Darren Sissons

President's approval ratings have fallen below 30%. This reflects higher energy prices, and perhaps a tougher job market.

The president doesn't want to become a lame duck. If he loses control of the Senate or the House, he'd have to default to executive orders (which can be replaced as soon as he leaves office). So he's going to do whatever he can.

Monetary policy is not a lever he has control of. We've seen expansionary fiscal spending, and conflicts are inflationary. That spending makes its way into the economy, and that's why markets are at very high levels.

He'll do that for sure. But when you have at least the illusion of independence from the Fed, he'll have less ability to get done what he wants. Ultimately his big lever is fiscal, and he doesn't really need to heed the Fed.

If there was a significant escalation, he might consider allocating to energy as a trade. But his firm deals in outlooks of 3-5 years.

You want to take your dry powder that you reaped from taking profits and invest it in segments of the economy that have been depressed. Software looks interesting. As does healthcare and medical technology. From a global perspective, luxury looks very inexpensive.

Some portions of the industrial market are worth a look, particularly companies that use IT resources.

In general, med tech has been hammered. Investors with long-term money should be looking at the space. A very good company, generally high growth. Robotic-aided surgeries. Attractively priced. If it came down further, he'd take a look.

Chart tells you everything you need to know. Anything that smells of AI has seen that kind of inflection. Screams dot-com 2000. Complete disconnect between the market and what AI is actually going to deliver.

He'd probably exit.

Don't confuse a good company with a good investment. Likes it, but look at the inflection on the chart. You want to buy when it's dead money, and then wait for an inflection.

Don't chase a parabolic chart. You need to trim, not allocate new money (or you're asking for trouble).

There will be an infrastructure spend, and in fact there's an infrastructure deficit (just drive around the streets of Toronto). Likes the category. Yield is almost 5%.

Why not just pick the parent? It's much more diversified, and you'd get the benefit of all its subsidiaries.

Likes infrastructure, but buy the parent instead of BIP.UN. It's much more diversified, and you get the benefit of all the segments. On sale, relatively inexpensive compared to some of its subsidiaries.

The difference between LLY and NVO is not significant; slightly in LLY's favour, but that's just currently. Wait out the negativity. Will still grow double digits. Likes it long term, but probably wouldn't look at it for another 5 years.

Another beneficiary of AI. Look at that chart -- what's the likelihood that it'll double from here? Probably not very high. Take profits. Risky if you're looking to squeeze out another 10-15%.

A cyclical category has wild swings. A catalyst can drive the price up. Do you want to invest at the top of the cycle? No. You make money when you buy, so buy at the bottom of the cycle and hold till the top. If you miss the cycle, wait for the next one.

Pay attention to the semiconductor capital equipment companies, as they lead semiconductors by about 6 months. When the first category starts trending down/up, you know that the rest will soon follow.

For the last few years, as we've seen significant money printing through quantitative easing or fiscal spending, debt has favoured growth. Looking back to 2008-2009, growth came out of the market and the market collapsed significantly. The value market significantly outperformed. 

Value names are very inexpensive now, so you could add them as ballast to your portfolio. You could buy staples now, and you'd be increasing the amount of income coming into your portfolio. Think PG, CL, UL, BN.

When tech crashes, you do the same thing. What you're doing is moving capital from expensive names to inexpensive. This builds a portfolio of sustainable wealth. If you get the timing right, you can avoid major drawdowns but still get fairly consistent growth.

His team are not really value investors, but more GARP (growth at a reasonable price) investors.

Very advanced pipeline will add significant revenue. Good story still intact.

Hit by tariff narrative, but tariffs didn't actually hit the fundamentals. Integrated nature of rails in NA means that tariffs are largely irrelevant. Could see some weakness during CUSMA negotiations, but long term it's been a mistake not to add on that weakness.