The Upside: Breaking down the BoC rate decision – and what comes next
The Bank of Canada just made its latest rate call, and it’s already stirring up questions about the future of the economy.
Investors: if you’re looking for clarity in the wake of this rate decision, this special webcast with David Tulk from Fidelity's Global Asset Allocation team will help make sense of what’s happening and what it could mean for your investment strategy.
Transcript
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<b>Subtitles are AI Generated</b>
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Hello, and welcome to The Upside. I'm Jordan Chevalier.
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The Bank of Canada maintained its policy rate at 2 1/4% this
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week. While the hold was largely expected what does the decision
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signal for the economy here in Canada, and what should investors watch
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for in global markets?
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Joining me today to share his perspectives is portfolio manager and member
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of Fidelity's Global Asset Allocation team, David Tulk.
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David, thank you for being here.
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Thank you for having me.
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As I mentioned off the top, the Bank of Canada held its rate steady
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this week. Did anything about that decision surprise you?
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No, I think this was one of those decisions that everybody more or less
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expected so it was fully priced into the market.
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I think all economists out there also felt that this was the decision the bank
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would make. When you go through the statement and you try and figure out a
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little bit more to what the bank is thinking there were a couple of things that
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I think jumped out to me.
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I mean, first and foremost the bank is still managing through tremendous
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amounts of uncertainty. Obviously, we have elevated geopolitical stresses, we
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have ongoing trade tensions, we have a lot of things that the bank's trying to
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understand. I think they're honestly trying to follow the Hippocratic Oath
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of do no harm. If they don't have enough information to tilt them
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one way or the other their path of least resistance is to keep
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policy unchanged.
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Another part I think that was really important, to me, at least, is that their
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outlook for the Canadian economy is starting to brighten somewhat.
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This is something that we've been waiting to see for quite some time.
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Canada has struggled economically for a fair length
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of time and any sort of light at the end of the tunnel I think needs to be
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viewed very optimistically, and it's reassuring from my perspective to see that
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the Bank of Canada is also starting to see a little bit of that optimism as
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well.
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David, that's great. Now, shifting to the trade story.
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There's been recent trade developments, how are those developments
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shaping your outlook for the Canadian economy?
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It's certainly a point of uncertainty.
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We are now in this sort of rolling one year negotiation or renegotiation,
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revisiting the CUSMA trade framework.
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I think this is something that, again, we'll have to watch very carefully.
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At least we know that there's another decade or so while
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this trade agreement certainly remains in place so we will be revisiting it but
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ultimately that long-standing relationship that really has defined North
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American trade, I think that more or less is going to remain in place.
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Hopefully, that allows, I think, companies to try to understand and
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plan in that environment.
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I also think that the Bank of Canada noted this as well that companies are
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starting to adapt. One of the things that's really important for Canada
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U think is to try and find ways to diversify their trade.
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Now, it's very difficult to entirely disconnect from the US economy,
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the geographic proximity. The very close linkages that exist between the
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two countries is really important and needs to be respected but if you're
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looking for growth to improve on the margin, trying to get a sense of looking
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at other countries and trying to pivot your business to export more towards
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them that can only be a positive thing.
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This is going to, again, take some time but if growth is happening on
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the marginal we need to view that positively.
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That's very much part of the Bank of Canada's narrative that things are
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expected to brighten from this point forward.
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Could there be potential opportunities for Canada there within these
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negotiations? Tell us about that.
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Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Canada has a lot to offer both to the United States
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as well as Mexico so there is obvious need for a trade
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agreement between these two countries. Again, a lot of the linkages between the
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economies need to be respected.
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Canada needs to understand that they're going up against a much larger economy
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that, unfortunately, does hold most of the cards in this relationship.
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On the margin I think there is certainly scope for agreement on specific
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industries or certain parts of the economy but ultimately I think we are
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a price-taker, if you will, in a lot of these developments.
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Again, if you think about other things that are going on in the world, we've
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talked a bit about geopolitical sources of uncertainty, that's something that
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could also put Canada in a relatively good spot as well.
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That's something that we need to play to our strengths and hopefully we start
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to see that continue as time goes on.
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David, you mentioned geopolitical risk and uncertainty.
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I'd like to stay there for a bit. Are there specific things that you and the
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team are looking at right now?
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Yeah, absolutely. The conflict in the Mideast is certainly top
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of mind. It just goes to show that these things are exceptionally
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difficult to try and predict.
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It did look like things were maybe improving, now it looks like we're right
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back in the thick of it as well.
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To me, these geopolitics are things that speak to
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wider trends in the economy.
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My advice for investors is to try to separate yourself
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from the churn or the headlines and try and understand these bigger themes that
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are at play. The big theme that I think this is indicative of is
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really just a fracturing of the global order.
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Part of this is the US stepping back from its role at the
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centre of the global economy.
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The challenging thing here is that there's no obvious other country or other
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region that can really step into the breach.
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That does put us in this position of a very multi-polar world that,
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unfortunately, will have a lot of volatility in it.
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Again, as you think about what are some of those consequences, I think one
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consequence of an increasingly multi-polar world is more of a
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focus on securing commodities, trying to strengthen supply chains, try
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to just look at strategic reserves of commodities.
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That's where something, again, a country like Canada can really stand out
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because we have a lot of these at home. We have a very robust legal system.
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We exist in a part of the world that we have the potential
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of exporting into the US and into other countries.
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That's really the advantage that I think Canada has and we've been taking steps
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to try to capitalize on that theme.
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David, that's fascinating. We've mentioned policy rates, geopolitical
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risk and trade tensions.
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How are all of these things coming together and shaping your portfolio
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construction outlook right now?
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There's, obviously, a lot going on.
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Fingers crossed for a quiet rest of the summer but I don't think we'll be that
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lucky. When we think a little bit about what we're trying to invest around,
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first and foremost, our view on Canada has
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increased and has become more optimistic since the start of the year, and even
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into last year as well.
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The fact that the Bank of Canada is now also speaking to that theme
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as well is really reassuring. We've seen other investors and
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Canada's place in the world start to improve as well.
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That's a theme that is very central to the way we've positioned our multi-asset
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class funds and I think it has a fair longevity as well.
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We're really focused in on that as well.
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The other part which the Bank of Canada mentioned is just
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all the geopolitics, all the uncertainty, it just really speaks to the notion
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of wanting to be diversified.
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What we're trying to do in our funds is have allocations into commodities,
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allocations into various fixed income plus sectors, really things that I think
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provide a traditional sense of diversification away from the equity risk,
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because the backdrop of the equity market is still pretty constructive.
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We see very strong earnings environment,
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economic growth in a lot of major economies is also fairly robust,
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but we know that this has been going on for a while, valuations are looking a
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little stretched so you want to still have an overweight to equities, and
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that's what we have, but you want to be also mindful that there are some things
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that will go bump in the night that can add some more volatility so you want to
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hedge a little bit of that equity risk.
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You can use bonds traditionally but what we've noticed is that bonds may not
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be that universal form of diversifier.
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We have to be a little more creative and that's where commodities and
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other asset allocation decisions that we've made play an increasingly important
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role. That, again, just feels very consistent with the world that the Bank of
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Canada described as well.
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Right. David, that's the team's perspective and that's extremely helpful.
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If I'm an investor and I'm sitting at home looking at all of this uncertainty
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what's one message that you would like to sort of convey or leave them with?
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Yeah, absolutely, it's the necessity of diversification.
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Again, these headlines are fast and furious.
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You think you're out of the woods on one issue and then you realize you're
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right back in the thick of it.
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That type of environment makes it very difficult to try and trade the
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ins and outs of this type of environment.
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Again, what I would really try to reinforce for investors is to take yourself
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out of the here and now and think very much about these trends on a longer term
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basis. As that unfolds you want to make sure that you've got the right
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degree of diversification.
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Equities are a really important part of a portfolio, they're the way that you
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generate wealth over the long term, but understanding how to hedge that equity
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risk and finding different vehicles to do that, that's really the essence of
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diversifications. It's something that we as portfolio managers try to bring
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into these funds every day.
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David, you and the team just published your latest thought leadership paper.
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It's titled "Who Wins When AI Works".
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That paper is available on fidelity.ca now.
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I do want to talk a little bit about that paper.
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What prompted the research, what prompted you and team to kind of look at AI
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and the valuation story a little more closely?
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Yeah, absolutely. AI is the story of the year.
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It's amazing we've made it thus far in this conversation without bringing up
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AI. Obviously, it's had a huge influence on the market.
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As we reflect on the first half of the year the vast majority of the gains that
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we've seen in equity markets has been driven by AI and technology more
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generally. We need to respect that.
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It's an important theme going forward. I think a lot of
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the market moves are really contingent on what's happening in the
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AI story. As we think a bit about the summer, and hopefully people will have a
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chance to relax, we wanted to maybe take a step back from the headlines and try
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to put AI in a much wider context.
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That's really the motivation of the paper, to say AI is likely
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going to be a very transformative technology.
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When we look at prior types of technology that have that impact on
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the economy we want to understand what the long term implications are,
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especially when we think about the influence on corporate behaviour
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but also on labour.
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We think about how to allocate between the two of those decisions and try to
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understand what the long term implication really is.
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That's really what we try to do in the paper. We try to sketch an outline of
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all of the impacts that AI might have on the economy and then try
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to understand how much of that is really priced into the market today.
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If we're taking a sort of holistic look at this paper what's one thing that you
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can say. If you're interested in this, there's the AI story but if you are an
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investor at home what's a key takeaway from that paper that people should be
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interested in?
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I think, again, it comes to the notion of looking maybe not just at the next
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headline, not trying to chase the next chip order and figure out what that
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looks like relative to expectations, but try to understand how businesses and
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how the economy will try to incorporate AI.
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Right now what we've seen is a lot of investment in building out the
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technology. What we've seen less of is how that technology will be
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utilized by companies, by people, by countries,
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and thinking a bit about some of those implications.
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I think that really sets you up for a long term view that you can try to
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use in your portfolios to bring these ideas into an investment theme.
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That's really what we want to do as well.
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David, that's excellent. Thank you so much for being here today.
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The paper again is called "Who Wins When AI Works".
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It's available on fidelity.ca now.
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Thanks again, David.
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My pleasure.
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We'll wrap things up today with a
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quick disclaimer.
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The views and opinions expressed on
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this podcast are those of the
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participants, and do not necessarily
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reflect those of Fidelity
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Investments Canada ULC or its
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affiliates.
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This podcast is for informational
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purposes only and should not be
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construed as investment, tax, or
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legal advice.
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It is not an offer to sell or buy or
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an endorsement, recommendation, or
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sponsorship of any entity or
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security cited.
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Read a fund's prospectus before
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investing. Funds are not guaranteed.
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Their values change frequently and
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past performance may not be
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repeated. Fees, expenses, and
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commissions are all associated with
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fund investments.
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Thanks for tuning in.
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We'll see you next time.

