November 2022 Pricing Commentary

North American equity markets continued their positive price trend into November, finishing the month at two month highs.

Investors remain deeply fixated on the monetary actions of the U.S. Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell. Interestingly, while short term interest rates should rise further into the new year, there is a developing view that these increases will be smaller and subject to any pronounced weakness in economic activity. Additionally, it appears that inflation is trending lower owing to decreasing energy, commodities, apparel, and used car and truck prices, giving investors renewed confidence that global monetary authorities are making headway in the fight against inflation.

With regard to common stock prices, we are now entering the year-end seasonality when the bulk of tax loss selling has taken place. Trading as a result, becomes more subdued as large institutional and retail investors have concluded the majority of their transactions for 2022. Consequently, with little motivated selling and reduced trading, share prices tend to lift upwards.

Reviewing our November performance, each of our three ABC Funds appreciated over 5% for the month. Our main Canadian equity performers were: Brookfield Asset Management, Canadian National Railway, Minto Apartment REIT, Pembina Pipeline, and Royal Bank of Canada. Our American stock outperformers included: Alphabet, Broadcom, Danaher, Home Depot, Honeywell, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Mastercard, NVIDIA, S&P Global, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Irwin A. Michael Signature

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

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