The Stock Market At Close – Thursday, March 16
The Toronto Market
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 160.17 points, or 0.83%, to close at 19,539.01. The Financials reversed the trend of the past few days to close with a gain today. The sector gained 0.6% while the technology sector rose 1.7%.
The Canadian banks recovered some of the lost ground from yesterday but underperformed the US banks. On the other hand the Canadian banks did not decline as much as the US banks yesterday.
In company, news Bombardier gained 4.64% today to close at $61.96. Shopify gained 2.34% to close at $61.32. BMO was the biggest percentage gainers among the banks today.
The US markets
The Dow Jones index gained 371.98 points, or 1.17%, to close the session at 32,246.55. The S&P 500 gained 68.35 points, or 1.76%, to close the session at 3,960.28. The Nasdaq index gained 283.23 points, or 2.48%, to close at 11,717.28. The Nasdaq index had strong performance the last few sessions, will it punch through the 12,000 mark on the current climb?
In a reversal of yesterday`s market climate, advancing issues today outnumbered declining issues by a ratio of 2.80 to 1. The ratio on the Nasdaq was 1.95 to 1.
The US big banks today came to the rescue of one their own. Financial institutions, including JP Morgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley, confirmed earlier reports that they would deposit up to $30 billion into First Republic Bank’s coffers to stabilize the lender. That led to a strong rebound by financials and helped Wall Street’s main indexes to close firmly positive today.
The positive sentiment was contagious and it certainly rubbed off on the regional lenders. Alliance Bancorp and PacWest Bancorp advancing 14.09% and 0.7%, respectively, following a negative start.
In economic news, data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, pointing to continued labor market strength, which could persuade the Fed to keep raising rates further. Weak retail sales figures, as well as data showing a downward trend in producer inflation, yesterday bolstered bets of a small rate hike by the Federal Reserve at its next meeting which comes up next week.
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Stocks In The News/ Stocks To Watch
The market story today was all about the US. Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Snapchat operator Snap Inc. climbed 3.63% and 7.25%, after the U.S. administration threatened to impose a ban on rival TikTok.
First Republic Bank, after bailout offer from the other big banks, gained 9.98% or $3.11 to close at $34.27 with a volume of 196.1M shares traded.
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Regular Market Day Features
Beginner Investor’s (Canadian stocks) Watchlist
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The Canadian Vanguard Chinese Stocks Watchlist
EV, Energy and Resource Stocks Watchlist at Today’s Market
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