“The stock market demands conviction; it victimizes the unconvinced” – Peter Lynch
TSX Flat to Finish the Week, But Gains 1.25% Overall
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index finished with a drop of 0.69 points on the day, settling at 15,454.23. For the week, the TSX rose by 281.20 points (1.85%), and hit a 14-week high in doing so. 7 of the 10 main index sectors were up on the day.
The TSX concluded the week on Friday with a 0.31-point rise to settle at 15,173.03. This finish represents a rise of 1.25% over last week’s finish at 14,985.32. Declines in energy and utilities weighed on the TSX, while the consumer discretionary/staples sector gained on the day.
The Loonie barely moved vs the Greenback on Friday, and sat at 81.10 cents USD as of 2:45pm PST, off by about a cent compared to last Friday’s finish of 82.08 cents.
Light, Sweet Crude Oil Barrel futures finished the week above $50 at $50.66 per barrel.
Gold again dropped this week – off $23.00 USD on the week – to finish the week at $1,300.50 USD, as investors eased away from the safe-haven asset.
U.S. Federal Intends to Reduce Balance Sheet, Signals Rate Hike to Close Out 2017
The U.S. Federal Reserve announced its intention to reduce its balance sheet of ≈ $4.2 Trillion (USD) in U.S. Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. Fed Chair Janet Yellen also signaled a rate hike before the end of 2017.
The market pegs the odds of a December rate hike at about 70%. Prior to the Federal Reserve meeting earlier this week, the odds of a December rate hike sat at 51%, according to investors.
The Federal Reserve offered no answers for the inflation decrease this year, and Michael Dowdall – investment strategist at BMO Global Asset Management – offered that “Clearly, the Fed doesn’t have answers on the 2017 low inflation weakness, but they’re still very sensitive to falling behind the curve so they want to stay in front of the inflation curve.”
On the heels of the Fed announcement to hold rates and reduce the balance sheet, valuations spiked. The S&P 500 was trading at 17.6 times expected earnings as of end-of-day Thursday; comparatively, the S&P 500’s 10-year average is 14.3 times expected earnings.
Sources: Globe Advisor, Advisor.ca