TORONTO — Canada's main financial index ticked lower Monday, with broad-based but shallow weakness across sectors including energy, financials, industrials and tech.
Trading volume on the TSX was positively anemic Monday, with stock markets closed in the U.S. for the Juneteenth federal holiday, said Stephen Duench, vice-president and portfolio manager for AGF Investments Inc.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 41.16 points at 19,934.21.
Investors are still digesting last week, which was full of economic news including a rate pause by the Federal Reserve, said Duench.
“Obviously the market took it in stride,” he said, noting that more hikes are still on the table, as signalled by officials last week.
"The Federal Reserve did their first pause in quite some time. But that doesn't mean they're over. They could take cues from both the Bank of Australia and the Bank of Canada."
One of the trends Duench has noticed, which he expects will continue this week and into the rest of the year, is a broadening of market strength after months of narrow gains led by just a handful of companies and sectors.
“The last few weeks, we've seen broader participation across many other sectors, which I think is a net positive,” he said.
Certain sectors that have been under pressure, such as financials, energy and industrials, stand to gain from optimism about the economy’s outlook, said Duench.
“You’re seeing the potential of a more resilient global economy,” he said.
This week will see Canadian retail sales data released on Wednesday, noted Duench. Investors will be looking for whether the Canadian consumer is proving resilient, and whether there are any revisions to the last release, he said. And in the U.S., investors will be eyeing weekly data on jobless claims, which have been trending upward in recent weeks.
“I do believe that this market will be hanging on to every economic data point, any sort of information they can get on the global economy continuing to improve, and thus continuing to broaden out that market.”
The Canadian dollar traded for 75.72 cents US compared with 75.77 cents US on Friday.
As of late afternoon on Monday, the August crude contract was down 42 cents at US$71.51 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.66 per mmBTU.
The August gold contract was down US$8.90 at US$1,962.30 an ounce and the July copper contract was down three cents at US$3.86 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2023.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)
Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press
