Top Funds Report – March 2019
The market rally that started in January kept on rolling through February with all major markets ending the month higher. The S&P 500 gained 3.2% in U.S. dollar terms, while the MSCI EAFE Index rose by 2.6%.
Read MoreTop Funds Report – February 2019
After what can charitably be described as a horror show in December, markets came roaring back in January. The S&P/TSX Composite Index surged higher, gaining 8.74%, with all sectors moving up led by the heavyweight financial and energy sectors. The big U.S. blue-chip S&P 500 Composite Index gained more than 8% in U.S. dollar terms, and internationally, the MSCI EAFE Index rose by 6.6%.
Read MoreTop Funds Report – January 2019
It’s only fitting that 2018, which saw the return of market volatility, be capped off with a very volatile December. Markets took investors on a very wild ride, with all equity markets ending the month in negative territory.
Read MoreTop Funds Report – December 2018
Despite global equity markets ending November mostly higher, the volatility that has dogged markets since September was still very much in play. The S&P 500 Composite Index rose by more than 2% in November, but the intra-month swings were very pronounced. Peak to trough, the index fell more than 6.4% in the month. Investor sentiment turned very bullish in the last few days of the month as the U.S. and China appeared to have negotiated a temporary truce on trade, moving markets higher.
Read MoreTop Funds Report – November 2018
As T.S. Eliot famously wrote in his poem The Waste Land, “April is the cruelest month….” I disagree. I will just come right out and say it: October is. I hate October. Rolling through the summer months, all is good in the world, and then Labour Day hits. I start to get a bit nervous as traders come back to work, and then it seems almost like clockwork, as they start to get ornery a few weeks after the break. And when traders get ornery, they sell stocks. And sometimes, they sell a lot of stock in a very short time.
Read MoreTop Funds Report – October 2018
After a nice summer break, traders got back to work in September. Markets were largely mixed, with global equities rising in local currency terms, Canadian equities mostly lower, and bonds falling in the face of rising bond yields.
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