January 2013 Market Recap
2013 Starts out Strong for Equity Markets 2013 started out very well with all major equity markets in positive territory. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 2.25% during the month, but lagged its global brethren. The S&P 500 gained 5.73% in Canadian dollar terms, while the MSCI EAFE Index rose by 5.74%. In fact, the S&P 500 had its best month since October 2011 and it was its biggest...
Read MoreDecember 2012 Market Recap
Invitation to access our website We have been reworking our website over the past several months and have added a signficant amount of content that may be of interest to you including updated mutual fund and ETF commentaries as well as many of our archived reports which you have been receiving on a monthly basis. We invite you to set up your own username and password and see all that our site...
Read MoreNovember 2012 Market Recap
November Recap With Obama winning a second term in the White House, fears over the potential impact of the fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts caused a selloff in many of the commodity focused sectors. Many worry that if the cliff is not averted, the U.S. and global economy will be thrust into a recession, which will lessen demand for commodities. Precious metals...
Read MoreOctober 2012 Market Recap
October Recap Despite data showing that U.S. manufacturing continued to expand pushing GDP growth higher than expected, reducing unemployment, it was concern over the impending “fiscal cliff” which weighed on U.S. markets in October and since the November election. The fiscal cliff is the combination of the expiration of Bush era tax cuts and a slew of massive spending cuts that are slated to...
Read MoreSeptember 2012 Market Recap
As was widely expected, central banks in the U.S. and Europe stepped up to the plate announcing aggressive bond buying programs to inject much needed liquidity into the economies in an effort to spur economic growth. Markets reacted positively with all markets showing gains in September. Thanks to this rally, all markets, except for Japan finished the third quarter in positive territory.
After vowing to do “whatever it takes” to save the Euro back in July, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi announced plans for an unlimited bond buying program for distressed government bonds. The plan for this program is to help to keep interest rates in check, buying more time for European governments to get a firm grasp on their debt issues. This plan will not solve the problems, but it will buy more time and provide a safety net for bond investors. The end result is that because of this, the tail risk has effectively been removed from the European crisis. While volatility is expected to remain high while the crisis is sorted, the likelihood of a blowup or collapse is greatly reduced.
Read MoreAugust 2012 Market Recap
Those who adhered to the old adage of selling in May and going away for the summer may have been sorry that they did. Global equity markets were again higher in August, their third month in a row of gains. This time around, it was Canadian equities leading the way higher, as our three main sectors, financials, energy, and materials, all enjoyed decent gains. The S&P/TSX Composite rose more than 2.4% in the month. The energy and financial sectors matched the gains of the broader index.
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