The Stock Market At Close – Monday, February 27
The Toronto Market:
The TSX composite gained 40.94 points, or 0.2%, to close today’s market session at 20,260.13. The index declined last week but gained on Friday so the index was up two consecutive sessions which is a departure from the performance last week.
Oil was up and so also was the energy sector today but yet the index had only a modest gain. Investors appear focused on interest rates and interest rate hikes down the road. The US 10-year yield did not help the matter today. It declined at the open but spent time rising above the session lows. There will certainly be no stock “market exuberance” when the 10-year yield is rising.
The Toronto market’s energy sector rose 0.5% and the materials group, (resources) was up 1.3% as gold and copper prices rose.
In company news, the Allen Stanford issue continued to haunt the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The Bank agreed to pay $1.205 billion to resolve litigation by former Allen Stanford investors who accused it and two other banks of contributing to the imprisoned financier’s massive Ponzi scheme. Its shares ended 0.6% lower.
The US Market
The Dow Jones gained 72.17 points, or 0.22%, to close at 32,889.09. The S&P 500 gained 12.2 points, or 0.31%, to close at 3,982.24. The Nasdaq Composite added 72.04 points, or 0.63%, to close at 11,466.98
Today, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.69-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.41-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 4 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 71 new highs and 102 new lows.
Data released today showed that capital goods orders continue to increase, indicating that the US economy continues to remain resilient and as such inflation remains a concern for the Feds. Analysts now believe that the Feds will continue to increase interest rates by 25 basis point with the next interest rate increase most likely coming in March. Some analysts are even suggesting a 50 basis point increase sometime within the year. All indications are that the market volatility will remain for most of the year. Uncertainty often leads to market volatility and there is significant uncertainty around the interest rate hikes these days.
Energy stocks were higher this afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index rising 0.5% while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) was up 0.3%.
10 –year Treasury Yield: : The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell Monday, settling at 3.92%.
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Stocks In The News/ Stocks To Watch
In company news, Tesla surged 5.46% today after the company announced that its factory in Germany started to produce cars three weeks ahead of plan.
Another stock to keep an eye on is Super Micro Computer Inc.(SMCI). The company provides rack based servers for cloud services providers. The stock gained last week when most stocks declined.
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Regular Market Day Features
Beginner Investor’s (Canadian stocks) Watchlist
We must wait until the middle of the week when more banks report to see if the banks continue to gain as the market was choppy today following the trend from last week.
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The Canadian Vanguard Chinese Stocks Watchlist
Baidu (BIDU) and Pinduoduo (PDD) are on the way back depending of course on how the markets move. Of course 80% of the stocks on any day follow the market.
EV, Energy and Resource Stocks Watchlist at Today’s Market:
Tesla is certainly a stock to watch going forward. Wednesday is Tesla’s event day. It is most likely going to be a positive day for the stock.
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