North American markets whipsawed through the week as the market rout that began last Friday gained momentum.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 330 points higher, after swinging more than 1,000 points during a volatile Friday trading session, while the TSX finished 31 points in the red.
Below, BNN guests weigh in on what investors should – or shouldn’t do – amid market volatility.
“I think what we’re seeing right now is kind of a combination of a lot of fear and emotion – the exact type of fear and emotion that drove the market higher at first, and now we’re kind of seeing not a lot of discipline. ... If you have a longer-term perspective and want to be in stocks the next three to five years, six to 12 months, I think you need to start looking at your favourite names and add to your names.”
Picks: Dollarama, Restaurant Brands International
Brian Belski, chief investment strategist, BMO Capital Markets
“When we look at it as a whole, I think this is not a bad opportunity to take a look at portfolios, maybe improve the quality and pick up some names. ...I think we are still in a good phase in the markets for the next couple of months.”
Picks: Healthcare, some financials, tech
- Paul Nolte, senior vice-president and portfolio manager, Kingsview Asset Management
“It’s analogous to breaking a glass on your kitchen floor, and you get out the broom and you sweep the floor. You think you’ve got it all, but you find a little bit more in the corner. And I think that’s what’s been going on with markets ever since last Friday. …. There’s still some stuff out there. I think it’s still time to be very cautious in markets.”
- Andrew McCreath, commentator, BNN
“What you need to do is first understand what you’re investing in and really have a long-term perspective, and really understand the fundamental story of the stock. We’re taking a barbell approach – one that really can benefit from the cyclical exposure in the marketplace; particularly within the sectors like industrials, like energy…and financials given the rise interest rates.”
Picks: Industrials, energy
- Yana S. Barton, portfolio manager, Eaton Vance Focused Growth Opportunities Fund
“We haven’t really been buying anything in the past several days, but we had raised cash quite significantly prior to this volatility. …One of the things is that when you get these large market corrections is not to panic sell.”
- Bill Shaw, partner and portfolio manager, Exponent Investment Management
“We’ve continued to re-enforce [our] pro-growth, or cyclical growth, mantra in our portfolios and are favouring those sectors, taking advantage of some of the volatility that the market has provided us with. And we continue to advise clients to underweight the more defensive sectors – things like utilities, telecom, and even select consumer staples.”
Picks: Utilities, telecom
- Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager, U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management
“Coming up into this period, we’ve been trimming portfolios, looking for overpriced sectors, over-priced stocks – shedding them. Getting back to what our target allocations are. Then when the selloff came, as fast as we could, we were adding to selected positions because we are taking a longer-term view.... looking for those bargains when they presented themselves. I think that’s the intelligent way to do it.”
Picks: Energy and precious metals; healthcare and financials; utilities and some industrials
- David Dietze, founder, president and chief investment strategist, Point View Wealth Management
“What investors need to understand is, whether we’re going through periods of positive market returns or negative market returns, we need to accept volatility – and the secret is to keep your wits about you throughout.”
- Michael Underhill, CIO, Capital Innovations
“If you’re overweight cash… you can certainly put this money to work. If this market correction has been too much to handle, that means you don’t have enough fixed income in your portfolio and you don’t have enough cash in your portfolio. Time to review the asset mix.”
Picks: U.S. financials, tech
- Wolfgang Klein, senior investment advisor, Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management
“[Stocks] are going to be back and forth for a while. But I think that’s where investors have to step back, assess their risk – are they able to have the capital to weather this? But I think in some cases, it’s creating a buying opportunity for them too.”
Picks: Resoruce sector
- John Zechner, chairman and founder, J. Zechner Associates
“The past few days you feel like you’re in a silly business. Everything is calm for a couple years, then all of the sudden, boom— and people lose their minds and things are so unsettling. …We’re still under a very bullish backdrop for the economy, for corporate stock prices. But stock prices, they’ll do what they want.”
Picks: Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Brookfield Asset Management
- Barry Schwartz, chief investment officer and portfolio manager, Baskin Wealth Management
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