September 2020 Pricing Commentary

All North American stock market indices closed down during the month of September. Some investment pundits have attributed this poor performance to an uncertain U.S. November 3rd presidential election outcome, worsening COVID-19 outbreaks, and even the habitual mediocre September market seasonality. In reality, however, there is a more logical explanation.

September was the first month of negative stock market performance after five consecutive months of meaningfully positive returns. The fact is that the market was a little ahead of itself and was due for a correction. Despite this short-term setback we remain positive with regard to continuing strong equity markets for the balance of 2020. This optimism is primarily due to low interest rates, very accommodating global central bank monetary policies, expansionary government fiscal spending, modest company earnings growth, and attractive corporate dividend yields relative to fixed income alternatives.

Although September produced negative investment returns, all five funds are presenting positive year-to-date performance, varying from 8% – 11% and continuing to outperform their index benchmarks.

Of particular importance was the outperformance of a number of ABC Funds holdings, including Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable Partners, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, Waste Connections, Fortis, Northland Power, Algonquin Power, Minto Apartment REIT, Danaher, Avery Denison, Broadcom, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

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