The Stock Market Report – Weekend Edition Monday, October 16, 2023
The Stock Market may be entering a short term period of wild volatility driven by current geo-political events. Be Prepared
The Toronto Market
Friday, the Toronto TSX composite index declined -37.38 points, or -0.19%, to close at 19,462.86.
The TSX, for the second consecutive session opened higher, 150 points above the previous day’s closing but declined over the first four hours of the market session to cross below the previous day’s closing value and remained below it for the rest of the session.
There was no support for any upward climb by the index today.
The market today was driven by the events at far away places; the current turmoil in the Middle East. The market will probably become more volatile in the coming weeks unless some quick resolution or a definite path to such appears soon.
Basic Materials and Energy were the only sectors to gain today. Telecommunications Services was the best performer of the sectors which declined today. That sector was followed by Healthcare. Industrials declined -0.76%; Financials declined -0.78%; Utilities declined -0.91% and Technology brought up the rear with a -2.16% decline. Oil price was up because of the situation in the Middle East; as such Energy was up. Today’s market session was driven largely by the current crisis in the Middle East. That was expected since Monday or Tuesday but it finally happened on the last trading day of the week.
Today’s Statistics: The declined issues (decliners) had the upper hand today over the gaining issues (advancers). The ratio of decliners to advancers was 1.32-to-1.00. In real numbers, 798 decliners to 603 advancers with 193 Unchanged. There were 17 new 52-Week Highs and 46 new 52-Week Lows. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 149,207,793 or 54.7%; the total volume for declined stocks was 113,696,942 or 41.6% and 9,990,101 or 3.7% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded at the TSX today was 272,894,836 compared to 229,322,685 yesterday, a 19% increase. Today’s volume of 272,894,836 was about equal to the most recent ten-market session average.
The US Market
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the market session on Friday with a gain of 39.15 points, or 0.12%, to close at 33,670.29. The S&P 500 declined -21.83 points, or -0.50%, to close at 4,327.78. The Nasdaq Composite was down -166.98 points, or -1.23%, to close at 13,407.23.
The NASDAQ was a real poor performer today. The index opened the session a little higher than the previous day’s closing but within half an hour started to drop and continuously declined until the last two hours of the market, when it became narrow range bound for the last two hours of the session. There was no support for any semblance of an upward climb. The S&P 500 was more volatile than the other indexes during the early hours of the session but three indexes calmed down in the late afternoon.
The Energy sector had the best performance of the market session. Oil price was up 5.6% today in reaction to the war in the Middle East. Utilities gained 0.83% and Durable Consumer Goods & Services gained 0.52%; healthcare gained 0.48%. Telecommunications declined -0.20%; Financials declined -0.28%. Technology was the worst performing sector declining -1.50%.
Gold was up $59 or 3.17% today as investors rushed to safety given the current uncertainty. Utilities and Telecommunications should do well or at least not decline much, as long as the uncertainty in the middle East persists. The market will of course do what it wishes to do.
The Energy sector had the edge today, especially the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production industry group. Among the better known companies in the sector; Marathon Oil (MRO) was up 4.76%; High Peak Energy (HPK) was up 6.36%; Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) was up 3.35%; Conocophillips (COP) was up 3.10% and Murphy Oil Corp (MUR) was up 3.02%. Chord Energy Corp (CHRD) gained 3.37%.
Today’s Statistics: Today, the declined issues (decliners) outnumbered the gaining issues (advancers) on the NYSE. The ratio of decliners to advancers on the NYSE was 1.56-to-1. In real numbers 2,362 decliners to 1,514 advancers with 289 “Unchanged”. There were 30 new 52-Week Highs and 199 new 52-Week Lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 394,410,723 or 43%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 512,615,927 or 55.9%; and 10,490,411 or 0.1% “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded on the NYSE today was 917,517,061 compared to 881,588,236 yesterday, a 4% increase. Today’s total volume, of 917,517,061 shares traded was about equal to the most recent ten-market session average.
On the NASDAQ, the decliners outnumbered the advancers convincingly today. The ratio of advancers to decliners was 1.68-to-1. There was approximately three decliners to each advancer. In real numbers, 2,680 decliners to 1,595 advancers with 357 unchanged. There were 31 new 52-Week Highs and 345 new 52-Week Lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 1,572,808,468 or 36.2%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 2,645,115,498 or 60.8% and 132,111,400 or 3% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded today was 4,350,035,366 compared to 5,061,230,785 yesterday, a 14% decrease. The volume of stocks traded today was about the average volume during the past ten market sessions.
Stocks In The News/Stocks To Watch – Week of Monday 16, 2023
The US Market:
Looking towards the coming week, depending on how things develop with the crisis in the middle east, if the war gets bigger or prolonged for example, then the big winners and most likely the only real winners will be the weapons and war equipment manufacturers otherwise often euphemistically referred to as defense industry. Some of the companies are Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT), Raytheon Technologies Corp (RTX), The Boeing Co (BA), General Dynamics Corp (GD), and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC).
Northrop Grumman Corp was up $12.84 or 2.96% to close at $490.15 today with 1.5M shares changing hands.
General Dynamics Corp gained $5.64 or 2.38% to close at $243.04. The volume of shares traded was 2.2M.
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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