We would like to wish you and your family a happy new year. We hope to provide you with a brief overview of how investment markets have performed over the past year and to look ahead at what we can expect for 2019. How did markets do in 2018? After an unusually calm year of… Read More
The You First Blog
In 2012, new rules were introduced that allowed Canadians to apply for CPP benefits as early as age 60 at a reduced rate, or as late as 70 at an increased rate. This was meant to address Canada’s evolving landscape of retirement, with some Canadians retiring before age 65 while others are working past it…. Read More
The S&P 500 has been rising for almost 10 years, and on August 22nd, it officially became the longest U.S. bull market in history, reaching 3,453 days from its humble beginnings on March 9, 2009. Where do we go from here? How much longer will this last? Will there be a downturn soon? These are… Read More
On Sunday, the United States and Canada reached a last-minute deal to save NAFTA as a trilateral pact with Mexico. The full text of the agreement can be located here. The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) largely leaves the broad North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) intact, and maintains current supply chains that would have… Read More
Following a particularly volatile start to the year in the first quarter, many global equity markets delivered somewhat steadier returns in the second quarter. The MSCI World Index finished the period with a gain of 1.9% in U.S. dollar terms, while the S&P 500 Index, a broad measure of U.S. stocks, rose about 3.4%. Overseas… Read More
Miles Zyblock, Chief Invesment Strategist with Dynamic Funds, released an interesting article this week. The summary is that the U.S. and Japan were entrenched in their own trade war during the 80s, which took 12 years to settle. Despite the trade tensions, it was a pretty good decade for markets. In other words, capital markets… Read More