canadian

Here’s Part Two of the most-recent letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients in February 2023:

“ Yes, but what about World War III?

After Russia invaded Ukraine around this time last year, I began to wonder if there was any real risk that this marked the start of World War III.

After all, a lot of academics seemed to be writing about the Thucydides Trap (which I mentioned in our client letter last fall), based on what seemed like rising trade tension between the U.S....

CANADIAN TIRE CORP., $168.28, Toronto symbol CTC.A, is a top pick for 2023.

Investors benefit from the company’s 504 Canadian Tire stores. They sell automotive parts and services, and household and sporting goods; franchisees run most of the locations....

CENTRAL GARDEN & PET CO., $36.78, symbol CENT on Nasdaq, provides a range of products to pet owners and residential and commercial gardeners. Central’s more than 65 brands include Pennington, Nylabone, Kaytee, Amdro and Aqueon.

Founded in 1980, the company has made several acquisitions to grow both segments of its business.

One major purchase was the February 2021 acquisition of Green Garden Products, a Massachusetts-based provider of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds, as well as seed starters and plant nutrients....

Most of the large and popular exchange-traded funds are passively managed index-tracking funds. Passive fund management for ETFs involves investing to mirror the holdings and performance of a specific stock-market index. The indexes that form the basis of these ETFs are provided by major index providers such as MSCI, S&P, FTSE and Solactive.


Meanwhile, the methods used to construct those major indexes can dramatically influence their composition and performance....

Exchange-traded funds offering regular income have grown in popularity lately, especially during the low interest rate years of 2020 to 2021. But with interest rates moving higher over the past 18 months, ETF managers have to become more creative in their efforts to offer appealing yields to investors....

Royal Bank is the partner of BlackRock for the distribution of the iShares ETFs in Canada. But the Royal Bank platform also hosts a considerable number of RBC branded ETFs. The Bank recently expanded its ETF roster by adding RBC-branded ETFs that mirror existing actively managed mutual funds.


RBC NORTH AMERICAN GROWTH ETF $20.47 (NEO exchange symbol RNAG) invests in U.S....

High interest rates mean dividend-paying stocks must increasingly compete for investor interest with bonds and other fixed-income instruments. However, focusing on sustainable dividends still offers an attractive and growing income stream for investors—as long as you avoid the riskier strategies that some ETF managers use to boost their yields (see supplement on page 60).


Here are three ETFs that aim to provide high-yield exposure to Canadian, as well as U.S., dividend payers.


VANGUARD FTSE CANADIAN HIGH DIVIDEND ETF $42.00 (Toronto symbol VDY; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $2.1 billion) tracks the FTSE Canada High Dividend Yield Index....

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $129 (www.rbc.com) is a buy. In November 2022, the bank agreed to pay $13.5 billion in cash for the Canadian operations of U.K.-based HSBC Holdings plc (New York symbol HSBC)....

Despite a recent decision by OPEC to cut production, crude oil prices are still down about 10% since the start of 2023. That’s largely due to slowing economic growth in China, even after lifting most COVID-19 restrictions. High interest rates have also increased fears of a slowdown in the U.S....

LEON’S FURNITURE LTD. $23 is a buy for aggressive investors. The retailer (Toronto symbol LNF; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 67.9 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.leons.ca) began operating in 1909....