The Stock Market At Close – Monday, August 21
The Toronto Market
The TSX composite index declined -33.52 points, or -0.2%, to close at 19,784.87.
Investors are assuming that the high interest rates will be with us for quite some time. Rising bond yields continue to trouble the market. The 5-year yield in Canada rose 5.4 basis points to 4.143%. This is the highest level since 2007. The last recession started in 2007 and prevailed till 2009.
Only two of the major TSX sectors gained today. Technology and Basic Materials gained 1.14% and 1.13% respectively. Telecommunication Services declined -0.09%. Industrials declined -0.43%, Financials declined -0.63% followed by Utilities which was the worst performing sector today with a decline of -0.83%.
Today’s Statistics: Today, the declined issues (decliners) outnumbered the gaining issues (advancers). The ratio of decliners to advancers was 1.39-to-1.00. In real numbers, 568 advancers to 793 decliners with 196 unchanged. There were 12 new 52-week highs and 63 new 52-week lows. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 81,964,597 or 30.0%; the total volume for declined stocks was 180,665,649 or 66.2% and 10,279,575 or 3.8% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded today was 272,909,821 compared to 257,281,032 on Friday. The volume today was 6% higher than on Friday. The sellers remain in control even though Technology stocks gained today.
The US Market
The Dow Jones index declined -36.97 points, or -0.11%, to close at 34,463.69. The S&P 500 gained 30.06 points, or 0.69%, to close at 4,399.77. The Nasdaq Composite gained 206.81 points, or 1.56%, to 13,497.59.
Only four of the major US market sectors gained today. Technology was the clear lead gainer today. The sector gained 1.70%. Tesla is grouped within the Technology sector within TSX. Durable Consumer Goods & Services gained 0.89% and Healthcare followed with a gain of 0.37% and then Basic Materials with a gain of 0.26%. Industrials sector led the decliners declining -0.13%. Financials declined -0.22% and Telecommunications Services declined -0.29%. Utilities was the worst performing sector declining -0.61%.
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 1.44-to-1. In real numbers, 1,607 advancers to 2,322 decliners with 272 unchanged. There were 47 new 52-week highs and 146 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 397,219,644 or 46.6%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 448,520,353 or 52.4%; and 9,953,336 or 1.2% “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded on the NYSE today was 855,693,333 compared to 1,004,491,564 on Friday.
On the NASDAQ, the ratio of advancers to decliners was 1.08-to-1. In real numbers, 2,277 decliners to 2,099 advancers with 360 unchanged. The difference between the decliners and the advancers was more pronounced on the NYSE today. There were 51 new 52-week highs and 223 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 2,418,497,698 or 54.1%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 2,016,097,947 or 45.1% and 38,455,921 or 0.9% for “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded was 4,473,051,566 compared to 4,473,051,566 on Friday. Today volume on the NASDAQ was down compared to recent average. We can attribute the fact that the ratio of the decliners was more pronounced on the NASDAQ compared to NYSE as being due to the fact that NSADAQ has more Technology stocks than NYSE and the technology sector had a relatively good gain today.
Oil and the money markets: Oil prices slipped nearly 1%, still near their 2023 highs. West Texas intermediate futures settled near $80 a barrel.
10 –year Treasury Yield: The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield ticked higher to 4.34%.
Stocks In the News/Stocks To Watch
The Toronto Market
Cameco Corporation (TSX:CCO) traded sideways during the past few sessions, did not form a flat base, but the stock has now resumed the uptrend. Cameco stock today, gained $1.88 or 4% to close at 48.83. That is its highest ever for the stock. The gain today came with a 50% volume increase compared to Friday’s session. Gains with good volume increase is a positive for stocks.
Shopify Inc. (TSX:SHOP) gained $1.08 or 1.50% to close at $73.10. Volume of shares traded was 2.4M. The big banks continue the downtrend. Royal Bank (TSX:RY) declined -$0.23 or – 0.19% to close at $121.24. Volume of shares of the Royal Bank traded today was 5.6M. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSX:CM) was down -$0.33, or -$0.61% to close at $53.43 wit ha volume 2.4M shares changing hands today. The decline today for the banks was not a major drop for any of the banks. the issue is the continued down trend. This is note worth especially as Moody’s mentioned their intention to review the banks’ ratings a week ago.
The big banks’ charts have been trending , actually more like “inching” downwards, for about thirteen consecutive sessions as of today. One could easily have confused one of the two charts above for the other. That is reflection of the fact that issue is with the sector and not specific to a particular bank.
Regular Market Day Features
The Beginner Investor’s (Canadian stocks) Watchlist
The Canadian Vanguard Chinese Stocks Watchlist
It is too early to predict if the Chinese economy is already responding to the government efforts to turn things around.
EV, Energy and Resource Stocks Watchlist
Tesla was up 7.33% today after several sessions of decline. All the EV stocks in our watchlist gained today.
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