Sector rotation is becoming one of the defining themes of the second half of 2026 as investors reassess market leadership across technology, precious metals, healthcare, financials and small-cap stocks.
In the July edition of The Market This Month, Canadian Securities Exchange Director of Listings Development Anna Serin is joined by Stonecastle Investment Management portfolio manager Bruce Campbell to discuss summer seasonality, the growing influence of shorter-term retail trading, and where new opportunities may be emerging.
This article is a journalistic opinion piece which has been written based on independent research. It is intended to inform investors and should not be taken as a recommendation or financial advice.
The conversation also explores SpaceX’s volatile post-IPO performance, the launch of the Texas Stock Exchange, improving momentum in healthcare and financials, and whether deeply oversold precious metals could regain investor attention heading into the fall.
Watch the video above, or read the full transcript below.
Summer markets bring rotation, volatility and fresh opportunity
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and readability without materially shortening the conversation.
Anna Serin:
Welcome to the July 2026 edition of The Market This Month. I’m Anna Serin, Director of Listings Development with the Canadian Securities Exchange, and today we’ll explore one of the key themes shaping markets this summer: sector rotation.
As we move into the second half of the year, investors continue to navigate resilient markets, shifting sector leadership and ongoing economic uncertainty.
While July is often a quieter period for trading, seasonal trends have historically pointed to improving market strength as we move toward the fall.
One of the biggest stories has been the rotation taking place beneath the surface. After a strong run earlier this year, precious metals have pulled back and now appear technically oversold, while technology has become increasingly extended following a strong second quarter.
Healthcare has also begun to recover after spending much of the year out of favour, highlighting how quickly leadership can shift as market conditions evolve.
Investors are also asking whether we’re seeing the beginning of a broader rotation from growth toward value investing, or simply a healthy pause within the current market cycle.
It has also been a notable month for North American capital markets. The Texas Stock Exchange, the TXSE, officially commenced trading, marking the first significant new national U.S. stock exchange to launch in decades.
Headquartered in Dallas and backed by major financial institutions, the exchange is beginning with a phased rollout before expanding to exchange-traded products and future corporate listings.
Its launch represents an important development in the competitive exchange landscape and provides issuers with another potential avenue to access public capital. It will be interesting to see how this increased competition influences capital formation and listing strategies across North America.
Here at the Canadian Securities Exchange, we were pleased to welcome three new issuers this month: Bighorn Metals Corp., Aureum Exploration Inc. and Elsie Nutrition Holdings Inc.
Elsie Nutrition returns to the Canadian public markets as an innovative plant-based nutrition company, while Bighorn Metals and Aureum Exploration further strengthen the exchange’s growing resource sector and diverse issuer base.
Corporate activity also remained healthy across our marketplace.
Vireo Growth announced its planned acquisition of Fluent Corp. in an all-stock transaction, while Fluent also announced the sale of its Texas operations for US$30 million as it continues to streamline its business.
Redwood AI filed a preliminary base shelf prospectus, providing financing flexibility of up to $25 million.
Meanwhile, First Phosphate completed an oversubscribed $15.4 million financing, and LaFleur Minerals successfully closed more than $11 million through its bought-deal public offering and concurrent private placement.
These transactions demonstrate that, despite shifting market leadership, quality companies continue to access capital and execute strategic initiatives that position them for future growth.
Today, we’ll discuss whether seasonal market weakness creates buying opportunities, how sector rotation may influence portfolio positioning, and whether we’re seeing the start of a broader shift from growth to value investing.
We’ll also look at the outlook for metals, technology and healthcare, and discuss what the launch of the Texas Stock Exchange could mean for capital formation and competition within U.S. markets.
To help us break it all down, I’m joined once again by my co-host, Bruce Campbell, Portfolio Manager at Stonecastle Investment Management.
Anna Serin:
Bruce, thank you so much for joining me here in Vancouver. We are doing the July 2026 episode of The Market This Month, and you’ve made your way into sunny Vancouver. Thank you for joining us.
Bruce Campbell:
Live and in person.
Anna Serin:
Live and in person.
We rebuilt The Market This Month this year, so we’re about halfway through our first year of the new format. We’ve had some really great success and a lot of viewership, which is really exciting for us.
Bruce Campbell:
And some solid feedback too, right? People are liking the new format.
Anna Serin:
That’s right.
Thank you to everyone who tunes in. We’re always happy to hear from you. If there are certain things you want to hear from Bruce or learn about, please let us know.
Let’s dive into July. July is often a bit of a weaker month as we move further into summer. Seasonality is affecting the markets, so talk to us about that and what you’re seeing.
Bruce Campbell:
Seasonality is one of those interesting things. We think about it as the climate, not the weather, because every year there are different things happening economically and politically that drive the markets.
But we still need to be aware of it because long-term seasonality has an impact, and we know that markets are typically a little weaker in the summer.
Historically, people were away from their offices and didn’t have access to the markets. They might sell, park some cash or simply sit back.
Now we have much more access to markets, even if we’re at the cottage, the lake or somewhere else.
Anna Serin:
That’s right. We have Wi-Fi in remote locations.
Bruce Campbell:
Exactly.
But we still tend to see seasonality follow through. We often see some weakness around July, August and September, and then tend to see strong fourth quarters.
We look at that as an opportunity, especially for longer-term investors.
Stocks can get pushed around during quieter periods, particularly on the smaller-cap side where trading volume may be lower. That can push prices to extremes and create opportunities.
Anna Serin:
Do you think the mentality is, “I’m going to move my portfolio into something with a little more stability so I don’t have to watch it as closely over the summer”? Was that historically part of the thinking?
Bruce Campbell:
I think that was historically how it worked.
I’m not sure it’s still the same today because of the access investors have and because people are always trying to generate returns.
But they’re probably also not putting in the same amount of work they would during the rest of the year.
Anna Serin:
I’ve heard some interesting descriptions of today’s investor, particularly younger retail investors in Canada.
There’s an idea that investors are not as long-term focused as they used to be. Because they have instant access on their phones, they’ve almost become day traders.
Is that something you’ve noticed?
Bruce Campbell:
I certainly think that’s the case.
If you go back in history, people used to receive monthly statements in the mail. They would see what their portfolio looked like once a month.
Even if they were tracking it more often, they weren’t looking at their phones all day.
Now you can check your portfolio as many times as you want and see what is happening tick by tick.
We know investing is emotional and humans are emotional, so that’s going to have an impact, whether it’s fear or fear of missing out.
That can drive investment markets in both directions.
Anna Serin:
That’s difficult, especially for growth companies. They would generally prefer a longer-term investor rather than a short-term one.
But it’s good that people are accessing the markets, however long they remain invested. Maybe that behaviour will change over time.
Here’s a question for you: do you think seasonality is reversed in Australia?
Bruce Campbell:
I’ve never thought about that. We’d have to look into it.
Anna Serin:
I’m going to ask my Australian friends.
They might have their own version of “sell in May and go away,” but during our winter and their summer.
We’re seeing significant rotation across the markets and across sectors. What rotation are you seeing, and where is it creating opportunity?
Bruce Campbell:
Throughout the year, we’ve seen a lot of rotation.
I don’t know if we can say what is normal anymore because things are changing so much, but there has certainly been plenty of volatility.
At the beginning of the year—and even late last year—we talked a lot about precious metals, gold and mining stocks.
They had an amazing first quarter, and then they rolled over in the second quarter and pulled back.
Then you look at energy. A year ago, we weren’t talking much about energy because the commodity was relatively flat.
Then a war broke out and commodity prices spiked.
Technology has been all the rage for a long time, but over the last few weeks there has been discussion about whether spending will continue and whether some technology stocks are becoming overvalued.
Now we’ve begun to see rotation out of technology.
Whenever there is instability in markets, investors tend to look toward financials and healthcare. Those two sectors are beginning to come alive.
Anna Serin:
It’s that safer area investors often move toward.
We touched on SpaceX last month. What’s happened since we spoke?
Bruce Campbell:
It certainly didn’t disappoint.
It was massive. At its peak, I think it became the fourth- or fifth-largest company.
It has pulled back a few places since then, but it remains a huge company.
There was a lot of expectation that it would perform well out of the gate, and it did.
It listed at about US$135, ran into the US$200s and has now pulled back much closer to the listing price.
Who knows whether it will drop below that level or remain above it.
Anna Serin:
One thing we forget when watching these huge moves is that, for the stock to return to around its IPO price, a lot of people made money and a lot of people lost money during those swings.
Those are enormous moves.
Bruce Campbell:
Massive swings.
Anna Serin:
Trillions of dollars in capital moving in and out of the market, with people making and losing money along the way.
That will be interesting to continue watching.
Another development in the United States is the opening of the Texas Stock Exchange this month.
I know exchanges aren’t necessarily your main area, but I’m curious to see how it plays out for capital formation and access to capital in the United States.
Traditionally, there have been the two major exchanges, alongside the OTC Markets, which is not technically an exchange but provides a trading platform.
Now there is a new venue for capital formation. Do you think that will help develop further capital formation in the U.S. and across North America?
Bruce Campbell:
It will be an interesting trend.
For probably 50 years, we’ve seen stock exchanges consolidating.
Now it will be interesting to see whether that trend begins moving in the other direction because of increased competition. That’s usually what happens in a market.
It is expensive and there is a substantial regulatory burden involved in launching an exchange, but perhaps this is the start of a new trend.
Anna Serin:
I have to say, I’m a big fan of the fact that it isn’t in New York. I’m intrigued that it’s in Texas.
It will be interesting to watch, and I think a competitive landscape is good for everyone and creates opportunity.
What they’re offering appears different from what the traditional exchanges are offering. They’re coming in as a challenger, much like the CSE did in the Canadian market, so I hope they do well.
Let’s talk about precious metals. They’ve become oversold. We also touched on technology and healthcare. What are you seeing as we head toward the fall?
Bruce Campbell:
At the beginning of the year, precious metals were all the rage. It was almost all we talked about.
Gold and silver ran up and became extremely extended.
Now it has gone the other way.
There are multiple charts showing just how oversold the precious metals sector is right now.
It went from being the absolute darling of the market to being completely left behind.
It’s often at those extremes where the opportunities are.
When a sector gets too far ahead, that may be the time to sell. When it becomes too oversold, that may be the time to accumulate.
It will be interesting to see what happens because the sector has really been blown out.
Anna Serin:
We also shouldn’t forget that many miners and explorers are currently active on their properties, and a lot of data will be released in the fall.
If the sector is oversold and strong results come out later in the year, investors could potentially position themselves well.
Bruce Campbell:
There will be catalysts from the exploration side, but also from operating companies.
Their cash flows should remain strong even after the pullback in gold, so those numbers will also be interesting.
Anna Serin:
Anything investors should think about heading into August? August is traditionally even sleepier than July.
Bruce Campbell:
One thing we’ve been watching is interest rate expectations.
When the new Federal Reserve Chair came in, there was an expectation that rates could potentially increase, which wasn’t the norm and wasn’t what markets expected.
But if you look at Fed funds futures and how the market is pricing things, it’s largely based on inflation.
We’re likely to see lower inflation over the next few months.
The question is what that does to expectations around rate hikes. The Fed may remain where it is, or potentially even lower rates if inflation continues to slow.
Anna Serin:
We’ll keep an eye on that.
I think I’ll let you stay in Kelowna in August because it’s so gorgeous there, and we’ll do the episode remotely. Hopefully, we’ll get you back here in September.
It’s always such a pleasure speaking with you, Bruce. Thank you for coming out.
Bruce Campbell:
Another great edition.
Anna Serin:
Absolutely. We’ll talk to you soon.
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