Portfolio manager of Fidelity True North® Fund, Max Lemieux, joins us again today for a discussion on Canadian equities. Max shares that we’re in an exciting time for active managers, and he’s seeing a renewal of the Canadian marketplace after seeing it shrink for several years. Max further explains how he is finding opportunities across various sectors, how inflation is playing into his investment approach, how he manages risk, and his thoughts on the Canadian dollar.

Recorded on November 18, 2021.

Aujourd’hui, notre invité est Maxime Lemieux, gestionnaire du Fonds Fidelity Frontière Nord, qui analyse le marché canadien et nous présente sa stratégie de répartition et ses perspectives actuelles. Lors de cette discussion avec l’animateur Charles Danis, il partage ses opinions sur les mouvements du marché au cours des derniers mois et parle des changements qu’il a apportés à son portefeuille. M. Lemieux a notamment liquidé certaines positions plus spéculatives au profit de titres de qualité à plus grande capitalisation. Les secteurs de l’énergie, des services financiers et des technologies au Canada font également partie des sujets abordés. Finalement, le gestionnaire aborde les facteurs qui ont contribué à son succès au cours des vingt dernières années, notamment une judicieuse sélection des titres, mais aussi les connaissances, l’expérience et l’excellence de l’équipe de recherche de Fidelity.

Date : 17 novembre 2021

Jeff Moore, fixed income portfolio manager, is back for his monthly perspectives on the fixed income environment. Jeff manages, co-manages, or manages the fixed-income sleeve of many Fidelity Canada funds, including Fidelity Multi-Sector Bond Fund and Investment Grade Total Bond Fund. Today Jeff dives into inflation, what’s next from central banks, crypto, and currencies. Jeff also reminds us about his 5-step process, comments on his team’s multi-sector approach to fixed income investing, and explores why they are liking the “BB” area right now.

Recorded on November 17, 2021.

Portfolio manager Dan Dupont is back on the show today to provide his thoughts on the markets throughout 2021 and looking ahead at 2022. Dan invests with a large focus on downside risk mitigation, and for Canadian investors he manages Fidelity Canadian Large Cap Fund, and co-manages Fidelity NorthStar® Fund, among other offerings. Dan shares his views on valuations, inflation, and the uncertainty around fiscal and monetary policy. With this uncertainty, Dan reminds us that investors need to remain extremely vigilant. Dan also speaks on mining, the Canadian dollar, as well as investing in oil and gas, and areas of ESG. Dan comments we’ve seen positive ESG stories in some areas, but they are highly priced and we’re seeing some minor and some major bubbles in other areas of ESG.

Recorded on November 16, 2021.

Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_webcast_fidelityconnects_dupont_16nov.pdf

Jurrien Timmer, Director of Global Macro, joins us again for his global macro and markets update. Inflation continues to be a main focus right now, with Jurrien sharing inflation expectations have now made a new high at 2.7%. He jokes that people are debating whether that it too high or too low, but the fact is inflation is rising. Jurrien has a few charts for his deep dive on inflation, visit @TimmerFidelity on Twitter to follow along. Today Jurrien also looks at the U.S. supply chain issues and if it matters to the markets, as well as energy, crypto, and gold.

Recorded on November 15, 2021.

Portfolio manager of Fidelity Europe Fund, Matt Siddle, joins the show today. Matt speaks with host Pamela Ritchie about the current inflationary pressures, noting the inflation environment differs between countries. The U.S. has greater inflationary pressures than European countries. He also looks at these pressures coming from two sources – commodities and labour markets. Matt speaks on how the recent increase in COVID cases have been impacting continental Europe and the UK and if there is an effect on markets. He also shares his thoughts on real estate in China, ESG and COP26, as well as the recent earnings season, and his criteria for how companies make it into his portfolio. His fund is traditionally a concentrated portfolio of around 60 names.

Recorded on November 12, 2021.

Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_podcast_siddle_12nov.pdf

Today we are joined by Matt Egerton, analyst and portfolio manager, and Andrew Hall, equity research associate, to talk about opportunities in ESG and renewables. Andrew says that there has been a great level of awareness and commitment to renewable goals of late. Also, recognition that solar technologies are more economically competitive with traditional fossil fuels than ever before. Matt says that it is about understanding where the opportunities are, and being diversified with the approach, instead of just following the “hot areas” in ESG. When discussing whether ESG is inflationary, Matt says that ESG has seen elements of inflation which is a reminder of the challenges in the transition. However, there has not been much pushback and everyone is on board, however, it will differ from country to country. Lastly, when asked about whether certain industries should be excluded from investment portfolios that may have exploitive practices, Matt says that Fidelity has taken an engagement rather than exclusion approach to this. Bringing companies closer, having robust conversations and having that partnership approach is what Matt believes will help us get to where we need to be in the end.

Recorded on November 10, 2021.

Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_podcast_egerton_hall_10nov.pdf

Portfolio manager of Fidelity Founders® Class, Dan Kelley, joins the show today. The fund was launched in Canada in April 2018 and is focused on harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit of founder-led companies, through small-, medium- and large-cap companies, as well as private offerings. Dan shares how founder-led companies have excelled in the past couple of years, why their eccentric nature works, and how innovative companies have gotten us through the pandemic; they have rolled out new vaccines in a matter of months, improved our cloud and software technology to adapt to the home office life and more. He reflects on founders’ personality types, tending to be eccentric risk-takers. With the right underlying skillset and vision, Dan believes embracing the founders’ unique nature brings their companies to new heights and scales. He also discusses ESG and its growth potential, recognizing that more and more companies are becoming committed to reducing their carbon footprint. He believes that going forward, we will witness a huge shift in emissions, as energy sectors can be both powerful and committed to ESG.

Recorded on November 9, 2021.

Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_podcast_kelley_9nov.pdf

As the economic cycle continues to shift from early cycle into mid cycle, investors look for market direction from the head of Quantitative Index Solutions, Bobby Barnes. According to Bobby, stocks such as retail and airlines are finally starting to rise, and as a result, we can see positive trends in the market. He notes, the main catalyst behind this positive movement is the reopening of economies and value investing. Bobby also emphasizes the impact of value and momentum investing as we enter a new economic cycle. Leveraging quality stocks would also be beneficial as we will continue to see periods of accelerated growth. Bobby also believes in the power of Just-In-Time, an innovative inventory solution to the rising supply and demand concern. Finally, Bobby comments on the rapid growth behind cryptocurrency, but notes because it is still new it can be hard to predict how companies will ensure consistent profitability.

Recorded on November 5, 2021.

Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_podcast_barnes_5nov.pdf

Fidelity’s Director of Global Macro, Jurrien Timmer, starts off today’s show touching upon equities, the United States Federal Reserve, and emerging markets. Jurrien remarked that there is always a concern about corrections in bull markets and notes that the market is now up 110% from its bottom in March 2020. He also notes that he is seeing strong earnings especially with the S&P 500 profit margin which is now at an all-time high of 14%, which he believes demonstrates a much faster recovery than anticipated. In terms of the United States Federal Reserve tapering, Jurrien shares that the bond market tapering is starting this month, but the market is not reflecting an expectation of a neutral policy, which he expects may lead us into a period similar to the 1940s with the Fed accepting higher structural inflation as collateral for a healthy economy. When asked about his response to fears of a market crash if the Fed stops being so accommodative, Jurrien indicates that market internals are improving quite a bit, and instead of fretting about slight downturns, he said to remember that even though markets go down 40% of the time, we still see compounded annual growth at 11%, and that’s where he believes staying invested carries a prize. Lastly, Jurrien believes that we are not going to see outperformance in emerging markets (EM) or Europe, Australasia, and the Far East (EAFE) without a relative earnings story to back it up, also noting that these regions are now showing negative earnings momentum.

Recorded on November 8, 2021.

Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_webcast_timmer_08nov.pdf