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The week in the markets –
August 23, 2024
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The stock market shakes it off
- Global markets hit new highs, just two weeks after the one-day crisis.
- U.S. dollar weakness ate away at Canadian investors’ gains.
- TD Bank posted a loss, the first in decades.
Markets proved tough to shake this week. Just two weeks ago, the market’s fear gauge spiked to 2020 levels for a brief moment, yet the All-Country World Index set new all-time highs on Thursday. On Wednesday, in a largely overlooked blunder involving staggered data releases, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revised last year’s jobs figures, slashing a whopping 818,000 jobs from the previous count: the largest downward adjustment since 2009. While markets initially flinched at such a revision, they shrugged it off and closed near the day's highs. The following day, jobless claims data barely registered, as markets decided to focus on U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s Friday speech. In a market like this, bad news can be good news, good news is good news and no news is the best news of all.
If you were looking at your portfolio lately and wondered about the stated gains, look no further than the currency exchange. The Canadian dollar gained 2% against the U.S. dollar in August, with almost 1% of it happening last week. Don’t mistake this for Canadian dollar strength, however; it’s more U.S. dollar weakness that we’re seeing. Against the basket of world currencies, the U.S. dollar index commonly known as the DXY is down 5% from its late June highs.
Who would have thought a Canadian bank could actually post a loss? Yet that’s exactly what happened this week, when TD Bank reported its first quarterly loss in decades. The main culprit was a hefty $2.6 billion provision for fines tied to U.S. money-laundering investigations. Even if you strip away that charge, earnings would still have disappointed, thanks to rising insurance claims from wildfires and severe weather. It’s one of those situations where you just take everything that’s going wrong, package it in one completely failed quarter and just move on. But it’s not all doom and gloom; TD’s Canadian banking division still managed to hit record revenues, so there is at least one silver lining.
Listen to this week’s podcast for further insights.
This week's market closing value - week ending August 23, 2024
(As of 4:00 PM ET.*)
| EQUITY INDICES | Level | Change | WTD | YTD | 1-year | 5-year |
| CAD | CAD | CAD | CAD | |||
| S&P/TSX | 23,281.42 | 228.45 | 0.99% | 11.08% | 17.11% | 7.74% |
| S&P 500 | 5,624.66 | 74.81 | 0.08% | 20.16% | 26.66% | 14.98% |
| DJIA | 41,192.26 | 532.37 | 0.04% | 11.42% | 19.37% | 10.33% |
| FTSE 100 | 8,327.78 | 16.37 | 0.97% | 13.79% | 17.97% | 5.14% |
| CAC 40 | 7,577.04 | 127.34 | 1.94% | 3.81% | 7.60% | 7.76% |
| DAX | 18,633.10 | 310.70 | 1.93% | 14.96% | 21.91% | 10.39% |
| Nikkei | 38,364.27 | 301.60 | 1.87% | 14.26% | 20.20% | 6.60% |
| Hang Seng | 17,612.10 | 181.94 | -0.25% | 5.50% | -0.83% | -7.19% |
| CURRENCY RETURNS |
CAD | Change | WTD | YTD | 1-year | 5-year |
| US$ | 1.3512 | -0.0171 | -1.25% | 1.95% | -0.10% | 0.34% |
| Euro | 1.5120 | 0.0034 | 0.23% | 3.35% | 2.91% | 0.43% |
| Yen | 0.0094 | 0.0001 | 1.07% | -0.34% | 0.29% | -5.77% |
| CANADIAN TREASURIES | Yield | Change | COMMODITIES | USD | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-month | 4.22 | -0.02 | Oil | $74.89 | -$1.88 |
| 5-year | 2.94 | -0.05 | Gold | $2,511.25 | $2.62 |
| 10-year | 3.03 | -0.03 | Natural Gas | $2.03 | -$0.09 |
| CANADIAN PRIME RATE |
|---|
| 6.70% |
*The data contained in the charts above is provided by Bloomberg as of 4:00 PM ET. Please note that the final closing market values may vary due to data delays and market settlement.
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