The Living Market Podcast

What a difference a week makes

Philip Petursson, Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, tells us that last Thursday, November 10, the S&P 500 Index gained 5.5% in one day. A one-day gain above 5% has only happened 20 times in the last 40 years. In this episode of The Living Market, he explores the reasons behind this very rare event and says there’s a disconnect between what happens on Wall Street and what happens on Main Street.

“It’s still the economy”

Philip Petursson, Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management explains why he believes inflation in Canada and the U.S. has already peaked (and that we’re close to peak interest rates) and why he expects inflation to fall to half its current level within the next 12 months.

Markets de-FAANGed

Over the last 10 years, FAANG stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google — dominated the investor landscape, with a disproportionate influence over the S&P 500’s growth. That’s all changed now, says Philip Petursson, Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management. In 2022, FAANGs are no longer super growers, they’re mature giants, and valuation matters once more.

Stock market performance is like a batting average

As with baseball hitters, over short periods, stock markets have streaks and slumps. In the last five years, performance streaked. However, says Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, Philip Petursson, we need to focus on long-term historic averages to set realistic expectations.

Peeling back the layers of inflation

Peeling back the layers of an onion is the process of exploring something more deeply to get a better understanding of it. Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, Philip Petursson, uses this as a tool to analyze the different drivers that are  causing inflation.

The five stages of stock market grief

When markets go down hard and fast, investors can often experience grief. Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, Philip Petursson, examines each stage of the process and compares the current and recent market crashes to determine where we are in the process.  

Good news: September is over

This September was a bad month, as are most Septembers, says Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, Philip Petursson. While the economic environment doesn’t look great, there is light at the end of this tunnel. Experience tells us that the stock market usually bottoms out before the economy does and bounces back a lot sooner. And current price-to-earnings ratios suggest that there is quality to be found in the markets at reasonable prices.

What about profit?

Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, Philip Petursson, says, when interest rates were extremely low, profitless tech companies (the “high flyers” of the COVID-19-era) could finance themselves very cheaply, so their lack of profit generation was not a problem. Now, however, with rising interest rates and a slowing economy, profitable companies are massively outperforming these former high flyers.

Crisis inflation, or is it?

Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, Philip Petursson, says when global oil prices surged following the invasion of Ukraine, it led many to believe that commodity prices would continue to push inflation to elevated levels. Listen in as he explains that while investors and speculators get excited about geopolitical events, they rarely have a long-lasting impact on the markets. It’s therefore important to stay calm and not succumb to panic during these events.

What happens when companies buy themselves back?

Share buybacks — when companies buy back their own stock —  effectively reduce the amount of a company’s shares on the market. Fewer shares lead to more value per share, boosting the stock price and creating higher demand for the stock. Chief Investment Strategist for IG Wealth Management, Philip Petursson, explores the potential impact on the markets of the U.S. government’s proposed 1% tax on stock buybacks.