In the aftermath of 2025's tariff-driven turbulence, portfolio manager Darren Sissons sees not chaos but clarity — a market that punished indiscriminately and thereby created genuine value for those willing to look past the headlines. His December picks across infrastructure, financial services, and healthcare reflect a patient conviction that mispriced assets, structural tailwinds, and the quiet arithmetic of compounding will reward those who resist the instinct to flee. It is an old lesson dressed in new circumstances: fear, when it overshoots, becomes opportunity.
Portfolio Manager's Top Picks: Brookfield, ICE, Straumann Poised for Growth
The market sold first and asked questions later.
Mark
Why did the market panic so badly about tariffs when the actual exposure was manageable?
Mimi
Because tariffs are a headline story, and headlines move faster than analysis. Healthcare investors saw "tariff" and "drug pricing policy" in the same sentence and ran. They didn't pause to ask whether MFN pricing actually applied to their holdings or whether companies had workarounds already in place.
Mark
So you're saying the market overreacted to policy risk that wasn't really there?
Mimi
Exactly. The MFN policy targets Medicaid, which is a specific, limited program. Most healthcare companies have options—shift production, adjust partnerships, restructure operations. The market treated it like an existential threat when it was more of a nuisance.
Mark
What makes Brookfield different from other infrastructure plays?
Mimi
The funding mechanism. Brookfield can hold assets indefinitely through public equity capital without needing to sell them off to return money to investors. That's a permanent advantage. And if governments start selling assets to reduce debt—which is likely—Brookfield is positioned to be a major buyer.
Mark
You mention that private capital franchises outperform after recessions. Why is that relevant now?
Mimi
Because we're in a period of economic weakness and uncertainty. Assets bought at cheap valuations during downturns get sold at higher multiples when conditions improve. Brookfield has been accumulating a war chest. When the cycle turns, those investments compound.
Mark
ICE seems like a beneficiary of the status quo—central bank printing, inflation, ETF flows. Doesn't that make it vulnerable if policy shifts?
Mimi
It could be. But the structural trend toward passive investing isn't reversing anytime soon, and central banks aren't tightening aggressively. The dividend is rising, the business model is asset-light, and management is actively hunting for acquisitions. That's a company positioned for multiple scenarios.
Mark
And Straumann—a Swiss company fighting a strong franc and tariff headwinds. Why is that attractive?
Mimi
Because it's already proven it can grow despite those headwinds. Nine percent annual profit growth in Canadian dollars while the franc strengthens is real operational strength. The tariff concern is overblown because they have U.S. production. And the stock has fallen 35 percent on fears that won't materialize. That's the opportunity.
The Pulse
- April's tariff selloff triggered broad panic selling that swept up healthcare and European equities regardless of their actual exposure — a market overreaction that left real value stranded on the shore.
- A May fiscal signal — a seven percent U.S. deficit paired with a thirteen percent surge in defense spending — acted as an accelerant, launching growth stocks and AI-linked sectors sharply higher while overlooked sectors lagged behind.
- Healthcare stocks were doubly punished by tariff fears and MFN drug pricing policy, yet the policy's actual scope targets Medicaid specifically, meaning the sector's true vulnerability was far narrower than the selloff implied.
- Brookfield, Intercontinental Exchange, and Straumann each carry distinct structural advantages — permanent capital, asset-light models, and domestic production workarounds — that position them to absorb headwinds competitors cannot.
- With Sissons' December 2024 picks averaging a 21 percent total return, the current thesis lands with credibility: selective panic has once again created the conditions his strategy is built to exploit.
In the aftermath of 2025's tariff-driven turbulence, portfolio manager Darren Sissons sees not chaos but clarity — a market that punished indiscriminately and thereby created genuine value for those willing to look past the headlines. His December picks across infrastructure, financial services, and healthcare reflect a patient conviction that mispriced assets, structural tailwinds, and the quiet arithmetic of compounding will reward those who resist the instinct to flee. It is an old lesson dressed in new circumstances: fear, when it overshoots, becomes opportunity.
Darren Sissons, portfolio manager at Campbell, Lee & Ross, enters December 2025 with a clear-eyed view of a year that lurched from crisis to recovery and back to opportunity. April's tariff selloff sent investors scrambling, but the pivot came swiftly — a U.S. federal budget signaling aggressive stimulus, a seven percent deficit, and a thirteen percent jump in defense spending. Growth stocks surged. AI became a tailwind for technology and energy alike. Yet beneath the recovery, Sissons saw something the market missed: sectors sold indiscriminately, punished not by fundamentals but by fear.
Healthcare bore the brunt of that fear. The Most Favoured Nation drug pricing policy rattled investors, but Sissons notes its reach is limited to Medicaid — a narrower exposure than the panic suggested. European companies with U.S. production or partnerships faced similar overreaction; modest restructuring, he argues, neutralizes most tariff risk. Patient investors willing to look beneath the headlines found genuine value.
His first pick, Brookfield Corp, has compounded at 19.1 percent annually over five years through a permanent capital structure that avoids forced asset sales. The real catalyst ahead, Sissons believes, is a potential wave of government privatizations as debt-laden nations seek relief — a playbook last seen under Thatcher. Intercontinental Exchange, his second pick, benefits from stimulus, inflation, mortgage activity, and passive fund flows, all while requiring minimal capital to grow. Despite strong fundamentals — revenue and net income growing at roughly eleven percent annually over a decade — the stock declined in 2025, making its valuation attractive.
The third pick, Swiss dental implant leader Straumann Holding, has fallen 35 percent since late 2024, caught in the healthcare rotation and tariff anxiety. Yet the company generates a 23 percent annualized return on invested capital, operates a Michigan production facility that limits tariff exposure, and serves a market growing at high single-digit rates. The decline, Sissons suggests, is an opening rather than a warning.
His December 2024 picks — CSX, JPMorgan Chase, and Mettler-Toledo — averaged a 21 percent total return, lending weight to his current thesis. The pattern is consistent: selective panic, structural undervaluation, and clear catalysts. The question, as always, is whether investors will see the value before the market corrects its mistake.
Darren Sissons, a portfolio manager at Campbell, Lee & Ross Investment Management, is seeing opportunity in the wreckage of 2025's market turbulence. After a brutal tariff-driven selloff in April sent investors scrambling for cover, the year pivoted sharply upward. The turning point came in early May when the U.S. Federal budget signaled what Sissons describes as aggressive stimulus—a seven percent deficit paired with a thirteen percent jump in defense spending. That fiscal signal, he argues, was like pouring gasoline on embers already glowing hot. Growth stocks surged. Artificial intelligence became a tailwind for technology and power generation companies alike.
But the recovery masked a deeper story about market psychology and mispricing. Healthcare took a beating, hammered by both tariffs and the new Most Favoured Nation drug pricing policy. Investors sold first and asked questions later, Sissons observes, overlooking the fact that the MFN policy targets Medicaid—a program serving lower-income Americans—meaning the actual tariff exposure for the broader healthcare sector was far smaller than the panic suggested. European stocks suffered similar neglect. Companies with U.S. production facilities or American partnerships have straightforward workarounds: minor restructuring, modest labor adjustments, and the tariff threat largely evaporates. The market's bias toward selling indiscriminately created genuine value for patient investors willing to look beneath the headlines.
Sissons' first pick is Brookfield Corp, a sprawling asset accumulation business that has returned 19.1 percent annualized over five years and 16.5 percent over ten. The company operates a permanent funding mechanism through public equity markets, allowing it to hold long-lived assets without forced divestitures—a structural advantage over the old model of institutional funding. A rising dividend currently yields half a percent. But the real catalyst, Sissons believes, lies ahead. With national debt levels soaring across the developed world, governments may resurrect the asset-sale playbook Margaret Thatcher pioneered decades ago. Brookfield and its peers stand to benefit enormously from a wave of privatization as nations seek to reduce debt burdens. Lower interest rates, meanwhile, will continue to drive returns upward.
Intercontinental Exchange, the financial infrastructure giant, offers a different angle. The company benefits from central bank stimulus, inflation, mortgage market activity, and the relentless flow of money into passive ETFs and mutual funds. Its asset-light model requires minimal capital spending to fuel growth. Management has proven opportunistic—the recent investment in Polymarket signals appetite for emerging financial platforms. Over the past decade, revenue and net income have grown at average annual rates of 11.6 percent and 10.9 percent respectively. The stock has declined in 2025 despite these fundamentals, and the strong U.S. dollar has created additional headwinds. For Canadian investors, the valuation is now attractive. The dividend stands at 1.2 percent and is rising.
The third pick, Straumann Holding AG, is a Swiss dental implant and restorative dentistry company that dominates a market growing at high single-digit rates annually. The company has generated a remarkable 23 percent annualized return on invested capital through disciplined acquisitions of smaller competitors and technology platforms. Since 2015, net profit has grown at 9.4 percent annually in Canadian dollar terms—impressive given that the Swiss franc has strengthened relentlessly, creating a persistent headwind. Tariffs pose only a minor operational concern; the company operates a production facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and modest restructuring will neutralize most tariff exposure. The stock has fallen 35 percent since the end of 2024, caught in a broader rotation out of healthcare and punished by the same tariff fears that plagued the sector. That decline has created an opening. The dividend is 1 percent and rising.
Sissons' track record suggests his thesis has merit. His previous picks from December 2024 have performed well: CSX returned 16 percent total, JPMorgan Chase 35 percent, and Mettler-Toledo 13 percent, for an average total return of 21 percent. The current environment—marked by selective panic, structural undervaluation in overlooked sectors, and clear catalysts for future growth—resembles the conditions that produced those gains. The question now is whether investors will repeat the market's mistake of selling first, or whether they will see what Sissons sees: genuine value hiding in plain sight.
Notable Quotes
The market's bias for selling first asking questions later supported the failure to weigh obvious workarounds and offsets.— Darren Sissons, Campbell, Lee & Ross Investment Management
Private capital franchises frequently outperform post recessions and or periods of economic weakness as investments made at inexpensive valuations are later divested at higher prices.— Darren Sissons on Brookfield's structural advantage
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Economy & Finance