The Canadian Vanguard Stock Market Report At Market Close – April 12, 2024 Weekend
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Data Driven Stock Market Analysis And Report – April 12 – 13, Weekend Edition
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News Update !!!
Iran has launched a barrage of drone attacks at Israel, U.S. officials say. Airspace closures throughout the Middle East, ground and flight diversions in the region have also been announced.
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The Toronto Market on Friday
The TSX declined -210.12 points or -0.95% to close today’s market session at 21,899.99. The index has now declined three consecutive sessions. The market session today was largely driven by the likelihood of the war in the Middle East getting bigger as Iran was reported as being ready to respond to Israel’s attack on its embassy personnel in Syria. Investors became risk averse and obviously unloaded stocks to minimize possible portfolio damage should the current war escalate over the weekend.
The market was totally negative, really poor on Friday. It was really not a “red letter” day! Every major sector declined. Industrials lead the sectors with -0.41% decline. Utilities, which normally is the bastion of a secure, minimum risk portfolio declined -0.60%; Energy declined -0.89%; Financials declined -0.90% while Basic Materials declined -1.02%; Technology declined -1.66% and Healthcare declined -1.88%.
For the week, Basic Materials gained a healthy 3.88%; Telecommunications Services gained 0.96%; Industrials gained 0.81%; Healthcare was up 0.62%; Energy gained 0.42%; Durable Consumer Goods & Services gained 0.39% while Technology declined -0.20% and Utilities declined -1.12%.
Coal industry was up a massive 10.68% while Computer Hardware was up 5.26%; Semiconductors gained 1.26%; Office Equipment gained 0.84% and Marine Transportation gained 0.54%. Consumer Electronics, down -9.52%, was the worst performing industry at the TSX on Friday.
Today’s Statistics: Today, declined issues (Decliners) completely outnumbered the gaining issues (Advancers). The ratio of Decliners to Advancers was 3.23-to-1.0 or in practical terms, roughly for every thirty two Decliners there were ten Advancers. In actual numbers, 1,149 Decliners to 356 Advancers with 69 Unchanged. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 69,640,551 or 17.5%, the total volume for declined stocks was 318,303,380 or 80.0% and 10,041,287 or 2.5% for “Unchanged”.
There were 107 new 52-Week Highs and 15 new 52-Week Lows. Yesterday, there were 107 new 52-Week Highs and 11 new 52-Week Lows.
The total volume of stocks traded at the TSX today was 397,985,218 compared to 353,308,787 yesterday, a 12% percent increase. Today’s volume of 397,985,218 was 8% higher than the average of the ten most recent market sessions.
The US Market
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined a heavy -475.84 points or -1.24% o close at 37,983.24 on Friday. The S&P 500 declined -75.65 points, or -1.46%, to close at 5,123.41. The Nasdaq Composite gave back all the big gains made on Thursday. Nasdaq declined -267.10 points or -1.62%, to close at 16,172.09. Volume on the NYSE was up almost 13% but volume was down 3.44% on the Nasdaq.
All the major sectors declined at the US markets on Friday. Utilities, the normally stodgy sector was the top performer with -0.86%, an indication of how bad the session was when the top decliner declined by almost 1%. All the other sectors declined by 1% or worse. Durable Consumer Goods & Services declined -1.08%; Telecommunications Services declined -1.26%; Energy was down -1.29%; Industrials was down -1.36%; Healthcare was down -1.56%; Financials was down -1.63% while Basic Materials was down -1.68% and Technology declined -1.78%. It was a brutally bearish market.
Communications Equipment industry was up 3.77%; Marine Port Services gained 3.47% while Semiconductors gained 3.05%; Footwear was up 2.63% and Semiconductor Equipment & Testing 1.98%. AI stocks and the Chips industry dominated the market session today.
For the week, Technology still managed to gain 2.82% based on performance earlier in the week. Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services gained 1.28% while Healthcare was up 1.83%; Basic Materials gained 0.82% and Energy gained 0.60%. Financials declined -1.19% while Utilities declined -0.65% and Telecommunications Services declined -2.16%.
Marine Port Services was the top performing industry with 1.78% gain; Textiles & Leather Goods industry was up 0.66%; Communication Equipment was up 0.23%; Homebuilding gained 0.20%. Pharmaceuticals – Generic & Specialty declined -7.22% giving back more than the gain for the week while Rails & Roads – Passengers declined -5.14%.
Today’s Market Statistics: Today, the declined issues (Decliners) outnumbered the gaining issues (Advancers) on the NYSE. The ratio of Decliners to Advancers was 4.19-to-1.0 or in practical terms, approximately for every four Decliners there was one Advancer. In actual numbers, 3,273 Decliners to 781 Advancers with 243 Unchanged. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 98,350,858 or 9.6%; the total volume for declined stocks was 923,518,312 or 89.9% and 5,890,451 or 0.6% for “Unchanged”. These are really bearish numbers. The bears dominated the day. Investors must have been bailing out of stocks, taking profits or simply unloading the portfolio ahead of a weekend that might see an escalation of the war in the Middle east and the uncertainties and possible consequences.
There were 126 new 52-Week Highs and 103 new 52-Week Lows.
The total volume of stocks traded at the NYSE today was 1,027,759,621 compared with 926,972,436 yesterday, an 11% increase. Today’s volume of 1,027,759,621 was about six per cent higher than the average of the ten most recent market sessions.
On the NASDAQ, the Decliners outnumbered the Advancers today by a ratio of 3.21-to-1 or roughly for every thirty two Decliners there were ten Advancers. In real numbers, there were 3,287 Decliners to 1,022 Advancers with 259 Unchanged. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 1,102,129,423 or 23.7%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 3,528,487,512 or 75.9% and 20,725,090 or 0.4% for “Unchanged”.
There were 55 new 52-Week Highs and 212 new 52-Week Lows. Yesterday, there were 63 new 52-Week Highs and 141 new 52-Week Lows, On Wednesday, there were 36 new 52-Week Highs and 185 new 52-Week Lows. On Tuesday, there were 104 new 52-Week Highs and 79 new 52-Week Lows. The market got more bearish as the week progressed. The market is signaling, “It is time for caution in market trades”.
The total volume of stocks traded at the NASDAQ today was 4,651,342,025 compared to 4,827,927,550 yesterday, a 4% decrease. Today’s volume of 4,651,342,025 is about 5% percent lower than the average of the last ten market sessions.
Oil Price: Oil is currently at $85.45, up $0.43 or 0.51% as at the time of this post.
10 –year Treasury Yield: The US 10-year Treasury yield closed at 4.501% on Friday, down from 4.572% Thursday, while the five-year Treasury yield closed at 4.535%, down from 4.619%.
The market outlook is High Risk Mode. It may be a smart move to remain on the market sidelines for now while keeping an eye on the market. The market pullback so far has been quite orderly, escalation of the war could throw cold water on any previous market calculations and strategy.
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Stocks In The News/Stocks To Watch
The US Markets
The markets on Friday furiously turned south unexpectedly. The market was bearish and defied any prediction based on the strong positive market performance on Thursday. The culprit was the announcement that Iran was going to retaliate against Israel on the attack on its Embassy in Syria.
We do not discuss crypto currency on this site normally but we can use crypto price gyrations as a gauge of market turbulence and uncertainty. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of J P Morgan, the biggest US bank, compared the uncertainties at current time as comparable to and as not having been seen since World War II.
Most major digital assets fell Friday with bitcoin (BTC-USD) dropping below $67,000. Bitcoin was down to $62,000 Saturday morning. Bitcoin, at the time of this post was at $63,254.00 – down -5.5%.
We recommend our readers stay on the market sidelines on Monday and Tuesday, watch the market development and reactions to the war escalation before plunging back in to the market. Capital Preservation is important. The market will always be there to come back to. To shun danger is no cowardice, to paraphrase William Shakespeare. It is smart to avoid needless risks. One or two days on the sidelines may actually turn out to be “what the doctor ordered”.
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