WEAK BUY

Broad basket of equities and fixed income. The one thing to keep an eye on is the bond portion. If we start to see inflation rear up again (because of US spending and tariffs), you might want to take your bond duration down, which you can't do with this ETF. Yield ~4.25%.

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Nov 16/23, Up 30%)

Still loves it. Should be a beneficiary of new Trump administration, with fewer concerns about DOJ breaking it apart. Trades at 20x forward PE, 16% earnings growth rate, which means a 1.25x PEG ratio and that's fairly cheap in its  space. Q3 beat on top and bottom. Ad revenue and Search remain solid. Chart's on a clear uptrend.

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Nov 16/23, Up 34%)

Earnings today impressed the market. Trades around 16-17x forward PE, 11-12% EPS growth rate. PEG ratio is 1.4x, pretty good. Great, long-term secular growth name. Few competitors plus 33% market share means substantial pricing leverage.

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Nov 16/23, Up 8%)

Bump in road on sales. Still 1.1x PEG. 27x forward PE, 25% growth rate. Pretty cheap for a growth name. Still a leader in obesity treatment and diabetes. Wegovy patent expiration not until 2032. Long-term technical trends remain intact.

DON'T BUY

International snack giant. 200-day MA is sideways to slightly negative, stock price is now below it. Fundamentals show only mid-single-digit earnings growth, paying 20x for it. Cost pressures, margin compression. Intense competition. Foreign currency has not helped.

For a consumer staples name, look at Loblaw or COST.

BUY ON WEAKNESS

For consumer staples, he likes to stay close to home. Very few competitors. Stock's done very well for him.

BUY ON WEAKNESS

For consumer staples, he likes to stick close to him. A name that's done very well for client portfolios. Not many names are similar, so it can price accordingly; significant leverage in negotiations.

COMMENT
54-year-old investor disappointed in returns from Canadian stocks. Looking to US. What's the better move -- individual stocks like META or an index?

He'd say that moving to indices has risk involved, especially when you look at the S&P 500. S&P 500 is really 35-40% technology, and its PE is not cheap at this stage. Of course, expensive can remain expensive for some time.

He sees markets expanding now beyond technology into other sectors such as financials, industrials, and healthcare. If you go with an index, you're going to be boxed into that heavy weighting in technology. Not that tech isn't a good place to be, but he'd rather be very selective in that particular space.

He's been overweight US for quite a while compared to Canada or Europe. Stable economic fundamentals, big sandbox. US tariffs and new policies will not be great for places like China and Europe. Come retirement, if the CAD starts moving higher versus the USD then you have currency risk. So you want to have balance, and that will depend on the individual investor.

META is a good company. Though he doesn't own it, fundamentals on META look pretty solid; great technical chart with higher highs and higher lows. He owns other names like AMZN, GOOG, and MSFT.

BUY

Good company, at the forefront of technology. Not expensive at 24x earnings, with 21-22% EPS growth rate. Though he doesn't own it, fundamentals looks pretty solid; great technical chart with higher highs and higher lows. He owns other names like AMZN, GOOG, and MSFT.

WAIT

Luxury market in recent downdraft. This one's performed better on the 5-year chart. 200-day MA has been moving higher, with the stock price slightly below but hugging that MA. Doing everything right, but demand might be soft. 

Right now, he has no luxury goods companies. A sluggish China has affected these names. Fiscal stimulus may help, but it's wait and see.

BUY
Likes it, but it has BA.

Broadly speaking, likes industrials. Top names here:  CAT, RTX, GE, UBER, UNP. BA would be in the top 10, but #10 at this point. In general, infrastructure spend will be higher. Overall US economy is not going into recession, so some of these names are undervalued. This sector has room to catch up to technology. Brand-new 52-week high today.

Makes a lot of sense. Also consider PAVE.

BUY

Broadly speaking, likes industrials. In general, infrastructure spend will be higher, and this one's right in the infrastructure space. Contains more mid-caps. Overall US economy is not going into recession, so some of these names are undervalued. This sector has room to catch up to technology. Makes a lot of sense. Brand-new 52-week high today.

DON'T BUY

200-day MA moving lower, stock price is below that. Basing since May. Retail side is the issue. Declining foot traffic, people are buying online. Integration problems with its various businesses. Earnings growth looks weak. 

He prefers growthier names, drug distribution, and traditional pharma like BMY.

BUY

Recently bought on technicals. Pretty decent dividend. Sees growth coming back.

DON'T BUY

Brand-new 52-week high today, perhaps due to good news on pipelines. Note that if yields start to move higher, could affect dividend names. Good dividend of 4.8%, relatively safe. He wants at least high singles or low doubles for earnings growth, so this one doesn't fit.

He owns ENB instead.