Angry Canadians have sworn off American whisky, sold US real estate, and skipped summer holidays south of the border.
But when it comes to booming American stocks, the boycott stops cold.
After Donald Trump slapped Canada with aggressive trade tariffs in April — and followed up with fiery talk of annexation — a ‘Buy Canada’ movement swept the country, urging consumers to keep their dollars at home
Whisky sales plunged, tourism took a hit, and Canadian-owned US properties hit the market. Yet investors have moved in the opposite direction.
In the first eight months of the year, Canadians have poured $89.7 billion USD into US stocks, according to data compiled by the National Bank of Canada.
At this pace, inflows would be the largest since the early 1990s, Bloomberg reported. It is easy to see why.
Over the last two years American stocks have outperformed Canadian ones. On Friday. the Dow Jones hit a record high.
Yet Canadian stocks hit their 30th record high for the year on Friday too. They have also outperformed the US so far this year, rising almost 15 percent compared to the ten percent gain of the S&P 500.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he would be scrapping its retaliatory tariffs on US goods on Friday
Friday’s surge on the Canadian stock market came after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he would be scrapping its retaliatory tariffs on US goods in a bid to thaw the trade war with Trump.
‘It’s a lot of performance chasing,’ Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at Vancouver-based PenderFund Capital Management told Bloomberg.
Canadians have ‘seemingly failed to employ a ‘buy Canadian’ (or ‘sell American’) philosophy in their own portfolio dealings,’ Lovely, managing director at PenderFund told clients in a memo last week.
Taylor told Bloomberg he still thinks Canadian stocks are a better buy than US stocks right now.
‘The US market is looking really crowded and stretched right now,’ Taylor explained.
On the other hand the Canadian benchmark is ‘is looking like a nice setup for the next 12 months.’
It comes after recent analysis found that although Canadians have pulled back on US tourism, the industry has remained in robust shape.
The gap has been filled by wealthier Americans choosing to spend their summer holiday at home, rather than meet a potentially hostile reception in Europe or elsewhere.
The Canadian stock market is still outperforming the American benchmark
Wealthier Americans have filled the tourism gap left by Canadians
Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at PenderFund Capital Management, thinks Canadian stocks are a better buy than US stocks
Major hotel groups such as Hilton and Hyatt lowered their expectations for 2025 following the ‘liberation day’ announcements, but have now lifted their outlooks again.
‘Obviously coming out of ‘liberation day’ and other things, there’s been a decent amount of noise in the system, but we are very optimistic,’ Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta told investors on the company’s most recent earnings call.
‘There are legitimate reasons to feel really, really good about demand.’
Travel agency Expedia said it has seen an uptick in travel demand in the US since the beginning of July.
The company expects bookings to be up between 3 and 5 percent compared to 2024.
