March 2013 Market Recap
Q1 Rewards Investors with Strong Gains The first quarter of 2013 rewarded investors, as global equity markets surged higher. The U.S. led the way with the S&P 500 rising by nearly 13%, finishing at a record high. International equities were also strong, as the MSCI EAFE Index and MSCI World Index rose by 7.4% and 10.1% respectively. Were it not for the rise in the Canadian dollar, these gains would have been even higher. At home, the S&P/TSX Composite lagged its global peers, gaining a modest 3.3%. Much of this underperformance can be...
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Investors Rewarded Despite Mixed Signals February was another profitable month for investors with all major equity and fixed income markets moving higher. In Canada, the S&P / TSX Composite Index gained 1.3% on the month. U.S. equities were higher with the S&P 500 gaining 1.4% in U.S. dollar terms. For Canadian investors, the gain was amplified, as the Canadian dollar dropped from $1.0008 on January 31 to end the month at $0.9723. In Canadian dollar terms, the S&P 500 was up 4.7%. The MSCI EAFE and MSCI World were both higher in...
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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 January gain since 1997. In the U.S., much of the rise was justified after lawmakers reached an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff and agreed to...
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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 has to offer. There is no additional cost to you for this access as it is already included in your subscription cost. You can sign up here. If you have...
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 companies were also hit with some disappointing earnings and company guidance, pushing stocks down further. Given the importance of energy and materials to...
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 take effect in the New Year. Unless a compromise is reached, many economists expect that the impact of this will be an increased tax burden of about...
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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.
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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.
read moreJuly 2012 Market Recap
Global markets got a boost following the July 26 comments made by the European Central Bank’s president Mario Draghi. In his remarks, Mr. Draghi stated that the ECB would “do whatever it takes” to ensure that the Euro remained intact. Investors took this as a sign that the ECB would take immediate simulative action in an effort to shore up the European economies, bidding stock prices higher.
read moreJune 2012 Market Recap
After a relatively tame first-quarter, volatility returned to the global equity markets with a vengeance, whipsawing stocks with a ferocity that was reminiscent of 2008. Despite a modest rally in June, the S&P/TSX Composite Index still lost 5.67% on the quarter. Global markets seemed to hold up a little better, with the S&P 500 shedding 1.0% and the MSCI EAFE Index dropping 5.0% during the quarter. Not surprisingly, fixed income fared well, gaining 2.2% as investors flocked to bonds on their safe haven appeal.
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