Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of November 26, 2024

Article Excerpt

The Bank of Canada and other central banks are now cutting their benchmark lending rates as inflation returns to pre-pandemic levels. That’s good news for utility stocks like Fortis, which carry large debt loads to finance investments in new power plants and other projects. While regulators set power rates to ensure Fortis and others earn a reasonable return on their infrastructure investments, lower interest rates help to reduce the interest they pay on loans. That significantly cuts their costs. Fortis is also in a strong position to profit from the rise of new artificial intelligence (AI) software such as the popular online chatbot/search engine ChatGPT. Specifically, computing providers like Google, Microsoft and Meta Platforms (the parent company of Facebook) are building huge new datacentres to run these AI applications. Those facilities, and the applications themselves, require relatively higher levels of electricity. I asked our Successful Investor research department to draw up this Inner Circle Spotlight report on the stock. It explains why we think…