Active Insights

Dan Bastasic, Senior Vice-President, Investments & Portfolio Manager, comments on the impact of COVID-19 on the markets and economy.

Key takeaways

• There is likely some downside remaining in the markets.
• Central banks and governments have responded well overall.
• A significant rebound is likely after COVID-19 cases flatten in key countries.

Jeff Sujitno, Senior Vice-President & Portfolio Manager, iA Clarington Investments, discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the credit markets and provides an update on fund positioning.

Key takeaways

• The negative impact of COVID-19 on our floating rate mandate has been relatively shallow.
• The Fund’s holdings are high-quality and have excellent potential to ‘snap back’.
• A long-term perspective is critical to benefitting from the anticipated recovery.
• Market weakness has created an opportunity to generate equity-like returns while taking first lien debt risk.

Portfolio manager Lee Rosenbaum is looking for businesses with three main features: quality, intrinsic value growth and attractive valuations. In this video, he discusses some recent stock picks and explains why his stringent selection criteria result in a portfolio with exceptional potential for long-term wealth creation.

While a repeat of last year’s performance isn’t the most likely outcome, the North American equity and high-yield bond markets appear poised to deliver very respectable returns in 2020. In this video, portfolio manager Dan Bastasic offers perspective and insight on Canadian dividend-paying equities, stock valuations south of the border, high-yield spreads and expected returns, and central bank policy.

After a very strong year for the U.S. equity market, many investors are looking elsewhere for opportunities to outperform in 2020. In this video, portfolio manager Clément Gignac explains why he believes emerging markets, the Eurozone and Canada could offer some of the year’s most attractive returns. He also discusses the fixed-income landscape, his monetary policy outlook and the recent enhancements to the iA Wealth Managed Portfolios.