Barlow’s Research Roundup: Twelve 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

Top stocks

RBC Capital Markets co-heads of global research Graeme Pearson and Mark Odendahl made 12 changes to the department’s top 30 global stock ideas,

“Over the past quarter, the Q1/26 Top 30 list delivered a total return of -4.6% in USD terms vs. the MSCI World Index at -2.6%. The best-performing Top 30 stock selections in Q1/26 were ConocoPhillips (+36%), Engie (+24%), Williams (+19%) and Royal Gold (+19%). Since inception of our quarterly list at YE2019, the Top 30 has delivered a total compound annual return of 12.6% vs. the benchmark at 11.8%. Changes This Quarter - Additions: AltaGas (ALA CN), Applied Materials (AMAT US), AXA (CS FP), Diageo (DGE LN), IQVIA (IQV US), Merck (MRK US) Deletions: Engie (ENGI FP), L’Oréal (OR FP), Palo Alto Networks (PANW US), Shopify (SHOP US), Wisetech Global (WTC AU), Xylem (XYL US) Maintains: Air Products and Chemicals (APD US), Airbnb (ABNB US), Alcon (ALC SW), amazon.com (AMZN US), Biogen (BIIB US), Boston Scientific (BSX US), Brookfield Corp. (BN US), ConocoPhillips (COP US), Constellation Software (CSU CN), DuPont de Nemours (DD US), International Paper (IP US), Loblaw (L CN), 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), Ventas (VTR US), Visa (V US), Xcel Energy (XEL US)”

For AltaGas, the team forecasts “2026 as being a year that will highlight the criticality and strategic positioning of the company’s assets, with AltaGas benefitting from its LPG export terminals (which support evolving global demand and Canada’s desire to diversify energy exports), elevated commodity prices due to Middle East supply disruptions, and utilities that deliver essential gas supply amid extreme weather conditions and rising demand due to data centers”.

Mining

Scotiabank analyst Patrick Bryden believes the mining industry will be central to the federal government’s Building Canada initiatives,

“significant fragmentation in geopolitics and geoeconomics, along with heightened industrial and technological competition, strategically increases demand for mined materials and critical minerals. The integral role of extractive industries in Building Canada initiatives. The minerals sector contributes approximately $120 billion directly to Canada’s gross domestic product, while further supporting an estimated $47 billion indirectly, which together is 7.2% of the country’s economy …. Canada is a leading producer in many critical minerals and commodities of strategic relevance globally. Companies in these areas that we see as strategically crucial to Canada include the following in order of market share concentration for Canada: Nutrien (NTR-N) in potash, Cameco Corporation (CCO-T) in uranium, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (AEM-N) in gold, Teck Resources Limited (TECK.B-T) in copper and zinc (plus other by-product elements), Algoma Steel Group Inc. (ASTL-T; not covered), Champion Iron Ltd. (CIA-T), and Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp. (LIF-T) in iron ore and steel … As the adage goes, it is often advisable to invest in the “picks and shovels” involved in any mining boom. The inventory of opportunity underscores strong demand for engineering services in Building Canada initiatives through companies such as AtkinsRealis Group Inc. (ATRL-T), WSP Global Inc. (WSP-T), and Stantec Inc. (STN-T). We further expect a high need for equipment and service providers such as Finning International Inc. (FTT-T), Toromont Industries Ltd. (TIH-T), Wajax Corporation (WJX-T), and RB Global, Inc. (RBA-N; coverage suspended). We see network benefits for Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CP-T) and Canadian National Railway Company (CNR-T)”

Themes to watch

Morgan Stanley’s thematic investment ideas are performing really well,

“Several predictions have risen to become market movers: LLM improvement, compute demand, the politics of energy, AI disruption/deflation, AI labor impacts. Our Thematic categories have performed well: In 2025/YTD 2026, our categories were up 38%/7% on average, outperforming the S&P 500 by 27%/12% … Our best Thematic ideas, given what has transpired since we published our 10 Predictions: (1) key Data Center Infrastructure value chain players, especially those that are key to “de-bottlenecking,” given the rapid increase in LLM capabilities and the exploding demand for compute; (2) select Defense stocks with upside driven by the significant potential that governments around the world increase their spending on national security (our Defense analysts have noted a greater potential for the Bull Case scenarios for Defense stocks to be realized given the longer-term implications of recent Multipolar World dynamics, most notably Iran); (3) Healthcare stocks, given a combination of supportive earnings momentum, undemanding valuations, lessening policy overhangs, and M&A tailwinds; (4) AI Adopters with high barriers to entry/pricing power; and (5) Humanoids, given the rapid inflection in Embodied AI capabilities and the benefits from the non-linear rate of AI improvement. The following chart highlights the degree of upside to Morgan Stanley analyst price targets with respect to our Thematic categories. Thematic categories we favor: Defense, Healthcare, Data Center Infrastructure, AI Adopters with pricing power, Humanoids …Thematic categories that are well positioned: Defense, Critical Minerals, Nuclear Renaissance, Clean Energy + Storage, Europe’s Low Decarb Diet, Energy Security, Globalization of Natural Gas”

Popular stocks involved with the thees include Nvidia Corp., Apple Inc., Arista Networks, Brookfield Corp., Cummins Inc., Rolls Royce Holdings PLC., General Dynamics Corp., MDA Ltd., Roblox Corp., Deere and Co. And Chipotle Mexican Grill.

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