The You First Blog

Over the past two years, investors have navigated through both the peaks and the troughs of financial markets. The notable double-digit decline in equities during 2022 was swiftly succeeded by a robust recovery in the concluding months of 2023. The final two months of 2023 saw a positive shift across asset classes, signaling broad market… Read More

The promising start to 2023 continued for investors in April as stocks posted more gains, bond yields were stable, and inflation cooled again. However, concerns remain around the direction of central bank interest rates, the debt ceiling, and consumer spending. Here’s a summary of the main events that steered the markets. Markets are up since… Read More

We hope you and your families enjoyed a happy, healthy, and relaxing holiday season. As we turn the page on 2022 and bring 2023 into focus, here are 15 topics to consider when planning for the coming year. Markets have been increasing since early-October 2022. On October 12, 2022, the S&P 500 bottomed out –… Read More

As we approach the end of 2022, here is a “state of the market” which shows where we are and provides a potential glimpse into the next year. Firstly, some high-level commentary from Myles Zyblock, Chief Investment Strategist at Dynamic Funds: The next year’s outlook represents a fine balance between further monetary policy tightening and… Read More

On Wednesday the Bank of Canada (BoC) announced its latest rate increase, lifting the overnight policy interest rate by 50 basis points (bps) to 3.75%. Most analysts had predicted a 75bps increase. The lower-than-expected increase represents a continued slowing in the pace of increases since the start of the rate hiking cycle. The 50bps move… Read More

As we all know, the tail-end of 2021 and 2022 so far have been challenging to say the least. Inflation – from supply issues, from COVID-related fiscal stimulus, from emergency rate cuts, and from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – has persistently been well above the Bank of Canada & U.S. Federal Reserve target mandates of… Read More