian & US Stocks Rise. Stocks closed higher Friday, and a recent drop in bond yields continued, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note falling sharply overnight. Companies reporting this week include Consumer Lassonde Industries Inc. (LAS.A-T) – Mar… read more
After the initial 3-day reaction, the market reversed itself the following month 7 out of 8 times.
Portfolio Risk Management Strategies. Proper Position Sizing. There is no right or wrong number of stocks that an investor should hold in one’s portfolio, however, many studies have shown that a portfolio with 20 or more stocks helps to remove company-specific risk from a portfolio. To use an example, at the extreme end, a portfolio with only one stock will be severely exposed to the individual risks of that company, whereas an investor that increases the number of stocks in a portfolio will reduce the individual risks from the underlying companies. The investor is then theoretically only left with the risks of the broader market (interest rates, inflation, recession, etc.). There is also a risk of over-diversifying, where too many individual stocks will begin to erode one’s ability for higher returns.
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Remains bullish on oil prices.
Large volatility in oil prices due to instability in banking markets.
Believes dislocation between financial and physical demand for oil.
Indication from China is that demand for oil is still growing with re-opening of economy.
Inventory slowing rising, but not concerned for long term energy prices.
Expecting higher energy prices going forward.
People overly bearish on oil price with US shale production falling.
Fundamentals in market is suggesting less supply than demand.
Stocks were down most of Friday until they rallied into the close to preserve gains for the week. Investors shrugged off ongoing bank concerns to raise the TSX by 0.21%, the S&P 0.56% to nearly 4,000, the Nasdaq 0.31%, and the Dow 0.41%. For the week, the Canadian index gained 0.46%, the Nasdaq 0.31% and the S&P 1.37% and the Dow 1.15%. The ongoing fear and confusion in financials held the U.S. 10-year yield to 3.374% even the U.S. Fed hiked interest rates 0.25% this past week. Bitcoin gave back 1.8% Friday to dip below $28,000.
All but three of the TSX sectors rallied Friday, with energy being the biggest laggard as WTI declined 1.1% to $69. Utilities and staples led the gainers.
Notable movers were Badger Infrastructure leaping 6.7%, OceanaGold adding 5.41%, Algonquin Power up 3.48%, though Aritzia fell 3.65% and Lightspeed declined 3.27%. On Wall Street, Activision Blizzard surged 5.76% Keycorp rallied 5.24%, Intuitive Surgical climbed 4.87% as Lam Research sank 4.33%. Deutsche Bank was the latest bank to make the headlines and declined 3.11%.
🅱 Bitcoin (BTCUSD) (CRYPTO:BTC) -1.8%
🛢 Badger Daylighting (BDGI-T) +6.7%
🥇 Oceanagold Corp (OGC-T) +5.41%
💡 Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp (AQN-T) +3.48%
👗 Aritzia Inc. (ATZ-T) -3.65%
🏛 Lightspeed Commerce Inc (LSPD-T) -3.27%
🎮 Activision Blizzard (ATVI-Q) +5.76%
🏛 Keycorp (KEY-N) +5.24%
🧫 Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG-Q) +4.87%
⚙ Lam Research Corp (LRCX-Q) -4.33%
🏛 Deutsche Bank AG (DB-N) -3.11%
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