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Lots of reoccurring geopolitical intrigue. Under the surface in the market, a lot of long-established trends are starting to quiver a bit. 

Notably, seeing signs of US equity market broadening out -- the proverbial rising tide lifting all boats, rather than just a select (and magnificent ;) few. This is a fresh and welcome sign. The Mag 7 are down low single digits YTD. The S&P 500 was down 1% as of last Friday. However, the equally weighted S&P 500 is up ~5%. Even more telling is that the Russell 2000 is up 7-8%.
 
As to the sectors, we're seeing leadership invert from what we saw last year. Energy and consumer staples lagged last year, but are now at the top of the leader board. Technology has become the laggard YTD.

It's rather a Goldilocks environment. We have economic growth accelerating, inflation moderating, and most likely a more dovish policy stance by the US Fed. Canada's already been there for longer. This tends to be an environment where markets broaden out.

As opposed to markets led by a small group of stocks, markets with broad-based leadership are fundamentally more robust and show greater underlying health and resilience. One analogy is that in battle, the troops need to advance as well as the generals.

His team was seeing a lot of inflection points in things like manufacturing vs. services, and rotation from software and the Mag 7 into old-world economy businesses and hard assets. There was trading ahead of the frothy blowoff in gold.

His firm had probably twice the level of activity in their two equity mandates. Volatility means opportunity.

Two words -- freight recession. It's been going on for over 3 years, and manufacturing has been the cause (Covid pulled demand forward, and then people spent $$ on trips and concerts). ISM Manufacturing PMI spiked unexpectedly last week. This gives the rails easy comparisons. Both should do well as manufacturing recovers.

CNR trades at a discounted PE of 17.5x. This is your name for value. Yield is 2.7% -- a meaningful premium to its 10-year average of 2%. Earnings growth of 8% expected. He'd probably choose this one on valuation, and on its intermodal business mix.

CP trades at parity with the group. Trades at 21x PE. Yield is just under 1%. Not cheap, but expected to grow faster (13% compound earnings growth over 3 years). 

Owns neither, as trucking has way more cyclical leverage to a freight recovery.

Two words -- freight recession. It's been going on for over 3 years, and manufacturing has been the cause (Covid pulled demand forward, and then people spent $$ on trips and concerts). ISM Manufacturing PMI spiked unexpectedly last week. This gives the rails easy comparisons. Both should do well as manufacturing recovers.

CNR trades at a discounted PE of 17.5x. This is your name for value. Yield is 2.7% -- a meaningful premium to its 10-year average of 2%. Earnings growth of 8% expected. He'd probably choose this one on valuation, and on its intermodal business mix.

CP trades at parity with the group. Trades at 21x PE. Yield is just under 1%. Not cheap, but expected to grow faster (13% compound earnings growth over 3 years). 

Owns neither, as trucking has way more cyclical leverage to a freight recovery.

Doesn't own any lifecos, but not a bad time to be thinking about them. Good-sized US business. Yield is close to 4%. Company intends to grow dividend by high single digits, so that gives you good line of sight to a rate of return of high single digits or low doubles. 

Banks have re-rated meaningfully higher, and banks and lifecos usually trade around the same level. Won't be long before people realized there's value to be had in lifecos. No quarrels with buying.

Money-centre banks are advantaged structurally to the regionals. Buying this one might preclude you from buying a better one. The best bank in the world is JPM. But you'll probably do fine with either one.

Bumpy ride. Cut distribution by close to 60% to shore up balance sheet. Trophy assets. Office recovery has been slow, but seeing signs of life (such as with Ontario government mandate). When occupancy returns, operating leverage is tremendous. Trades at 0.4-0.5x book value. He's going to stay patient.

Nat gas producer. Most of its production is in Western Europe. He prefers Western Canadian producers, especially with increased egress via LNG terminals.

Piquing his curiosity in last weeks and months. Cut in half since last summer. Encapsulates all the consternation roiling around software vs. AI, and accelerated with the Anthropic release. Dominant franchise in law. Superficially, selloff is overdone.

While fears about AI disrupting are legitimate, companies can have proprietary moats on their data and networks. TRI owns 100 years of caselaw and subsequent analysis. Increasingly layering on AI tools. PE multiple not seen in years.

Secret sauce is ongoing ability to surprise and delight customers. Still likes, still holds.

Still owns as a core position, took partial profits. At the time of the pick, it was (relatively speaking) a bit of a dark horse due to the money laundering penalties. Investors like its plans for growing both earnings and dividends.

Trimmed late last year. Still likes and holds. Off highs, but he continues to have a good multi-year outlook. At forefront of AI compute chip innovation. It will shine again.

Results last week were very good, dividend increased. Not particularly exposed to a downturn in IPOs or equity issuance, but it's nice gravy when it does have a good quarter on those. Under pressure because one segment touches on software -- but the proprietary nature of data and strong network mean they're insulated from AI disruption.

Pullback is compelling opportunity for new investors.

Pullback is probably more related to the sector and not the company itself. It owns GWO and IGM, both very good cornerstone businesses. Invested in Wealthsimple, growing very quickly, could represent hidden value. In a way, it's hedged in case fintech Wealthsimple disrupts its legacy businesses. 

Very robust, 3-legged stool. Solid income, with visible runway of dividend growth. Pullback is buyable.