April has been a strong month on both sides of the border. The War in Iran

continues although it is more of a Strait of Hormuz story and the continued shut

down of ship traffic through this strait. We have seen quite a bit of volatility in

oil, and we are now getting some earnings.

In Canada, we have had a nice move in our markets thanks to oil and gold

sectors and even the moves in the financials have been extremely strong. Our

economy is not the strongest, but it keeps hanging in with all the challenges

concerning tariffs and hopefully we get these addressed soon. The recent

news about Rogers Communications giving voluntary buyouts to half the

staff concerns me around the potential impact of artificial intelligence on

corporations. This is good for companies’ balance sheets, but not good for

workers and unemployment long term. We will need new jobs to absorb all these

potential layoffs. Earnings on the Canadian side have been good and with the

recent takeover offer on one of our oil companies, this does provide some help

with market strength going forward.

The U.S. continues to provide strong earnings and guidance in company

releases, and this remains a strong market. High oil prices are not good for

any economy, but it seems U.S. consumers so far are not greatly impacted. The

growth in manufacturing in the U.S. remains strong and the themes of data

center buildout, power buildout, and artificial intelligence remain in place. I

do expect more headline risk as this situation in Iran continues to drag on but

again on the recent news of the UAE getting out of OPEC this will help oil prices

come down as this monopoly on oil supply slowly breaks up.

Europe and Asia are the two areas greatly affected by the closure of the above

shipping lane. These economies are under a lot of pressure as result and the

longer this goes on the tougher it will get in these two areas, and I do feel it

is good to have very little exposure here. Overall markets are at highs, world

events are top and center, and the element of volatility is a large possibility.

Having said that, volatility is a good thing to take advantage of, and we plan on

doing just that this summer.

Paul Belous, CIM

Senior Portfolio Manager