The Stock Market At Close – Friday, August 25
The Toronto Market
The Toronto TSX composite index gained 59.92 points, or 0.30%, to close the market session today at 19,835.75. It was a choppy week on a day by day basis but the TSX was practically at where it was last Friday. Last Friday, the TSX closed at 19,818.39. Two Fridays ago, the TSX closed at 20,407.57. The market is in a downward trend – weak market.
The indexes opened higher, went down, then climbed higher after Fed’s Chief speech at Jackson Hole today. The 10-year Treasury yield remains well above 4.0. That means stocks will most likely not be the first option when investors think of where to invest their funds. The market definitely remains a weak market. Every day of rally attempt during the week was followed by a down day market session.
It was a relatively choppy market session prior to mid-day, but the market had a relatively broad based small rally today once the indexes started to climb. Eight of the ten major sectors gained. The Energy sector led the upsurge with a gain of 1.13% followed by Technology with a gain of 0.77%. Durable Consumer Good & Services gained 0.72%. Healthcare gained 0.71% and Industrials gained 0.69%. The two declining sectors were Basic Materials which declined -0.24% and Financials which also declined -0.24%. Most of the regional banks were down today.
Today is Friday. It is time for our weekly review. On a weekly basis Technology gained 2.98%, Telecommunications Services gained 0.89% and Telecommunications Services gained 0.89%. Energy was down -1.41% and Financials was down -1.2%.
Today’s Statistics: Today, the gaining issues (advancers) outnumbered the declined issues (decliners). The ratio of advancers to decliners was 1.82-to-1.00. In real numbers, 841 advancers to 463 decliners with 232 unchanged. There were 14 new 52-week highs and 39 new 52-week lows. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 136,041,252 or 62.1%; the total volume for declined stocks was 71,283,274 or 32.5% and 11,774,889 or 5.4% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded today was 219,099,415 compared to 267,318,618 on Wednesday. We did not publish the “Stock Market” report yesterday.
The US Market
The Dow Jones index gained 247.48 points, or 0.73%, to close at 34,346.90. The S&P 500 gained 29.40 points, or 0.67%, to close at 4,405.71. The Nasdaq Composite added 126.67 points, or 0.94%, to close at 13,590.65.
Nine of the major sectors gained at the US markets today. Discretionary Goods & Services gained 1.45% today while Energy gained 0.91%. Technology gained 0.78%. Healthcare gained 0.78%; Basic Materials gained 0.16% and Financials gained 0.03%.
For the week, Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services gained 1.36%; Technology 1.33% and Basic Materials gained 0.17%. The rest of the sectors declined for the week with Energy declining -0.99%; healthcare -0.30% and Financials -0.18%
Today’s Statistics: Today, the gaining issues (advancers) totally outnumbered the declined issues (decliners) on both the NYSE and NASDAQ. The ratio of decliners to advancers on the NYSE was 1.51-to-1. In real numbers, 2235 advancers to 1,515 decliners with 335 unchanged. There were 42 new 52-week highs and 96 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 489,789,828 or 61.0%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 298,108,451 or 37.1%; and 15,274,616 or 1.9% “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded on the NYSE today was 803,172,895 compared to 904,383,966 on Wednesday. Smart investors and traders may be staying away from the weak market. Volume today was down a significant 12.6%, almost thirteen per cent, from Wednesday. The volume today on the NYSE was quite below daily average.
On the NASDAQ, the ratio of advancers to decliners was 1.24-to-1. Compared to NYSE the ratio of decliners to advancers was higher on the NASDAQ. The advancers prevailed. In real numbers, 2,381 decliners to 1,914 advancers with 399 unchanged. There were 35 new 52-week highs and 210 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 2,486,767,419 or 61.5%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 1,498,722,322 or 37.1% and 56,550,297 or 1.4% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded was 4,042,040,033 compared to 4,316,860,890 on Wednesday. That was 6.8% lower.
Stocks In The News/Stocks To Watch
The Toronto Market
Cameco Corporation (TSX:CCO) continues to execute well. The stock gained $0.99 or 2.04% today to close at $49.50. The volume was 20% more than the volume yesterday.
Blackberry Ltd., (TSX:BB) gained 17.41% or $1.05 to close at $7.08. Reuters reported that private equity firm Veritas Capital has made an offer to buy BlackBerry Ltd , according to a person familiar with the matter, months after the Canadian technology company began a strategic review.
The stock on the US exchange closed at $5.23, giving the company a market capitalization of $3.1 billion. Reuters also reported that Veritas made an offer for the entire company, the source said, but BlackBerry is also in talks with other potential buyers. This is an on-going process. The stock price will most likely increase further before the process is concluded.
According to Newswires, Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) reported a cash EPS of $2.84 beating BMO Capital/consensus estimates of $2.50/$2.70. Roughly half the beat to BMO was from lower taxes (18.2% vs. 23.9% last year) with Capital Markets (better fee/trading revenue offsetting lower lending income), Insurance, and better PCLs (notwithstanding higher CRE provisions) also beating.
Canadian P&C results will likely be “best-in-class” as stable Net Interest Margin (NIM) and a focus on expenses will be well-received. Net Interest Margin (NIM) denotes the difference between the interest income earned and the interest paid by a bank or financial institution. NIM measures the effectiveness of a company’s investment decisions, particularly for financial institutions.
Dollarama Inc. (TSX:DOL) is in the early stages of forming a flat base. It looks like the stock is already anticipating the recession or some down trend in the economy.
The US Market
NVDA Corp (NVDA). A lot of people must have made a lot of money this year on NVDA stock. The stock is up more than 200% this year, driven essentially by the AI momentum. The company makes the chip specifically dedicated to powering AI systems. After hours on Wednesday the stock had a blowout earnings report. The stock was up yesterday briefly touched $502.00, but finally closed the day’s market session at $471.59 with 115M shares traded. Today NVDA closed down -$11.45 or -2.43% to close at $460.18 with 92.5M shares changing hands. The AI momentum may be ready for a breather.
Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, J P Morgan Chase and others raised the price target of Futu Holdings (FUTU). Today FUTU gained $1.66 or 3.36% to close at $51.06. Volume of shares traded was 2.3M.
Regular Market Day Features
Beginner Investor’s (Canadian stocks) Watchlist
The Canadian Vanguard Chinese Stocks Watchlist
EV, Energy and Resource Stocks Watchlist
All three EV manufacturers in our watchlist were up today and all appear to be in the early stages of a flat base. Tesla gained $8.55 or 3.72% to close at $238.39 with a volume of 106.6M shares traded. Tesla increasingly faces tough competition from other EV manufacturers especially in China.
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