Politics are taking centre stage with the US continuing a tariff war with several countries in mid March, 2025.
Canada and China plus the EU are countering tariffs imposed by President Trump while Mexico is on the wait list until April. Trade negotiations continue with no positive outcome to date as US stock markets sank into correction territory in the market week ending March 14th but have recovered since then.
Mr. Market doesn't like uncertainty with tariff threats but they are here and absorbed for now while figures and percentages continue to be jostled around from day to day.
Meanwhile, Power Corporation of Canada, POW will provide it's earnings report on the 20th of March with a current yield of 4.67%. POW.TO owns major shares in companies like Wealthsimple and Great-West Lifeco.
POW.TO is one of the Globe and Mail's tariff fighting stocks recommend by Gordon Pape. He also likes Pembina Pipelines: PPL.TO and Emera: EMA.TO in a recent article. I own these stocks but as always, do your own homework when making stock picks.
POW's last dividend increase was last March in 2024. I'm interested to see what the 20th earning report reveals about the company's dividend with hopefully another increase for 2025 and the ex-dividend date which will be in the last week of March.
In last weeks sector report for Canada ... several Materials like gold miners and Utility stocks have been staying in the 'green' compared to other sectors from the past week with all the trade and tariff uncertainty. Gold is the talk these days at over 3,000 USD per ounce recently.
Agnico Eagle Mines, AEM.TO is one of those miners, where it's stock increased by 34% year to date. I personally do not own it but plan to soon. Partially, that is as the top holding (for now) by weight in the Manulife Smart Dividend ETF. Launched in 2020, CDIV has earned 12.80 since inception and pays a quarterly distribution with a yield near 4%. with a 4 star Morningstar rating.
TD Bank, TD.TO is 2nd highest in weighting at this time, a stock I do own.
Getting into 'monthly' distributions, the Manulife Smart "Enhanced" Yield Dividend ETF, CYLD is similar to CDIV but has Canadian Treasury Bills as it's top holdings with a higher management fee where there's more active involvement which comes with a note:
Holdings are subject to change. They are not recommendations to buy or sell any security.
Heading down into the US... UYLD.B is the enhanced version of the Manulife Smart U.S. Dividend ETF, UDIV.B (unhedged units) where I may keep that one on my Watchlist for now where the US exchanges Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have headed into correction territory recently, although recovered today. Certainly volatile times but some holdings may not be affected by tariffs individually thinking long term.
One has to look beyond the yield and focus on an ETF's holdings, performance and management fee along with other metrics like covered-calls, etc. High trading volume is a plus where it can show an ETF as being popular with interested investors.
Ex-dividend dates for the big banks of Canada are coming up over the next few weeks and CIBC, CM.TO is scheduled for the 28th of March and I'll be buying more with a 4.75% yield followed by the Bank of Nova Scotia, BNS.TO with a 6.09% yield on the 1st of April.
To add to those dividends, I've been buying ZWB, BMO Covered Calls Canadian Banks ETF with a current yield of 6.70% and pays monthly distributions but by owning the banks individually there's that yearly dividend increase (Except BNS with no increase since July 2023) and no management fees with possible stock price growth depending with what's going on each quarter of a given year.
The current tariff war, depending how long it drags on for will probably weigh on the big banks of Canada which have and will probably set aside more funds for business and personal loan defaults with companies most affected by possible restructures and/or having to layoff workers, The Federal Government has announced it will assist financially where needed based on approvals for companies applying.
After the pandemic and the high interest rates that followed, I'm confident the Big Banks can deal with what's going on now and issues in the future.