The Stock Market At Close – Wednesday, September 20
The Toronto Market
The Toronto TSX composite index declined -4.20 points, or 0.02%, to close at 20,214.69. The TSX started the market session with gain but that only lasted the first half hour of the session. The index declined from then right to the end of the market session. The stock declines today were relatively small amounts and practically negligible. The distinguishing factor today was that there were relatively neither major big gainers and nor major decliners.
Seven of the major sectors gained today but all the gains were below 0.50%. Basic Materials sector led the gainers with 0.48% gain. Technology was the worst performing sector but the decline was just -0.98%, a decline of under 1.0%. Financials finished with a gain of 0.11% while Energy declined -0.74%.
Today’s Statistics: The declined issues (decliners) again outnumbered the gaining issues (advancers) but the gap narrowed significantly compared to yesterday. The ratio of decliners to advancers was 1.06-to-1.00. In real numbers, 690 decliners to 650 advancers with 226 unchanged. There were 11 new 52-week highs and 39 new 52-week lows. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was a paltry 109,683,858 or 40.6.6%; the total volume for declined stocks was 134,104,006 or 49.7% and 26,214,845 or 9.7% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded today was 270,002,709 compared to 301,887,920 yesterday, an 11% decrease. Today’s volume of 270,002,709 was below the most recent ten-market session average.
The US Market
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 87.13 points, or 0.25%, to close at 34,663.72. The S&P 500 gained 29.97 points, or 0.67%, to close at 4,487.46. The Nasdaq Composite gained 156.37 points, or 1.14%, to close at 13,917.89.
The big market mover today was the US Feds Chief Jerome remarks on interest rate’s direction going forward. The Feds held interest rate at the same level, maintained status quo but indicated that the high cost of borrowing will likely be around longer than had been previously anticipated, stretching deeper to late 2024.
The indexes were up with gains for the day prior to the Chief Jerome’s remarks but all tumbled following the remarks. The indexes declined continuously till the end of the session. That was not a good sign for the markets going forward.
Only three of the sectors: Telecommunications Services, Discretionary Consumer Goods and Utilities ended the market session today with some gain. Healthcare declined -0.03%; Financials declined -0.49%; Basic Materials declined -0.52% and Energy lost -0.62%. Technology was the worst performing sector declining -1.70% for the day.
Today’s Statistics: Today, the declined issues (decliners) outnumbered the gaining issues (advancers) on both the NYSE and NASDAQ. The ratio of decliners to advancers on the NYSE was 1.46-to-1. In real numbers 1,603 advancers to 2,337 decliners with 276 “Unchanged”. There were 79 new 52-week highs and 102 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 285,435,973 or 35.0%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 515,823,618 or 63.3%; and 13,667,832 or 1.7% “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded on the NYSE today was 814,927,423 compared to 933,948,271 yesterday, a 12.8% decrease. Today’s total volume, 814,927,423, of shares traded was below the recent 10-day average.
On the NASDAQ, the ratio of decliners to advancers was 2.03-to-1. The decliners prevailed today but the gap between the decliners and advancers was reduced compared to yesterday. In real numbers, 2,935 decliners to 1,447 advancers with 381 unchanged. There were 56 new 52-week highs and 284 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 1,952,200,534 or 39.7%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 2,914,152,935 or 59.2% and 54,147,044 or 1.1% for “Unchanged”
The total volume of stocks traded today was 4,920,500,513 compared to 4,593,420,702 yesterday, an increase of 7.1%. The stock prices are falling, indexes are declining but the daily volume is rising. The market is a declining mode. It is not a good time to be adding to portfolios as no one can predict when the market will bottom out.
10 –year Treasury Yield: The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield edged down by 1 basis point to 4.34% earlier in the day but it was back at 4.435% as at the time of this writing – about 10pm EST.
MARKET PULSE: The market is in a DOWN TREND. We urge our readers to exercise utmost caution with trades. Capital Preservation should be driving the investment or trading agenda. It may be time to stay on the sidelines while pruning our watch list.
Stocks In The News/Stocks To Watch:
The Toronto Market
Bausch Health Companies Inc. (TSX:BHC) defied the market downtrend to close with again of 8.09% or $0.84 today. The volumes of shares traded was 830.5K.
The candlestick chart shows yesterday’s and today’s candles as red. The red candle simply means that the closing value for the day was below the opening value. The significance may not be important if the closing value is high up in the candle. This may actually indicate or be the result of a gap up at the open. Normally one should further examine a stock that closes below the opening value to determine the reason why such a normally a bearish signal happened. Today, BHC stock actually gapped up. The closing value was in the upper half of the candle.
Regular Market Day Features
Beginner Investor’s (Canadian stocks) Watchlist
The Canadian Vanguard Chinese Stocks Watchlist
EV, Energy and Resource Stocks Watchlist
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