Stan Wong's Top Picks: February 14, 2023
BNN Bloomberg
Top picks from Stan Wong, portfolio manager at Scotia Wealth Management
FOCUS: North American Large Caps and ETFs
MARKET OUTLOOK:
Global equity markets continue to rally in 2023 with the MSCI World Index up over 18 per cent since the October 2022 lows. At The Stan Wong Group, we take a constructive view for 2023 as many market concerns appear to be ebbing. The market’s primary worry, inflation, is quickly diminishing. Prices for many commodities including oil, natural gas, gasoline, aluminum, lumber and wheat have retreated sharply from their highs last year. Indeed, the Bloomberg Commodity Index is now down over 20 per cent from last year’s highs. As well, housing and used car prices appear to have peaked. Cooling inflation pressures should allow central banks around the world to pause their rate hiking cycle later this year and pivot to a more dovish tone. Since 1950, we note that in instances where inflation is lower than the previous year, the S&P 500 Index has returned an average of 12.6 per cent with a win (positive return) ratio of nearly 75 per cent.
