AI is forcing investors to rethink one of the most time-tested strategies in the market—and it could have major implications for how you build your portfolio. On this episode of In the Money with Amber Kanwar, Dan Rohinton, Portfolio Manager at iA Global Asset Management, makes the case that the traditional buy-and-hold approach is no longer as reliable in a world where artificial intelligence is accelerating disruption across nearly every industry.
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I was thinking about the markets as I was looking out at a floor full of Lego in the kids’ playroom. Each Lego representing a potential perilous injury. Inflation at a 3-year high, triple digit oil, multiple wars with no end, rising interest rates. The market is just like me, tiptoeing across that floor, somehow avoiding every shard. And when I made it to the other side, I looked back and thought, maybe I should clean this up. Instead, I did what the market’s been doing all year. I shut the door behind me and walked away.
Here are five things to know today:
Keep calm: Stocks are mixed after a read of producer inflation soared by the most since 2022. US producer prices soared 6% from last year thanks to rising energy prices. But even when you exclude food and energy they were still up 5.2% from last year. Both higher than feared. Stocks wobbled with the print, but the reaction in the bond market was more decisive with yields moving higher. The yield on a US-10 year is now trading at a 10-month high. Aside from inflation, the market is also focused on pending talks between the US and China with the most important people in America heading their right now. That is not hyperbole. The CEOs of Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, Blackrock, Boeing, Citi, Goldman Sachs, GE Aerospace, Micron and Qualcomm are all tagging along with US President Donald Trump. Nvidia was a last minute add and has the semiconductors fired up right now with the ETF up more than 1%. In Canada, the tape might be guided by earnings and deals (see below) and the fact that both oil and copper are advancing.
In the stars: Quarterly results form Constellation Software out last night are unlikely to settle the debate on the stock as the results didn’t give the market an “all-clear.” On the downside, organic growth was 2% which is in-line with historical norms. However, their largest acquisition – Altera – saw organic growth fall 13% which is worse tha nthe 7% drop last quarter. On the plus side, headline revenue grew 20% thanks to a surge in M&A. Constellation Software appears to be taking advantage of weak market conditions by scooping up other companies in what could be a record year for deals for the company. “YTD capital deployed of $1.44B (net of cash acquired) implies an annual run-rate of $3.8B, which would be well above Constellation’s previous annual record ($2.46B in FY23),” wrote RBC’s Paul Treiber. Dan Rohinton said on the podcast he likes the stock as a tactical short-term buy here but is cautious long-term. The conference call got right into questions and answers. Despite the “Saas-pocalypse” management says valuations are still high in the private markets. “There is a real disconnect between the Saas-pocalypse, publicly traded stuff, and private markets,” said CEO Mark Miller about the M&A pipeline on the conference call. Clearly it didn’t stop them from making deals that meet their criteria with Miller saying M&A has been a bright spot. The tone was pretty sanguine about the threat from AI. The AGM is on Friday. I own Constellation Software.
Difficult go: Goeasy reported a bigger loss than expected and adopted a poison pill to thwart a potential takeover after an 85% drop in shares. After losing money in its auto lending business and writing down hundreds of millions worth of debt, the subprime lender continues to show signs of strain. Total lending was down 19% because they are pulling back from that kind of financing. Net charge offs exploded to 17.8% up from 8.9% in the same quarter last year. The company says charge offs will remain elevated at 16-17.5% next quarter and will remain in the mid-teens for the full year. Its not just the auto lending business that deteriorated, notes John Aiken of Jefferies. Home lending charge offs at easyhome doubled from last year, he wrote in a note to clients. The company says it remains confident it can return to its long track record of strong credit performance eventually and in the mean time adopted a shareholder rights plan (aka poison pill) to prevent a hostile takeover. The silver lining is that they don’t need cash right away with over $1 billion in liquidity. But there could be more bad news, according to goeasy’s MD&A. The company admitted its internal controls had “material weakness” and these deficiencies create “a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement to the consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.” They are implementing a remediation plan. Conference call at 9am.
Gold digging: Equinox Gold announced it is buying Orla Mining for $5.1 billion in a mostly all-stock deal. This is one of the biggest gold deals over the past year and comes after a the highest dealmaking year in the gold space last year since 2010. This is also the biggest deal ever for Equinox, which is backed by Ross Beaty. He was on the podcast last summer discussing the $2 billion purchase of Calibre Mining which they did in early 2025. At the time he said there was no more appetite for gold deals. But gold is up 40% since then and Equinox Gold went from being a laggard to more than doubling since that interview. So now they are using their stock as currency. Shareholders at both companies still need to approve the deal. Purchasing Orla Mining will turn Equinox into one of the top gold producers in the world by ounces and market cap. Orla has key assets in Canada and Mexico. I own shares of Equinox Gold.
Bad vibes: Wix.com is plunging 18% after profit was half expectations and revenue didn’t grow as much as expected. The website maker’s shares have been under pressure on concerns that people can just vibe code their own website. Wix.com has been investing in its own LLM and AI tools, which explains why profit has been pressured. Sales still grew 14%. However, companies turning to Wix.com to build their website was off to a soft start in 2026 as they explore other options for creating websites. “Coming into earnings, we’d taken our targets down significantly on WIX and (GoDaddy), noting a clearer acknowledgment of the rising competitive risk from vibe coding (customer acquisition headwinds, churn, pricing pressure etc) and the simple logic of public investors becoming less and less willing to underwrite this type of terminal value risk given the incessant new LLM product rollouts,” wrote RBC’s Brad Erickson, “Based on today’s report, that sentiment would seem more likely to continue.”
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