The Canadian Vanguard Stock Market Report At Market Close – Friday, February 16, 2024
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Data Driven Market Analysis And Report For the Week ending February 16
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Toronto Market As At Friday
The TSX composite index gained 32.92 points or 0.16% to close today’s market session at 21,255.61. It was a good week for the TSX composite index. The index started the week above 21,000, dove hundreds of points on Tuesday but recovered on Wednesday and finished the week well above the 21,000 points level. US inflation report and interest rate considerations were in part to blame for the mid-week volatility.
Eight of the major sectors of the TSX index’s sectors ended the market session with gains on Friday. Telecommunications Services, up 0.96%, was the top performing sector. Basic Materials sector, comprising mostly miners, was up 0.79%; Energy was up 0.49%, possibly reflecting the recent uptrend in Oil prices; Healthcare gained 0.30%; Utilities was up 0.11%; Financials gained 0.09%; Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services declined -0.16% and Technology declined -1.49%.
For the week, Energy was the top performing sector. The sector was up 2.96%, possibly tracking the Oil price gains during the past several days. Financials were up 2.55% and Industrials were up 2.11%. The sector decliners were: Basic Materials, down -0.51%; Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services was down -0.62%; Technology was down -0.93% and Healthcare was down -0.99%.
Textiles & Leather Goods was the top performing industry at the TSX with 7.69% gain. Medical Equipment, Supplies & Distribution gained 5.89%; Media Diversified gained 2.82%; Mining & Metals – Specialty gained 2.07% while Beverages – Distillers & Wineries industry was up 1.73%.
Today’s Market Statistics: The gaining issues (advancers) outnumbered declined issues (decliners) today. The ratio of advancers to decliners was 1.23-to-1.0 or in practical terms, for every six advancers there were five decliners. In real numbers, 795 advancers to 644 decliners with 147 Unchanged. The total volume of shares traded for gaining stocks was 173,327,926 or 59.5%; the total volume for declined stocks was 93,722,558 or 32.2% and 24,311,942 or 8.3% for “Unchanged”.
There were 240 new 52-Week Highs and 16 new 52-Week Lows. The bullish trend supporting the current rally remains in full force.
The total volume of stocks traded at the TSX today was 291,362,426 compared with 244,316,178 yesterday, a 19% increase, a better than full reversal of the decline in volume at the previous market session. Today’s volume of 291,362,426 was slightly higher than the average of the ten most recent market sessions.
The US Markets
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined -145.13 points, or -0.37%, to close at 38,627.99. The S&P 500 declined -24.16 points, or -0.48%, to close at 5,005.57. The Nasdaq Composite gained -130.52 points or -0.82%, to close at 15,775.65. All three indexes were down today but the three remain close to recent all time highs.
The US markets were negative on Friday. Only three of the major sectors ended the session with gains. The three: Basic Materials, Healthcare, and Energy were up 0.68%, 0.41% and 0.10% respectively. Financials was down -0.27%, Industrials was down -0.46% and Technology was down -1.04%.
It was a good week for the stock market except for the volatility on Tuesday. Nine of the major sectors were up for the week. Financials sector was the top performer with a gain of 2.64% for the week. Utilities were up 1.83%; Industrials sector was up 1.49%; Telecommunications Services were up 1.45%; Healthcare was up 1.22% while Basic Materials and Energy were each up 1.2%. Technology was up 0.71% and Durable Consumer Goods & Services was down -0.58%.
Construction Materials industry was up 2.07%; Mining & Metals – Specialty gained 1.49%; Semiconductor Equipment & Testing gained 1.38%; Chemicals – Agricultural was up 1.03% while Pharmaceuticals – Diversified gained 0.99% to make the top five industries at the US market on Friday.
Today’s Market Statistics: Friday, the declined issues (decliners) outnumbered the gaining issues (advancers) on the NYSE by a ratio of 1.72-to-1 or for every nine decliners there were five advancers. In real numbers, there were 2,500 decliners to 1,454 advancers and 276 “Unchanged”. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 381,170,888 or 36.8%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 640,498,936 or 61.8%; and 14,921,733 or 1.4% “Unchanged”.
There were 416 new 52-Week Highs and 31 new 52-Week Lows. The market rally continues with really bullish market performance again today. An interesting point about the market rally is that even after today’s decline a good number of stocks still appear overbought or extended in price.
The total volume of stocks traded at the NYSE today was 1,036,591,557 compared with 946,098,860 yesterday, practically no change. Today’s volume of 1,036,591,557 is about 3% higher than the average of the ten most recent market sessions.
On the NASDAQ, the advancers outnumbered the decliners by a ratio of 1.64-to-1 or roughly for every eight decliners there were five advancers. In real numbers, there were 2,655 decliners to 1,614 advancers with 365 unchanged. The total volume of volume-gaining stocks was 2,111,151,910 or 39.6%; the total volume of declined-volume stocks was 3,149,810,468 or 59.1% and 66,219,358 or 1.2% for “Unchanged”.
On Thursday, there were 354 new 52-Week Highs and 53 new 52-Week Lows. Today, there were 229 new 52-Week Highs and 66 new 52-Week Lows. The market remains quite bullish and the rally remains strong, however, a good number stocks are price extended. It is time to trade with a good dose of caution. Be ready to exit positions once you sense trouble.
The total volume of stocks traded at the NASDAQ today was 5,327,181,736 compared with 5,593,817,602 yesterday, a 5% decrease. Today’s volume of 5,327,181,736 is just one percent higher than the average of the ten most recent market sessions.
10 –year Treasury Yield: The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.3%. The 10 – year yield kept creeping up during the week.
The market outlook remains trade with caution.
Stocks In The News/Stocks To Watch
The Toronto Market
Two stocks we are highlighting today are Thomson Reuters (TSX:TRI) and Trisura Group Ltd (TSX:TSU). These two stocks belong to two totally different categories but they can complement each other in your portfolio especially as the rally appears to be “aging”. The TSU stock will require that you pay more attention and be ready to cut your losses if market reverses whereas for the TRI stock on the other hand, a down session may be an opportunity to add more shares. Remember to seriously consider cutting your loss if the stock declines more than eight per cent from your purchase price. Cutting your loss at 8% decline is a very smart idea backed by sound mathematics – the idea originally came from the late Bill O’Neil, founder of IBD.
The US Markets
Two good stocks for your portfolio today, if you do not mind the high costs, are: Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG) and Eli Lilly & Co (LLY). Label them as two stocks for “Peace in the Portfolio”.
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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