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By Kyle Prevost on November 15, 2024
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

By Kyle Prevost on November 15, 2024
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

The Trump effect and Trumponomics, Shopify’s huge earnings beat, it’s sunny days for Suncor shareholders and more.

Kyle Prevost, creator of 4 Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement, Canada’s DIY retirement planning course, shares financial headlines and offers context for Canadian investors.

A few things have changed in the world since the last time I wrote a Making Sense of the Markets column a couple of weeks ago. Republican control of all three levels of the American federal government (assuming current vote-counting patterns hold) have sent stocks soaring. This week, the S&P 500 zoomed past 6,000 for the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 44,000, and even our very own TSX hit an all-time high of 25,000. It turns out that investors really like the idea of uncontested elections, a lack of insurrections at the White House, and the promise of massive tax reductions.

There are many theories about how president-elect Donald J. Trump’s policy promises will affect the markets around the world. With the massive caveat that many of these campaign promises are unlikely to be fully realized, here’s a brief look at the more prominent market news stories to come out of the election:

Many Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses are expressing concerns of the 10% to 20% tariff rates, promised by Trump, against all goods produced outside the United States. However, I wouldn’t bet on Canadian oil and natural gas being targeted for tariffs, considering that Trump’s new National Security Advisor is married to the vice president for TC Energy Corp.

One could also argue the overall effect of a roaring deficit-fuelled U.S. economy (full of supercharged consumers who buy Canadian goods) could balance out the tariff threat, as far as the overall Canadian economy goes. But the same case can’t be made for many countries in Asia.

Andrew Tilton, Goldman’s chief Asia-Pacific economist, recently highlighted Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam as countries that could be most drastically affected, in addition to Trump’s favourite tariff target,........

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