By Dale Roberts, cutthecrapinvesting
Special to Financial Independence Hub
The year 2025 offered the third bear market for U.S. stocks in the last 6 years. That is surprising in itself. Canadian stocks didn’t go into a bear market but they did fall by near 13%. The good news for readers of this blog is that Canadian defensive stocks rose to the occasion. South of the border defensive sector equities were even more robust. Defensive stocks take on tariffs, on the Sunday Reads.
There’s more than one way to manage risk. Within a balanced portfolio the most common strategy is to use bonds to manage stock market risk and volatilty. We might then turn to gold that makes the balanced portfolio better. I also like using defensive equities, working in concert with bonds, cash and gold.
2025 Total Returns (through May):
Gold $GLD: +25% Developed International $VEA: +17% Canadian $XIC :+7.1% Silver $SLV: +14% Bitcoin $IBIT: +12% EM $IEMG: +9% US Bonds $AGG: +3% Cash $BIL: +2% Nasdaq 100 $QQQ: +2% REITs $VNQ: +1% S&P $SPY: +1% US Dollar $UUP: -7% Small Caps $IWM: -7% Oil $USO: -11%
Defensive sectors for retirement.
That’s a common theme or discussion in our Retirement Club for Canadians.

Let’s take a look at Canadian defensive stocks during the tariff-inspired bear market. The worst decline in 2025 for Canadian equities was January 30th to April 8th. The TSX Composite fell 12.9%.
From the beginning of the tariff tantrum to end of April …


Stock market down, defensives up – nice! 🙂
- Consumer staples (XST-T) up 12.1%
- Utilities (ZUT-T) up 11.1%
And be sure to check out this post – investing in Canadian utility stocks and ETFs.
Defensive sectors in the U.S.
If we look to U.S. stocks for the first quarter …

The U.S. defensive sectors all rose to the occasion. IVV = S&P 500.
Consumer staples (XLP), Utilities (XLU), Healthcare (XLV). Keep in mind, these are U.S. Dollar ETFs for U.S. dollar accounts. The most favourable tax treatment will be offered in your RRSP and Taxable accounts.
The defensive equities strategy has worked out wonderfully on both sides of the border.
Here’s the models in a retirement funding scenario from February through to the end of April. We start with $1,000,000 and spend at 4.8% of the portfolio value = $4,000 per month.

Of course, stocks have started to recover as Trump backs away (at times) from his tariff threats. Continue Reading…