Canada’s appetite for foreign securities cooled sharply in February 2026, following an exceptionally strong start to the year. According to data updated on 17 April 2026, Canadian purchases of foreign securities fell to 6.17 billion Canadian dollars in February, down steeply from 46.79 billion dollars in January 2026.
The February figure marks a significant pullback from January’s elevated level, suggesting that investors may have paused after front-loading much of their foreign buying at the beginning of the year. While Canadians continued to be net buyers of foreign securities in February, the scale of investment was much more moderate compared with the prior month’s surge.
Market participants will now be watching subsequent releases to assess whether February’s decline reflects a temporary cooling after January’s spike, or the start of a more sustained normalization in Canadians’ overseas investment activity.
