The Stock Market At Close – Friday, August 18
The Toronto Market
The TSX composite index gained 6.16 points, or 0.03% to close at 19,818.39. The index was declined 2.9% this week.
The market was largely driven by the increased likelihood of prolonged duration of high interest rates. The TSX was marginally higher today as Oil price rose.
Seven of the TSX major sectors recorded gains today. Utilities led the gains gaining 0.77%, followed by Energy sector which gained 0.59%. Healthcare followed with a gain of 0.52%.technology recorded a gain of 0.1%. Financials sector ended the day in the read with a decline of -0.36%. The worst performing sector today was Durable Goods & Services Sector which declined -0.44%.
For the week, all the sectors declined. The decline was led by Basic Material sector with a weekly decline of -4.20%, Telecommunications Services declined -3.66%. Technology declined -3.33% while Utilities declined -1.53%. Financials declined -2.94% for the week.
Today’s Statistics: Today, the declined issues (decliners) outnumbered the gaining issues (advancers) but it was almost an even contest compared to the last five sessions. The ratio of decliners to advancers to was 1.06-to-1.00. In real numbers, 656 advancers to 698 decliners with 235 unchanged. There were 5 new 52-week highs and 58 new 52-week lows. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 136,952,768 or 53.2%; the total volume for declined stocks was 108,616,814 or 42.2% and 11,711,450 or 4.6% for “Unchanged”.
It is at least six market sessions ago that the volume of gaining stocks was higher than the volume of declined stocks. The total volume of stocks traded today was 257,281,032 compared to 246,604,600 yesterday. The volume today was 4% higher than yesterday’s.
The bulls fought hard today but the sellers still gained the upper hand. The decliners still outnumbered the advancers.
The US Markets
The Dow Jones index gained 25.83 points, or 0.07%, to close at 34,500.66 points. The S&P 500 declined -0.65 points, or -0.01%, to close at 4,369.71. The Nasdaq Composite declined -26.16 points, or -0.2%, to close at 13,290.78.
All the major indexes are now below their 50-day lines. That is not a good sign.
The gains in defensive sectors and energy offset the weakness in megacap growth stocks. The markets were mixed today. The markets appear to be waiting for some event or a major to provide direction. The odds appear even that the market could move up or down from here. Prior to today the market was clearly in a down trend.
Energy was the lead gaining sector today after having gained 0.81%.Durable Goods & Services sector gained 0.5% and the Financials managed a 0.03% gain for the day. Technology declined today by -0.125
For the week, Financials were clearly the lead gainers gaining 11.92% for the week. All the other sectors declined for the week. Discretionary Consumer Goods and Services was the worst performing sector this week, the sector declined -3.96%. Technology declined -2.39% for the week.
Today’s Statistics: Today, the gaining issues (advancers) outnumbered the declined issues (decliners) on both the NYSE and NASDAQ. The ratio of advancers to decliners on the NYSE was 1.16-to-1. In real numbers, 2,081 advancers to 1,797 decliners with 307 unchanged. There were 18 new 52-week highs and 141 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 616,040,951 or 61.3%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 367,043,798 or 36.5%; and 21,406,815 or 2.1% “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded on the NYSE today was 1,004,491,564 compared to 934,678,392 yesterday. The volume traded on the NYSE has not surpassed a billion during the last eight months.
On the NASDAQ, the ratio of advancers to decliners was 1.18-to-1 and difference was more pronounced than on the NYSE. In real numbers, 2,322 decliners to 1,970 advancers with 384 unchanged. There were 36 new 52-week highs and 264 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 2,645,629,173 or 54.0%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 2,221,105,009 or 45.3% and 34,582,886 or 0.7% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded was 4,901,317,068 compared to 5,443,606,426 yesterday.
Oil and the money markets: U.S. crude oil prices fell 1.8% to $80.99 a barrel. China’s economic woes, especially in the property sector, are weighing on industrial commodities.
10 –year Treasury Yield: The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 6 basis points to 4.32%.
Regular Market Day Features
The Beginner Investor’s (Canadian stocks) Watchlist
The Canadian Vanguard Chinese Stocks Watchlist
It is not the time to be bringing new money in to the market.
EV, Energy and Resource Stocks Watchlist
Tesla Inc. and the EV stocks remain in the red.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
SUBSCRIPTION Offer: We thank you for following our Stock Market posts but please be aware that we shall soon be restricting these articles to subscribers only.
