David Driscoll

For Canadian stocks, you want to be in the infrastructure play. Federal and provincial governments want to build roads, bridges, data centres, hospitals, etc. Examples include STN, TIH, and BDT.

After that, you want exposure to commodities. Stocks have been hurt this year due to the rising US dollar, as all commodities are priced in USD. If the USD falls in the long term, commodity prices should rise.

A third way to play would be through utilities. He has TRP and EMA in client TFSAs. You want exposure to the banks, as the federal government has gone to the banks to ask them to release more capital for business lending.

These types of plans aren't short term. They're the kind that will take 10-15 years.

Outside Canada you want healthcare, Asia, and robotics.

He sold about 1.5 years ago. Fears from the AI SaaSpocalypse. Bigger issue is the law of diminishing returns -- bigger it gets, harder it is to continue upward momentum. Margins have been declining since 2020. PE ~45x. 

Using AI enhancements to improve scalability. Not just payroll but also HR, insurance, worker's comp, etc. Where will growth come from? Small caps have to worry about rising interest rates, which could impact its earnings. Wait and see.

Earnings out Nov 12, so wait until at least then. All the architecture firms have been hit hard this year. Down 30% on AI concerns. Margins have been rising and holding, and he'll be watching that next week. Good demand for infrastructure in Canada.

Ad revenues are being hurt with subscribers pulling back. Cutting marketing and staff. Will the economy slow, thereby reducing customers shopping online? Trades ~75x forward PE. It's a domino effect of whether it can keep margins up, which keeps cashflow up, which makes earnings rise. If not, there will be hiccups in a stock priced for perfection.

Basically 2 businesses drive earnings -- insurance and utilities. New 52-week high. Firing on all cylinders. So big, hard to grow at same rates as in the past (that's why he doesn't own). Jury's still out on future acquisitions under new CEO. Nothing wrong with holding.

Reduce your risk by owning different layers in the tech sector. One of the 10 companies that make up 40% of the S&P; index funds got hurt badly yesterday. Tech is highly volatile. They're growth assets, which require lower (not higher) interest rates.

Stubbed its toe on earnings. FCF went negative because of all the AI capex. MSFT fared better. You need a hyperscaler in your portfolio, but pick just one of GOOG, MSFT, or AMZN.

M&A has been good to them this year, but things are slowing. Have to see if Anthropic IPO has traction or not. Hitting on all cylinders (except bonds). Interest rates have risen, so bond sales and the housing market have started to decline. Would weaken if the economy does. Be careful.

When it hit highs in June, his team rebalanced by selling half their position. Earnings yesterday beat expectations. With Canada's infrastructure build, this is where you want to be. He'd buy more here.

Sold in September 2025. Diets are changing. Doing fine overseas, but struggling in NA. Margins not up relative to competitors.

Better able to manage cashflows than GOOG and AMZN. Its FCF is positive. Azure revenue growth has picked up. Market approves of its more conservative approach to AI spending.

Stock markets are going up, so wealth management is doing well. As are M&A and investment banking. One caveat is that it's trading at PE multiple ~50% higher than average. 

Still in SEC penalty box, so excess cash being used to buy back shares and support earnings price. Another consequence is that dividend growth had to be curtailed (5% this year compared to peers at 10-13%). This challenge will continue until it gets out of the penalty box. In Canada, difficult to get bigger.

He owns RY instead.

Dividend's growing nicely. A 10% growth rate in the dividend helps offset inflation and increases your spending power (especially for retirees).

Extremely volatile! Anytime you double your $$, you should be selling half. PANW trades at 255x PE, CRWD is at 200x. Rising interest rates could have an outsized negative impact.

FTNT had bad earnings the other day, got crushed by 25%. CRWD and PANW have had decent earnings. If no guardrails put on AI, important for these companies to step up and start to protect network systems.