Inflation on both sides of the border is edging higher, forcing central banks to strike a more hawkish tone, while rising oil threatens to keep the heat turned up on consumer prices. On today’s episode, BMO Global Asset Management portfolio managers Chris Heakes and Alfred Lee, and your host Mckenzie Box, discuss the latest North American CPI prints, and what they mean for fixed-income investing, while also diving into what elevated oil prices could signal about where the market goes from here.

Chris Heakes
MFin, CFA, Head, Disciplined Equity, Portfolio Manager
Chris joined the BMO ETF portfolio management team in 2011, and focuses on factor-based equity and derivative-overlay portfolios, including but not limited to BMO’s Low Volatility, Dividend, and Covered Call equity ETF suites. His prior investment experience includes a role as a quantitative equity research associate, and work in investment funds product and client support. Chris holds a Masters of Finance from the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management (Dean’s List), where he studied investments, including derivatives and derivative pricing. Chris also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo with studies in History and Mathematics and the CFA designation.
Current Podcasts
Third quarter earnings season for Canada’s biggest lenders saw share prices slump amid rising loan-loss provisions and broader economic concerns. Yet amid the gloom, our experts parse out reasons why Canadian banks are a wise investment for long-term investors. On this episode, Sohrab Movahedi, Chris Heakes, and your host Daniel Stanley, dissect the latest earnings results among the Big 6 banks, and examine what 2024 could hold for the lenders and investors.
A shift toward international equities is seemingly underway, but what is the catalyst for this movement? In today’s episode, portfolio managers Chris Heakes, Omanand Karmalkar and your host, Mckenzie Box, analyze valuations and look for opportunities abroad. They also discuss U.S. and Canadian banks, mega-cap Tech stocks and infrastructure.
In this special episode, Sohrab Movahedi, Chris Heakes and Daniel Stanley take a deep dive into second quarter earnings from Canada’s “Big Six,” discussing how the mixed results weighed on investor sentiment. They also examine the markets’ reaction to higher rates and recession risk, the U.S. banking crisis, ETF strategies, TD Bank’s termination of the First Horizon merger, technology’s resurgence, the first “social media bank run” and consumer resilience.
In this special episode, Sohrab Movahedi, Chris Heakes and Daniel Stanley dive into first-quarter results from Canada’s “Big Six,” discussing how the banks are “rolling with the punches.” They also explore the possibility of a recession, putting credit costs into context, the philosophy of equal weighting, and the evolving Canadian housing ecosystem.
In this special episode, Sohrab Movahedi, Chris Heakes and Daniel Stanley dive into second quarter results from Canada’s “Big Six,” discussing their outlook for Financials, how banks weather uncertainty, metrics that can help gauge the economy’s strength, and real estate. They also look at strategies to hedge against inflation, including the BMO Canadian Dividend ETF (ZDV) and the BMO Canadian High Dividend Covered Call ETF (ZWC).