August 26, 2026 What to do if you missed out on SpaceX Bonus Content: Record Quarters, Fresh Buybacks, and a Tariff War Unsubscribe Sponsored Editor's Note: Jason Bodner spent two decades on Wall Street. He placed huge trades for the biggest funds and richest people on Earth. Along the way, he built a tool that does one thing. It catches big firms quietly buying a stock – before the rest of the market wakes up. Right now, it has flagged something odd. BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Vanguard are sneaking cash into two overlooked AI stocks. And they're doing it before the November 3 election. Read more below. Dear Reader, If you feel like you're always one step behind in the market... And even when AI stocks are soaring... Or energy stocks spiked during the Iran War... Or the next great tech company goes public in an IPO... You still can't seem to get ahead. Now is your chance. Using our proprietary indicator. You can see where Wall Street's going. Before the stock moves... And now, you can see which stocks the biggest firms on Wall Street... Like BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan... Are quietly loading up on right now. There's two in particular that stand out. I believe these giant institutions are scooping up as much of these stocks as possible... Before November 3. Why? Click here to learn more. Regards, Jason Bodner Founder, Outlier Intel< P.S. Our backtest shows 85% of the stocks my system flags have gone up. In fact, the average stock doubled... And that includes the losers. Click here to see what this tool says now.       Bonus Article Record Quarters, Fresh Buybacks, and a Tariff War Hey there, bargain hunter. On Tuesday, August 25, BMO and Scotiabank dropped their strongest quarters in a while. On the same morning, Ottawa announced counter-tariffs on U.S. goods effective September 8, with duties of 15%, 25%, and 50% across more than 700 product lines. The measures were framed as a dollar-for-dollar, rate-for-rate response to the U.S. decision to impose a 50% tariff on C$27.6 billion of Canadian goods. The market's first instinct was to yawn at the geopolitics and applaud the earnings. That tension between the numbers and the macro is exactly where this trade lives. Scoreboard BMO delivered adjusted EPS of C$3.96, up 22% year over year, on adjusted net income of C$2.859 billion. Pre-provision, pre-tax earnings rose 13% to C$4.5 billion, with every operating segment posting record pre-provision, pre-tax earnings. Revenue climbed 11%. Capital Markets net income surged 45%, and Wealth Management net income rose 22%. CET1 held at 13.0%, and the bank proposed a new buyback for up to 25 million shares. BMO’s quarterly dividend stayed at C$1.71 per share, which is still up 5% from the prior year and equals C$6.84 annualized. Scotiabank posted net income of C$2,953 million versus C$2,527 million a year ago. Diluted EPS of C$2.27, up from C$1.84. Revenue rose 12% to C$10.535 billion. Global Banking and Markets earnings hit a record C$647 million, up 37%. Global Wealth Management delivered a record C$518 million, up 23%, with assets under management growing 16% to C$474 billion. CET1 at 13.1%. The bank returned C$6.3 billion to shareholders year-to-date through buybacks and dividends. What Actually Happened The market came in braced for tariff-driven credit deterioration. Instead, BMO said its impaired provisions hit their lowest level in ten quarters, with watchlist balances falling C$1 billion. Scotiabank's provision for credit losses ratio was 56bp. The credit cycle is moving the right direction, not the wrong one, and it is doing so into an escalating trade dispute. That is the counterintuitive core of this story. Both CEOs said the same thing about the tariff war: manageable. BMO Chief Risk Officer Piyush Agrawal disclosed that direct tariff-exposed loans represent less than 1% of BMO's total loan book, with the bulk of those to high-quality borrowers. BMO made no changes to its full-year guidance. CEO Darryl White said the Canada-U.S. relationship is going through a period of adjustment, and said clients have adjusted very well. The Business and What Makes It Cheap Canada's Big Six operate inside one of the tightest banking oligopolies in the developed world. The six largest banks collectively hold more than 90% of Canadian banking assets. New entrants cannot compete at scale. That structure produces something rare: unbroken dividend streaks stretching back to the 1800s, through recessions, housing scares, and now a trade war. On valuation, BNS was recently flagged as the cheapest of the six on a price-to-book basis at 1.7x, with a dividend yield near 3.7% and a forward P/E below 17x. That is a meaningful discount to U.S. large-cap bank peers trading at richer multiples on lower ROE trajectories. BMO is targeting a sustainable 15% ROE as it exits fiscal 2027, up from 14% this quarter on an adjusted basis. Bull / Base / Bear Bull: Credit quality holds, provisions keep falling, RBC and TD add to the positive read-through Thursday. Capital returns accelerate. Trade talks resume before September 8. Base: Provisions tick up modestly in Q4 as tariff uncertainty slows business investment. Earnings growth decelerates from 20%+ to low double digits. Banks trade sideways with dividends doing most of the work. Bear: Tariff escalation forces material GDP downgrades. Capital Economics has warned the new tariff round pushes Canada closer to recession. A credit cycle reversal would compress multiples fast. Housing exposure is the secondary risk worth watching. Action Plan This is a position you scale into, not one you load in a single order. Start with a half position in BNS or BMO today. Add the second half only after RBC and TD report Thursday, and only if credit trends confirm the same direction. For conservative bargain hunters, BNS offers the highest yield in the group and the most room to close a valuation gap. For those willing to accept higher volatility, BMO's buyback and ROE trajectory to 15% make it the cleaner growth-plus-capital-return story. Cheap Investor Scorecard CET1 ratios: BMO 13.0%, BNS 13.1%, both above OSFI floors. Track for any drawdown below 12.5%. Impaired provisions: BMO at 10-quarter lows. Watch Q4 guidance for any guidance revision. Watchlist balances: BMO down C$1bn quarter over quarter. Stabilization here is your early warning. ROE trajectory: BMO at 14% (adjusted), targeting 15% as it exits fiscal 2027. BNS delivered 14.2% adjusted ROE this quarter and said it exceeded its medium-term objectives in the period. Buybacks: BMO proposed up to 25 million shares. BNS repurchased 8.6 million shares in Q3. Revenue growth: BMO +11%, BNS +12% year over year. Both outpacing Canadian GDP by a wide margin. Tariff-exposed loan book: BMO disclosed less than 1% direct exposure. Ask the same question of RY and TD on Thursday. September 8 tariff date: If Ottawa and Washington reach a pause before then, banks trade higher fast. BNS dividend yield vs. peers: At roughly 3.7%, it remains the fattest in the group. Only cut if credit cycle turns sharply. RBC and TD Q3 results: The confirming or disconfirming data point. Same credit trends would be a green light to add. Bottom Line If credit quality holds and RBC and TD confirm the trend Thursday, Canadian banks are among the cheaper developed-market financials posting 20%-plus EPS growth with 13% CET1 buffers and active buybacks. If the tariff war escalates past September 8 with no negotiated pause, provisions will rise and these valuations will feel less comfortable. The discount is real. So is the conditional. Own the thesis with a scale-in plan, not a conviction bet you cannot afford to add to. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investing involves risk. The Cheap Investor is a publication of Investing Media Solutions, LLC. To view our full policies: Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 The Cheap Investor 203 N La Salle Suite 2100 Chicago , Illinois 60601, United States Powered by beehiiv