Daily roundup of research and analysis from The Globe and Mail’s market strategist Scott Barlow
RBC stock list continues to outperform
RBC Capital Markets analyst Bish Koziol made 12 changers to his outperforming Top 40 list of domestic stocks,
“Our Canada Overall Top 40 Portfolio gained 5.7 per cent in September, versus the 5.4-per-cent rise in the S&P/TSX Composite. Year-to-date, the model has advanced 40.0 per cent, compared to the 23.9-per-cent return for the Benchmark. Materials led the advance amongst sectors with a 16.9-per-cent gain. Three of six sells this month had worsening Value scores . Amongst our additions, both Eldorado Gold and Nuvista Energy realized improving Growth and Predictability scores”.
The list added Gildan Activewear Inc., Centerra Gold Inc., Eldorado Gold Corp., Russell Metals inc., Methanex Corp and Nuvista Energy Ltd. The companies leaving the list are Iamgold Corp., Saputo Inc., Bank of Montreal, Paramount Resources Ltd., Dundee Precious Metals Inc and Keyera Corp.
The full list as it stands now is Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Pason Systems Inc., Ovintiv Inc, Trican Well Service Ltd, Suncor Energy Inc., Nuvista Energy Ltd, Cascades Inc Stella Jones Inc, Silvercorp Metals Inc, Centerra Gold Inc., Hudbay Minerals Inc, CCL Industries Inc., Eldorado Gold Corp, Methanex Corporation, Aecon Group Inc, Russel Metals Inc, Ag Growth Intemational Inc, Exchange Income Corporation, Toromont Industries Ltd, Magna International Inc., Linamar Corporation, Gildan Activewear Inc, Loblaw Companies Ltd, Metro, Inc., George Weston Limited, AGF Management Limited, Great-West Lifeco Inc, Canaccord Genuity Group Inc, CIBC, Bank Of Nova Scotia, iA Financial Corporation Inc, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, E quitable Group Inc., Open Text Corp, Enghouse Systems Limited, Rogers Communications Inc., Cogeco Communications Inc, Quebecor Inc. and Northland Power Inc.
The Impossible has become commonplace
Evercore ISI strategist Julian Emanuel believes we’re in the era of The Impossible becomes Commonplace,
“The era since the Crash of ’87 has seen what has been considered Impossible become Commonplace. ‘Six sigma’ Bubble and Busts occurring every few years. Rapid Technological evolution – from the PC to the Internet, to mobile communications (to AI, by all accounts) – unleashing huge productivity. Social changes have lifted millions out of poverty globally. Central Banks have learned that aggressive action can smooth or even avert systemic issues, in turn promoting entrepreneurial risk taking and use of leverage. All feeding into an ever turning Financial Revolution in products (401K’s, ETFs, 0DTE options) and information dissemination that has exponentially increased public participation in markets. All of this converged in early 2025, enabling the Public to buy weakness and resuscitate the AI Revolution Structural Bull market. In October 2025, it means that we will look back on recent volatility as part of an accelerating cycle – through earnings strength, an easing Fed, OBBB stimulus and revived capital markets cycle – not the end. To position for further upside entering strong Nov/Dec/Jan seasonality, remain overweight AI Enablers, Adopters and Adapters in AI-Centric sectors Comm. Svcs., Cons. Disc., and Info. Tech. and own June 2026 upside call options in the ‘AI Class of 2025′ leaders”
I haven’t got my hands on the AI stock list yet but I will.
Scotia’s top picks in utilities and energy infrastructure
Scotiabank analyst Robert Hope is more cautious than most on the utilities and energy infrastructure sectors,
“Looking to Q3/25 reporting, on balance, our estimates are below consensus for the majority of companies. We are most below consensus for the power space as weak generation should be a headwind for results. That said, we don’t see a soft Q3 tempering enthusiasm for the power group given the multiplying longer term tailwinds. Given the strengthening outlook for Alberta power prices in 2028 we raise our target valuation for CPX-T and TA-T. With continued improvement in the longer term outlook for natural gas, as well as the step-down in long bond yields, we increase our valuation for the pipeline group. We are moving GEI-T to Sector Perform given a more muted growth outlook and fewer relative catalysts. We prefer the power names followed by the gas-levered pipeline/midstream names and then the utility group. Our overall favourite names are ALA-T, BIP-N, CPX-T, PPL-T, and TA-T”
Bluesky post of the day
Tech Stocks just saw a weekly inflow of more than $10 Billion, the largest in history
— Barchart (@barchart.com) October 18, 2025 at 11:03 AMDiversion
“Rare earths aren’t rare” – Marginal Revolution