Strategic Alternatives

In this episode, Lori Calvasina, Head of US Equity Strategy, is joined by two of her macro partners at RBC Capital Markets, Head of US Rates Strategy, Blake Gwinn, and Equity Derivative Strategist Amy Wu Silverman. With 2024 winding down, all of their outlook reports out, and too many December investor meetings behind them to even count, these three thought leaders at RBC Capital Markets came toge...

Australia’s hopes for some strengthening in growth in 2025 rest on a pickup in household spending to support the public demand currently underpinning the economy. Meanwhile, housing, immigration, and inflation pose interlinked challenges – with geopolitical risks on the horizon. Chief Economist, Su-Lin Ong, and Macro Rates Strategist, Rob Thompson, join Rod Ireland, Head of Global Markets, APAC, t...

Recession looks avoidable for Europe in 2025, but significant growth is still elusive. This episode of RBC Capital Market’s Strategic Alternatives considers the prospects, weighing political volatility in the region, central banks’ rate-cutting cycles, and potential U.S. interventions. What does all this mean for investors? Janet Wilkinson, Head of Fixed Income & Currencies Flow Sales, EMEA, i...

2025 will see the U.S. economy diverge even further from other developed nations, in ways that begin to look structural rather than cyclical. That’s one of the predictions from RBC Capital Markets’ Chief Economist Frances Donald and U.S. Economist Mike Reid in their outlook for the next year. They join Vito Sperduto, Head of RBC Capital Markets U.S. to weigh the economic impact of the incoming adm...

Canada enters 2025 facing huge uncertainties at home and abroad. But one thing seems clear: it is set on a very different path to its powerful neighbor in terms of both economic growth potential and monetary policy. In this episode of Strategic Alternatives, Lindsay Patrick, Head of Strategy, Marketing and Sustainability is joined by RBC Chief Economist Frances Donald to analyze why Canada and the...

Lighter regulation under the next U.S. administration may make dealmaking simpler, at least in some sectors, but how will M&A be affected by Trump’s other plans? In this episode of Strategic Alternatives, Ben Mandell, Global Head of M&A, is joined by RBC Capital Markets’ M&A experts from across the globe to analyze how the change of regime and other factors will influence transactions...

At RBC’s 2024 Global Technology, Internet, Media, and Telecom (TIMT) Conference, equity capital markets bankers sat down to discuss the key trends in the tech sector, and how this will catalyze activity in the IPO and broader equity market, M&A, private markets and more moving into 2025.

In 2025, Fixed income returns across the world will depend partly on the continuing resilience of the U.S. economy, and how far the Federal Reserve takes its current easing cycle. But macroeconomic variations among different markets will also be a big influence. In this episode of the Strategic Alternatives podcast, RBC Capital Market specialists from major global markets sift the key factors to o...

At RBC's Global Industrials conference in Las Vegas, Vito Sperduto, Head of RBC Capital Markets U.S., and Lori Calvasina, Head of U.S. equity strategy talk about the key themes shaping equity markets right now, and how investors are thinking about and factoring in the potential impact of the US election.

Last autumn the Industrials M&A landscape was subdued at best. This year the mood at RBC’s Global Industrials Conference was very different, with a revived corporate scene and private equity increasingly active. Joshua Rosenbaum, Global Head of Industrials, joins the Strategic Alternatives podcast to discuss the most promising sectors, and whether the shadow of the global financial crisis is f...

With over $1 trillion in transactions under his belt, Larry Grafstein, Deputy Chairman, Global Investment Banking, RBC Capital Markets, shares career insights and deal strategies. This episode was originally recorded with The Investment Banking Leaders Podcast on September 23, 2024.

As U.S. issuances surge and redemptions from the low-rate era come due, the debt markets are in a dynamic phase, but what can issuers and investors expect next? Vito Sperduto is joined by Robert McCormack, Global Head of Debt Capital Markets, and Allison MacKinnon, Head of UK & European Corporate Debt Capital Markets, to discuss the developments.

Despite uncertainty around elections in Europe and the U.S., issuers have accelerated their funding plans in what has been a positive year for global bond markets. Head of European Debt Capital Markets and Syndicate, Robert Lamb and Co-head, Canadian Debt Capital Markets, Patrick McDonald explore the trends shaping debt capital markets.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline is up and running; the LNG Canada export facility is gearing up. The promise of new routes and markets for Canadian products is focusing investors’ attention on the market as never before. RBC Canadian energy specialists, Jeff Cormack and Michael Povaschuk, join the Energy Transition in Focus podcast to predict what this means for companies in the sector.

In a shifting financial landscape, banks are emerging as compelling value investments, driven by modest GDP growth and anticipated Fed rate cuts. Co-Head of Global Financials Research, Gerard Cassidy, explores the latest trends in bank stocks, regulatory changes, and M&A opportunities.

Covid put paid to the notion of fintech as a secular growth market, yet the sector continues to evolve, diversify, and transform financial providers. Fintech analyst, Dan Perlin, reveals why the mood at RBC’s fintech conference was better than the market would suggest, and explains that a long-awaited consumer dip could ultimately benefit the sector.

Private capital is critical to energy transition efforts, but much of it to date has been channeled to renewables and electric vehicles. What are the prospects of attracting funds to other sub-sectors, and early-stage innovators? In this episode of Strategic Alternatives, host Beatrix Pratte-Ness is joined by RBC specialists Ralph Ibendahl, Paul Betts, and Barrie Laver to assess the prospects for...

With a combined deal value of $29bn under their belts this year, four CEOs reflect on what they’ve learned from their successes – and failures. Roberto Bellini (who sold BELLUS Health), Mark McKenna (Prometheus), Bill Meury (Karuna Therapeutics) and Dan O’Connor (Ambrx Biopharma) also consider the current market for biopharma M&A and what buyers are seeking today.

On this episode of Strategic Alternatives, we share a rebroadcast of an iCapital Beyond 60/40 podcast episode, featuring Amy Wu Silverman, Managing Director and Equity Derivatives Strategist of RBC, in which she shares how options market trends can indicate public sentiment.

On this episode of Strategic Alternatives, we share a rebroadcast of the Meb Faber Show podcast episode, featuring Lori Calvasina, Head of US Equity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, in which she explains why the US market has become more sentiment driven in the post COVID era. She shares her thoughts on the valuations of the top 10 stocks and the broad market. She also touches on small cap stocks,...

RBC Global Energy’s Nick Woodruff and Tim Perry discuss the trends shaping the landscape of commodities, energy, and infrastructure investments coming out of RBC’s 2024 Energy, Power & Infrastructure Conference (EPIC) in New York.

This year has seen a pick-up in equity activity across healthcare, with a wider range of firms showing promise for value creation, and a stronger investor appetite for a pipeline of private companies that are set to go public. RBC’s John Kolz, John Hoffman, and Jason Levitz met at this year’s RBC Capital Markets Global Healthcare Conference to discuss the latest indicators from investors and corpo...

External forces are weighing heavily on energy markets in very different ways. While enforcement of merger competition rules puts strain on M&A deals, AI advances offer potential for both increased demand and business efficiencies. RBC Global Energy’s Nick Woodruff and Tim Perry consider the likely effects on the industry with host Vito Sperduto.

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Wil Snape-Rogers, Executive Director, and Danielle Hundt, Chief Program Officer, of Play Rugby USA, join Vito Sperduto to discuss how they are using the power of sport to help young people flourish—both mentally and physically.

Oil and gas markets have reached a low- or no-growth business model, yet recent months have produced a surge in M&A activity not seen for a generation. Tim Perry and Nick Woodruff, of RBC’s Global Energy team, join Vito Sperduto to take the temperature of the sector and analyze the current state of energy valuations.