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Canadian Preferred Share Market Recap: September 2026

September belonged to the bond market. The US 10-year Treasury pushed above 5.2% for the first time since 2007, the 30-year traded toward 5.5% — levels last seen in 2004 — and Canada's 5-year yield, the benchmark that anchors preferred share reset arithmetic, touched 3.68% intraday on September 23, its highest since 2024.

The macro run-through

  • September 16: The Federal Reserve raised its target range a quarter point to 3.75–4.00%, with projections signaling more to come. Canadian equities closed at their lowest level since July 31.

  • September 23: The US 10-year briefly crossed 5.1% amid a weak $70bn Treasury auction; the TSX Composite fell 1.6%, its worst day since early June.

  • September 25–29: Long yields extended — the US 30-year pressed toward 5.5% — and markets briefly priced a better-than-60% chance of another Fed hike in October.

  • September 30: Quarter-end. Rate-sensitive names saw a sharp intraday drawdown before stabilizing into the close — the kind of tape quarter-end rebalancing tends to produce.

  • October 1–2: A softer US jobs report (29,000 jobs, unemployment up to 4.2%) cut October hike odds into the low-20s and gave long bonds their biggest relief bid in two weeks.

    • The preferred share contours

    Against that tape, the highest-yield end of the market moved most, with no-reset names trading well below par drawing the most attention. Where our database's trailing figures sat at month-end:

    StructureIssues coveredMedian trailing current yield
    FixedResets1245.86%
    Perpetuals715.85%
    Floating rate295.22%
    Split-share256.24%

    Width matters as much as the center: 62 of the 124 FixedResets in our database traded below $25 at month-end. Below-par, near-reset names behave short-dated — their prices are anchored toward par by the pending reset — while no-reset perpetuals carry the long-duration exposure that a bond-market selloff punishes first.

    September's corporate actions worth noting

  • BPO.PR.R reset to 6.829%, with under one half of one percent of holders electing to convert (full write-up publishing this week).

  • FFN.PR.A and FTN.PR.A held fiscal-year rates at 7.50% and 7.25% respectively.

  • CF.PR.A was called for redemption on October 1 at $25.00 — roughly $113.5 million — ending a 2011-vintage issue.

  • New issuance stayed modest: BEP.PR.S priced at 5.75% and a Great-West straight perpetual at 5.70% were the month's notable additions, as covered in our September 24 note.

    • What we're watching in October

  • Further reset-rate announcements as the season rolls on, particularly where spreads sit wider than 300bp over a ~3.6% 5-year Canada.

  • Whether the US inflation run keeps October hike probabilities elevated through the late-month Fed meeting.

  • Follow-through on quarter-end flows now that September's reinvestment cash has cleared.

    • Median yield stats above are trailing-indicated figures from our database at the September 30 close, covering 253 active series. Our rankings page sorts the full universe, and the reset cheat sheet shows how September's reset rates were built.

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    This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial advice. It is not investment advice and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Preferred shares carry credit, interest-rate, and liquidity risk; past performance is not indicative of future results. Do your own research and consult a licensed professional before acting.

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