Barlow’s Research Roundup: Six changes to RBC’s top 30 global stock ideas

Daily roundup of research and analysis from The Globe and Mail’s market strategist Scott Barlow

RBC top 30

RBC Capital Markets co-heads of global research Graeme Pearson and Mark Odendahl made six changes to their top 30 global stock ideas,

“Additions: Apotex Health (APTX CN), Canadian National Railway (CNR CN), Lonza (LONN SW), Deletions: Alcon (ALC SW), Boston Scientific (BSX US), DuPont de Nemours (DD US)

“Maintains: Air Products and Chemicals (APD US), Airbnb (ABNB US), AltaGas (ALA CN), Amazon.com (AMZN US), Applied Materials (AMAT US), AXA (CS FP), Biogen (BIIB US), Brookfield Corp. (BN US), ConocoPhillips (COP US), Constellation Software (CSU CN), Diageo (DGE LN), International Paper (IP US), IQVIA (IQV US), Loblaw (L CN), Merck (MRK US), Microsoft (MSFT US), Moody’s (MCO US), RB Global (RBA US),Royal Gold (RGLD US), Safran (SAF FP), Schneider Electric (SU FP), Snowflake (SNOW US), Williams (WMB US), U.S. Bancorp (USB US).

“Over the past quarter, the Q2/26 Top 30 list delivered a total return of 11.1 per cent in USD terms vs. the MSCI World Index at 12.8 per cent. The best-performing Top 30 stock selections in Q2/26 were Snowflake (up 75 per cent), Applied Materials (up 68 per cent) and Safran (up 25 per cent). Since inception of our quarterly list at YE2019, the Top 30 has delivered a total compound annual return of 13.9 per cent vs. the benchmark at 13.4 per cent”.

Apartment REITs

Scotiabank real estate analyst Mario Saric assessed new data on national rents,

“Neutral. We think today’s Rentals.ca June data still supports our buy KMP trade (despite post Q1 results outperformance), while we’re seeing stabilization elsewhere. June asking rent data was up 0.2 per cent month-over-month vs. down 0.2 per cent in 2025, with Condos lagging. Specific REIT markets (65 per cent of Canada) … KMP market 0.3 per cent month-over-month growth (May = 1.0 per cent) vs. flat for CAR and down 0.3 per cent for BEI. Still hard to say how much of the up 0.3 per cent = Halifax new supply impact (i.e., Report cited more vacant high-priced units), but the prints still match strong KMP Halifax Q1 call commentary and could reflect an East Coast defense-spending benefit. We’re still buyers of KMP heading into Q2 results. In addition to possible Halifax outperformance through the fall (unit price anchor), we cited KMP as our top take-out candidate in our thematic REIT Stuff, so we see two paths to 10 per cent-20 per cent total returns. Broadly speaking, we remain more patient on BEI and CAR”

Metals weaker

BofA Securities metals analyst Lawson Winder likes uranium, is cautious on precious metals,

“Following BofA Commodities’ broad reduction in near-term commodity price forecasts, particularly across precious and base metals, we lower estimates and valuations across the sector. The Commodities team expects market conditions to remain challenging through autumn, with scope for a recovery after the summer. Reflecting the weaker commodity outlook, we cut 32 price objectives (POs), including 21 precious metals, 5 base metals and 4 steel, and reduce 2026E estimates for 31 of 33 companies. On a 2026E average basis versus spot, our highest-conviction upside remains uranium (up 23 per cent), nickel (up 11 per cent), platinum (up 10 per cent) and silver (up 10 per cent), while U.S. hot rolled coil steel prices imply downside (-14 per cent). Top picks are CCJ, FCX and PAAS. With the Fed policy stance having shifted from “inflationary easing” towards raising rates and tackling inflation, potential gold upside is 50 per cent lower, all else equal … With copper through our 2026E forecast, stock selection matters more than the macro. We reiterate Freeport‑McMoRan (FCX) as our top base metals pick for 2026, supported by 35 per cent upside potential to our PO, leverage to copper through an operating turnaround and visible growth from here, not fully reflected in valuation.”

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