Canada’s stock market — where returns have lagged the US for two straight years — might offer investors protection against a downturn in US stocks, a Toronto-based asset manager says.

Energy is the star sector of the S&P 500 Index in the early days of 2025, shaking off two consecutive years when it was a market laggard, and gaining despite Wall Street’s dim outlook for oil and gas stocks.

Warren Buffett is shielding Occidental Petroleum Corp. from the worst of the drubbing hitting oil and gas producers and making the stock trade like fossil fuel firms more than five times it size.

As automakers seek stakes in lithium miners to lock in supplies for electric-vehicle batteries, they’re following a path already forged by their shareholders.

Investors are losing one of their few places of refuge in this year’s stock market plunge, as the selloff in energy shares that started last month is leaving them with nowhere to hide.

Looking at oil and gas stocks this year? Think small and Canadian, at least according to the world’s leading energy fund manager.