Headwinds and Sectors in April, 2026.

 

Spring is here but the temps are up and down with flurries to rain so far but I won't complain because the humidity and higher temperatures living by the Atlantic Ocean will be here soon enough so I'll enjoy it while I can where I'm comfortable at about 20 C and below.

A retail or individual investor they call me and the growing number of people into do-it-yourself investing are making the Big Banks shift their focus slowly to offering no commission trades and other perks with the growing popularity of sites like Wealthsimple and Questrade. 

I'm old school so I still keep the bulk of my portfolio in the bank like TD Bank. Recently TD enhanced their TD Easy Trade app to 100 free trades, up from 50 last year and a list of 100 commission free ETFs. I started trading on Easy Trade as soon as the app was launched. For ETFs not in their commission free list, I go to Wealthsimple to buy and sell.

My portfolio is diversified with stocks in sectors such as the banks, pipelines, energy, insurers and others. It's riding out the choppy waters despite the headwinds brought on by the Iran war, which the US and Israel initiated causing oil and gas/diesel prices to spike for now. 

While many panic sell, even gold for cash which is different from the norm, I watched my energy stocks like Suncor, SU.TO and TC Energy TRP.TO go to new highs while paying dividends.

                                            

                                                             Courtesy of Yahoo Finance

I tune into Mike, The Dividend Guy's 10 minute broadcast called the Moose on the Loose about different stocks and expanding on questions from his readers. Lots of good investing ideas with stats and what he prefers or not, leaving it up to the listener to digest and think about.

Recently on March 30th, it was about SOBO, South Bow, the spin off from TC Energy where SOBO has the pipelines and TC Energy, more into Natural Gas these days.

I gained shares of SOBO with that split and added shares, liking the potential and dividends paid in USD, converting to CAD on my end. It takes big bucks to maintain and extend pipelines. Meanwhile, the money "flows" into SOBO from the tolls/fees companies pay to use the pipelines to transport their oil. South Bow has been in the news recently about expanding their pipeline in the US and meetings with the US Feds and States involved

SOBO has gained over 25% share price in the last 3 months.

I found Mike's opinion on SOBO interesting in the link below

About South Bow (SOBO), March 30, 2026

Currently I'm watching and interested in BMO's "T for Target" ETFs

BMO released the distributions and the Target yield for 15 of their new funds.

For example, ZWB is a covered call ETF holding the top banks in Canada plus ZEB with a current yield of 5.42% and I have ZWB in my ETF portfolio. 

ZWB.T (Target and new ETF) has a current Target yield of 13% and has paid out it's first distribution but I'll wait for BMO's April news release, usually around the 20th for ZWB.T's distribution payment in early May to compare the ETF price from it's starting price. It's wise to read over all the information BMO has available on these Target ETFs.

It's certainly a new twist on an original ETF like ZWB launched on January 28th, 2011 so I'll be watching ZWB.T's charts with regards to price swings and if it will be an addition or not. I like to see the monthly payments coming in but don't want to see an ETF price go lower over time ultimately bringing on a loss when it comes to total gain.

More on that in April along with how the stock sectors are performing while US policy on the Iran war and trade deals with Canada keeps everybody speculating with the constant changes from day to day.

Happy Easter, today being the 4th of April, 2026

The Oil and War in March, 2026

 

The end of February saw the start of a laddered decline in the TSX Composite Index, which continued on Friday, March 20th, the first day of spring but the Markets weren't feeling any "spring back" that day.

I've been through a few major market crashes so I don't sell and wait it out. Rebounds come in time. Quicker these past years, thinking about Covid in February of 2020 and the market recovery later in that year. 

President Trump's wide sweeping Tariff hit on countries in April of 2025, which caused Markets to go off a cliff but not for long. This year, those Tariffs were deemed illegal by the supreme court so he's trying another tactic these days. 

Meanwhile, in mid March, I'm watching the Iran conflict that was supposed to come to a quick end but continues to flare up these days jolting the markets at times. Always a powder keg starting something in the Middle East with collateral damage. At this time, Iran has no intention of discussing a cease fire. 

No surprise oil is in the middle of all that and climbing upwards of a $100 a barrel and higher. Gas, jet fuel and diesel with higher prices for now. Groceries will cost more to ship. Talks of inflation will rise once again. 

The Central Banks of North America are weighing all that and decided to keep interest rates as they are in Canada and the US ... for now.

I believe in diversifying across a few sectors which helps in riding out these Market storms.

Being in Canada, the energy stocks are edging up while wanting even more pipelines and expansions to move more oil and natural gas to export. The oil barons get frustrated with red tape wait times and Federal/Provincial Government regulations about climate, the environment and carbon tax thresholds.

The pipeline and utility stocks make for decent gains and dividends for total return over time. With the utilities, Capital Power, CPX-TO in my portfolio is off it's YTD high so I plan more buying with a current 4.30% yield and an ex-dividend date of March 31, 2026.

September is when CPX tends to increase it's dividends. Being an estimate, it could be in the range of a 6% increase but all depends on their upcoming earning results.

There's a lot going on behind the scenes with that power company and CPX plans to bring more juice online for a data centre build in Alberta with the provincial government being pro Data Centres these days.

                                                      Capital Power, CPX, Year to Date Chart

                                  

I was delaying writing this post, while waiting for the 4th quarter and 2025 results from Power Corporation, POW-TO, which also has an ex-dividend date on the last day of March. POW increased it's dividend by 9%.

Interesting is GBL highlighted in their organisation chart along with Great-West Life, GWL-TO and others. 

I got curious and GBL, with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium has offices throughout Europe and London, GBL is a publicly traded company trading in Euros and pays a quarterly dividend, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert.

"with seventy years of stock exchange listing, a net asset value of €14 billion and a market capitalization of €10 billion at the end of December 2025."

GBL is a leading investor in Europe, focused on long-term value creation and relying on a stable and supportive family shareholder base.

Know what your investing in is a common investing quote. I try my best in this information overload investing world and weed out what's important to me.

On the energy front, I hold both TRP.TO and SOBO-TO and both are looking to expand their infrastructures with an ex-dividend date of March 31st, 2026.

Those are several stocks that are popular among investors which I personally hold and a reminder that these picks of mine are not investment advise, keeping risk tolerance in mind.

Hopefully, the Iran conflict will calm down and see a withdraw from the US and Israel plus other Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar being on the defensive from Iran's missile and drone attacks on their oil plants, shipping and storage. Until the next flare up.

In April, the Big Banks of Canada come to mind while down in price since the TSX fell this month while related ETFs are in focus on my end.