The Stock Market At Close – Friday, September 15
The Toronto Market
The Toronto TSX composite index gained 54.50 points, or 0.27%, to close at 20,622.34. The TSX defied the downdraught that afflicted the US markets by advancing today. The other indexes ended the session in red. The gain was reduced compared to yesterday, but the TSX has now climbed for three straight market sessions.
Five of the ten TSX’s major sectors gained today. Basic Materials led the gains with 1.25%; Financials followed with 0.43% and Utilities followed with 0.38%. On the decliners’ side Discretionary Consumers Goods & Services led with a decline of -0.82% for the day; Technology was next and was down -0.52%; Telecommunications was down -0.17% while the Energy sector was also down -0.17%.
The Technology sector declined both at the Toronto and US Markets. The big AI hype may be taking a breather. Companies with AI applications that actually help workers improve productivity appear to be the ones whose stock will continue to benefit.
Today is Friday, so it is time for our weekly sector performance review. This week, the market has been through considerable daily volatility. It has been a week of “up today, down tomorrow” scenario. All TSX sectors gained for the week. Healthcare led the gains this week with a gain of 7.06% for the week; Basic Materials followed with a gain of 3.99% for the week; Financials followed with a gain of 3.34%; Utilities followed with a gain of 3.03%; Industrials gained 2.60%; Energy gained 1.46% while Technology gained 0.72%.
Today’s Statistics: The declined issues (decliners) are back in full control for today, given the market’s current volatility trend of “Up today, down tomorrow”. The decliners outnumbered the gaining issues (advancers) today. The ratio of decliners to advancers was 4.21-to-1.00. In real numbers, 559 advancers to 820 decliners with 184 unchanged. There were 41 new 52-week highs and 24 new 52-week lows. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 435,241,069 or 62.5%; the total volume for declined stocks was 228,562,674 or 32.8% and 32,345,924 or 4.6% for “Unchanged”.
The market has become unpredictable with wild day to day swings. Thursday, the market had big gains only to reverse today closing with heavy declines. We mentioned in our analysis notes yesterday that we must keep an eye on the 10-year yield. Generally, when the 10-year yield is above 4%, it is generally time to trade cautiously, the focus may need to shift from trading to protecting capital. Protecting our capital may actually involve staying on the sidelines to watch the market for some time. It is time to work to clean up the watch list, time to prune things.
The total volume of stocks traded today was 663,803,743 compared to 369,255,598 yesterday an increase of 180.0%. Please see “Today’s Statistics” under “The US Markets” section below for an explanation of the big volume increases for the various indexes today.
The US Markets
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined -288.87 points, or -0.83%, to close at 34,618.24. The S&P 500 declined -54.78 points, or -1.22%, to close at 4,450.32 The NASDAQ Composite declined -217.72 points, or -1.56%, to close at 13,708.34.
All eleven of the major sectors at the US markets declined today. The market today, totally reversed the market performance of yesterday. Telecommunications was the best performing sector with a decline of -0.36% by the close of the market session. Utilities followed with a gain of -0.44%; Financials sector was next with a decline of -0.49% while Basic Materials followed with a decline of -0.52%. Healthcare declined -0.66%; Energy declined -1.11% and Technology declined -1.64%.
On a weekly basis, Technology was the only sector which declined for the week. The sector declined -1.65%. Industrials gained 0.16%; Healthcare gained 0.22%; Energy gained 0.79%; Basic Materials gained 2.12%; Financials gained 2.17% for the week while Telecommunications had the highest gain for week with a gain of 2.62%.
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 3.02-to-1. In real numbers 2,633 decliners to 869 advancers with 291 unchanged. There were 77 new 52-week highs and 118 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 1,241,259,016 or 35.6%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 2,163,407,322 or 62.1%; and 79,037,311 or 2.3% “Unchanged”.
The total volume of stocks traded on the NYSE today was 3,483,703,649 compared to 957,601,333 yesterday an increase of 364%. The volume gapped up well beyond the usual daily average largely because today is a Triple Witching Day. The market completely reversed the market trend as displayed yesterday.
Triple Witching Day – Today is one of the only four days in the market year that we shall deliberately ignore the volumes traded from our market analysis consideration. The third Friday of every March, June, September and December has been designated by Wall Street authorities as the days of the year when stock options, stock index futures, and stock index options all expire. The net result, as traders to balance their portfolios, is that those four days of the trading year often see large volumes and some volatility. As a result, the total volumes traded today will not be typical of a regular market session.
On the NASDAQ, the ratio of decliners to advancers was 1.87-to-1. Today, the decliners prevailed over the advancers at the NASDAQ. In real numbers, 2,856 decliners to 1,525 advancers with 349 unchanged. There were 66 new 52-week highs and 242 new 52-week lows. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 3,559,732,207 or 41.8%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 4,855,229,796 or 57.0% and 108,880,947 or 1.3% for “Unchanged”. The market reversed character completely today. The market was decidedly bearish.
The total volume of stocks traded today was 8,523,842,950 compared to 4,896,996,951 yesterday an increase of 1.74%. The volume change was one and three quarters larger than the volume yesterday.
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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