January 2020 Pricing Commentary

All five ABC Funds ended the month of January with remarkably positive investment returns, significantly outperforming their index benchmarks.

Among the notable Canadian equity winners included: Algonquin Power, Brookfield Asset Management, Fortis, Minto Apartment REIT, Northland Power, and Waste Connections. Our top performing American holdings were Alphabet, Amazon, McDonald’s, Microsoft, and Salesforce.

This performance is particularly noteworthy since international equity markets suffered a meaningfully negative late month selloff due to the expanding global anxiety regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, despite the current investor apprehension, we believe that the present market turbulence is transitory. Consequently, we are maintaining our economic and investment optimism for 2020.

Irwin A. Michael, President
I.A. Michael Investment Counsel Ltd.