In the Money: 5 Things to Know
Liberals win, futures mixed, GM & UPS yank forecasts, Spotify disappoints, Anson confirms InterRent stake
I’m late. It’s been a day. Let’s jump right in.
How does one of Bay Street’s top fund managers consistently deliver 15% annualized returns while navigating controversy and volatility? In this episode of In the Money with Amber Kanwar, Moez Kassam, Chief Investment Officer & Founder of Anson Funds, shares the secrets behind his success and reveals an investment in a beaten up real estate stock for the first time. Watch on YouTube now. You can catch the audio version on Apple, Spotify or here.
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True north: The Canadian dollar is slightly lower as election results indicate a Liberal minority in a historic election. As of this writing the Liberals have 168 seats (not clinching the 172 needed for a majority), Conservatives have 144, the Bloc have 23 while the NDP sits at just 7. For the NDP this is a decimation relative to 2021 when they secured 25 seats. Jagmeet Singh will be stepping down as NDP leader. Pierre Poilievre lost his own riding but has committed to stay on as party leader. For each there was disappointment and joy. Mark Carney achieved a rare feat of being elected after being installed, however it was by a slim margin. Poilievre lost his seat and won’t become Prime Minister, but Conservatives had their best showing since the Harper era. It is still unclear what kind of government will take shape and how soon Canadians may be headed back to the polls given the minority status. Deals will need to be struck. For the markets, energy and renewable stocks will be in focus on the back of the election results.
Trumpdate: US futures are mixed as US President Donald Trump is expected to soften auto tariffs on foreign-made cars. Still, as earnings roll in there are plenty of signs of tariff angst. Four weeks into Liberation Day there have been no deals. However, hope has fueled the markets with the S&P 500 up 10% from the April 9th low. To emphasize how stunning that is, the index was down 11% from the beginning of April to April 8th. “April is on pace to be one of the biggest upside reversal months in the stock market's history,” wrote the folks at Bespoke. It is a similar story on the TSX and this week also features a heavy week of earnings with 42 issues reporting.
Stall: General Motors is suspending its financial forecasts and freezing its buyback due to tariff uncertainty. The company also delayed its earnings call until May 1st. These kind of moves are exceedingly rare and shows the kind of scrambling that is going on at companies behind the scenes. Shares are down about 3% in the pre-market. Interesting that despite expected news on the tariff front the stock is still under pressure. UPS is joining the list of companies who are declining to offer a forecast for 2025 given the uncertainty while also announcing 20,000 job cuts. The job cuts are in reaction to Amazon pulling back and doing more of their own deliveries, but the lack of forecast is due to “macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Buffering: Shares of Spotify are down nearly 7% in the pre-market after sales and monthly users missed estimates. Its forecast for growth were also lighter than expected. To be clear, Spotify still grew its total subscriber base by 12% to 268 million people. The stock has been extremely resilient in the face of the tech wreck and is likely falling victim to a sell-the-news trade considering the stock is up 108% over the past year.
Activist stake: Moez Kassam of Anson Funds confirmed he is the largest shareholder of InterRent on the latest episode of In the Money with Amber Kanwar. InterRent is a multi-residential REIT focused on the GTA and has underperformed the broader real estate index. Kassam said on the podcast he’d like to see the company halt purchases of new assets and perhaps engage in a process that would see the company sold. He was limited in what he could say because he is engaged with management, however this is the first time he spoke about the kind of value he sees. It is also an example of the recent push into activist investing and his focus on real estate dislocations. You can find that conversation here at 48:58.
