BMO Equity Research IN Tune

This week's special podcast is the fifth in a series highlighting insights on coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) with Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD. This is an excerpt from an institutional conference call originally hosted on April 14, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. ET, moderated by BMO Capital Markets Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski, along with BMO experts Michael Gregory, CFA, Deputy Chief Economist, and Jon Hill, CFA, Vice President, U.S. Rates Strategy; as well as Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Financial Services analysts Tom MacKinnon and Sohrab Movahedi compare the financial positioning of banks and lifecos amid the current coronavirus pandemic to the recent global financial crisis. While their downside scenario analyses suggest earnings will be down materially in 2020, they believe the balance sheet strength/quality and business diversification of the banks and lifecos should help them weather the pandemic storm. Tom and Sohrab also discuss some of the potential credit implications arising from the current economic situation and touch on earnings implications.

This week's special podcast is the fourth in a series highlighting insights on coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) with Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD. This is an excerpt from an institutional conference call originally hosted on April 6, 2020, at 12:00 p.m. ET, moderated by BMO Capital Markets Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski, along with BMO experts George Farmer, Ph.D., Biotechnology Analyst, and Michael Gregory, CFA, Deputy Chief Economist; as well as Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths due to COVID-19 jumps across North America, there is reason to believe the rate of increase in fatalities is slowing, Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Officer for WebMD, told a BMO Capital Markets conference call this week.This week's special podcast is the third in a series highlighting insights on coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) with Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD. This is an excerpt from an institutional conference call originally hosted on March 30, 2020, at 2:00 p.m. ET, moderated by BMO Capital Markets Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski, along with BMO experts Michael Gregory, CFA, Deputy Chief Economist, BMO Capital Markets; Greg Anderson, Global Head of FX Strategy, BMO Capital Markets; and Lesley Marks, CFA, Chief Investment Strategist, BMO Private Wealth Canada; as well as Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Brian G. Belski, Chief Investment Strategist.There is no denying that a cyclical bear market has begun. Only two primary questions remain: duration and depth of the pain. At this point, another 10-20% downside is not out of the question, especially considering the growing number of disparaging forecasts and the crisis in confidence of governments. As such, we caution investors against seeking support levels, fiscal or monetary policies let alone symbolic events or gestures (e.g., corporate buyouts) to foretell or solidify a traditional bottom or capitulation. Given the irrational and fear-laden nature of the current stock market, historical precedence and traditional bottoming signals carry little to no weight in our view. Instead, markets and society likely need to see less negative (second derivative) headlines and actualities surrounding coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) to become reality before a bottoming process is likely to ensue.BMO clients can view recent Strategy reports by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/strategy/reports/To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

This week's special podcast is the second in a series highlighting insights on coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) with Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD. This is an excerpt from an institutional conference call originally hosted on March 23, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. ET, moderated by BMO Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski, along with BMO experts Margaret Kerins, CFA, Head of FICC Macro Strategy; and Michael Gregory, CFA, Deputy Chief Economist; as well as Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/    

This week’s special podcast highlights insights on coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) shared by Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD. This is an excerpt from an institutional conference call originally hosted on March 16, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. ET, moderated by BMO Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski, along with BMO experts Doug Porter, Chief Economist BMO Financial Group; Michael Stritch, CFA, Chief Investment Officer BMO Wealth Management – US; and Ian Lyngen, CFA, Head of U.S. Rates Strategy BMO Capital Markets; as well as Dr. John Whyte, MD and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/    

Brian G. Belski, Chief Investment Strategist.There is no denying that headlines, fear and rhetoric surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) have become the primary driver of investment performance the past several weeks. While the duration and volume of COVID-19 virus-related news is yet to be determined, we continue to counsel investors to control what they can control. Investors should be mindful that perspective matters, to remain poised and patient in their decision making, and to trust their investment process.BMO clients can view recent Strategy reports by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/strategy/reports/To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Jenny Ma, Canadian Real Estate Analyst, and Gaurav Mathur, Real Estate/REITs Special Projects Analyst.Development and intensification activities have become increasingly important for Canadian retail REITs as they look for new avenues to drive growth amid ongoing challenges facing bricks-and-mortar retail. Development is a relatively new component of REIT strategies, however, with a number of projects at or near completion, combined with improved disclosures on individual projects, costs, and returns, it’s time to start giving credit for development activities. We created a proprietary framework which allows us to use a consistent methodology to value individual REIT development projects, which in many cases is incremental to NAV. We expect the development theme to remain topical as many Canadian REITs look for value-add opportunities to unlock growth.BMO clients can view our report, “Time to Value Development”, by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/910777bc-8f02-4af0-8029-4d777977242f/To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Fadi Chamoun, Transportation Analyst & John Stephenson, Special Projects Contributor.Rising e-commerce volumes are increasingly becoming the dominant share of small package delivery volumes, pressuring operating margins and ROICs for related companies. The biggest driver of profitability for the industry is drop density, which is significantly lower for residential deliveries than for business deliveries, and we see no reasonable path toward improving B2C (business-to-consumer) drop density. Incumbent delivery companies are further challenged by Amazon, as its strong buying power and logistics capabilities have allowed it to set service standards and pricing for B2C deliveries.BMO clients can view our report, “Delivery Dilemma: How E-Commerce Is Disrupting Last Mile Logistics”, by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/d42a28f4-66c1-48fc-a1f2-4fc55ca335a7/To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/