Market. The US economy had a good second quarter. In Europe and China things are slowing little. One of the main things that the Fed has to face is the yield curve flattening quickly. He believes the bond markets figure things out fairly quickly. The yield curve is saying that there is slower growth and low inflation. This doesn’t mean you can’t do well in stocks. You have to be very careful when interest rates are being raised. Particularly in light of coming out of QE. Earnings have been coming very strong.
The fact that interest rates have been very low had affected the insurance industry. Not an expensive stock. Trading at 9.5 times earnings. Headwinds against these businesses is where interest rates go. He would look at other players in the industry with much more diversified businesses and better chances of growing.
(A Top Pick May 1/17 - Up 23%.) The largest private equity company in the world. Has a great dividend yield. A great story. They are not a corporation therefore not on the S&P 500. With the tax changes there is a rumor that they will become a corporation and be part of the index and would get a bump. Outside of that, these guys have been very astute.
They own Royal Bank (RY-T) and TD (TD-T). They changed the CEO recently. It has done a good job in the last while. The problem with Canadian Banks is the they are not as cheap as the US banks. The good thing is that they continue to grow their dividends and are very well capitalized. Owning here it is fine. Great ROE.