October 2019 Pricing Commentary

The month of October saw a divergence between Canadian and American stock market returns. While the main U.S. equity indices produced a positive performance of 1/2% – 3 1/2%, the comparable Canadian results generated declines of 7/8% – 3 5/8%.

Given the ABC portfolios’ significant U.S. weightings, all five Funds provided positive investment performance for the month. This outperformance was largely due to the appreciation of a number of American holdings including: Apple; Broadcom; Facebook; NVIDIA; Salesforce.com and Visa.

With only two months left to the end of 2019, we believe common stocks continue to offer excellent risk/reward potential versus fixed income securities. Consequently, we are optimistic and will maintain our fully invested positions in our five ABC portfolios.

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