The Canadian Vanguard Stock Market Report – December 6 – 8, 2024 Weekend
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Your Data-Driven Stock Market Analysis And Report – the investor’s readiness guide for the week of December 9 market sessions.
(Updated regularly throughout the weekend) – Please scroll down to read the article on The Global South Debt Crisis.
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The Toronto Market, Friday
Today, the TSX composite was up a paltry 11.76 points or 0.05% to close the market session at 25,691.80.
The Market Spread: The TSX improved on Thursday’s market breadth. Six of the ten major sectors gained at Friday’s market session. Technology, thanks to Shopify Inc. and Celestica Inc., was up 2.39%; Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services was up 0.40%; Financials was up 0.36%; Industrials was up 0.33% and Utilities was up 0.09%. Telecommunications Services, Durable Consumer Goods & Services and Basic Materials were each down -0.11%, -0.65% and -0.76% respectively. Energy was down -1.43%.
For the week: Durable Consumer Goods & Services was up 3.71%; Utilities was up 2.21% and Technology was up 1.95%. Industrials, Financials, Telecommunications Services and Basic Materials were also up. Energy had a bad week. The sector was down -2.06%.
Industry Groups: The industry groups had a good session. Computer Hardware was up 16.74%; Textiles & Leather Goods gained 10.53%; Leisure Products gained 4.10%; IT Services & Consulting gained 3.93% and Electrical Components & Equipment was up 3.60%, improving on the group’s performance of 2.38% at Thursday’s market session.
Today’s Statistics: Today, the gaining issues (Advancers) outnumbered the declined issues (Decliners). There was one Advancer for every Decliner or an exact ratio of 1.60-to-1.0. In real numbers, there were 1,210 Advancers to 755 Decliners while 131 stocks remained Unchanged – quite bullish.
The total volume of shares traded at the TSX today was 377,753,867, 3% less when compared to the volume of 387,968,263 shares traded on Thursday.
Friday, there were 448 new 52-Week Highs and 16 new 52-Week Lows. By comparison, there were 308 new 52-Week Highs and 12 new 52-Week Lows on Thursday.
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The US Markets
The market was mixed today, Friday, as the Dow was down while S&P 500 and NASDAQ were up. The Dow Jones Index declined -123.19 points or -0.28% to close at 44,642.52. The S&P 500 index was up 15.16 points or 0.25%, to close at 6,090.27. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 159.05 points or 0.81%, to close at 19,859.77.
The Market Spread: Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services, up 1.86% and Technology, up 0.59%, were the only two sectors to gain on Friday. Healthcare was down marginally at -0.01%; Industrials was down -0.02%; Durable Consumer Goods & Services was down -0.61%; Basic Materials was down -0.70%; Utilities was down -1.08% and Energy was down -1.77%. Technology and a good number of Technology sector stocks are extended in price which is risky but it would not be surprising if the rally continues but with the market rotating away from technology sector.
For the week: Durable Consumer Goods & Services advanced 9.77%; Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services was up 4.80%; Technology was up 3.94% and Telecommunications Services was up marginally at 0.02%. Utilities was down -3.02% and Energy declined 3.80%.
Industry Groups: Apparel & Accessories was up 5.94%; Auto & Truck Manufacturers, improving on the previous session’s performance, was up 4.01%; Marine Port Services was up 3.55%; Rails & Roads – Passengers was up 3.18% and Retail – Catalog & Internet Order was up 2.86%.
Today’s Market Statistics: At the NYSE, the declined issues (Decliners) narrowly edged out the gaining issues (Advancers). There was a Decliner for every Advancer or a precise ratio of 1.01-to-1.0. In actual numbers, there were 2,037 Decliners to 2,020 Advancers with 302 Unchanged.
Today, there were 354 new 52-Week Highs and 98 new 52-Week Lows. By comparison, yesterday, there were 378 new 52-Week Highs and 74 new 52-Week Lows.
The total volume of stocks traded at the NYSE on Friday was 972,129,516 which is 2% less than the volume of 991,175,448 traded on Thursday.
On the NASDAQ, the Advancers outnumbered the Decliners. Roughly, for every eight Advancers there were five Decliners or a precise ratio of 1.58-to-1.0. In actual numbers, 2,667 Advancers to 1,687 Decliners with 250 Unchanged.
Today, there were 251 new 52-Week Highs but 111 new 52-Week Lows – a bullish reversal today. By comparison, yesterday there were 261 new 52-Week Highs but 145 new 52-Week Lows.
The total volume of shares traded at the NASDAQ today was 7,437,703,401, 9% less when compared to the volume of 8,155,993,729 shares traded on Thursday.
Oil Price: U.S. crude oil futures fell 1.2% to $67.20 a barrel last week.
10 –year Treasury Yield: The 10-year Treasury yield declined four basis points to 4.15%, hitting the lowest levels since late October.
Market Roundup Report: The indexes continue to advance. NASDAQ and S&P 500 are extended or near extended but the spread was narrow on Friday and with interest rate likely to drop 25 basis points at the next Fed’s meeting. The current rally is aging but may likely continue with the market rotating away from technology and even possibly to small caps. In the short term there could also be localized pullbacks in sectors with stocks with price extended.
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— Special Article —
The Global South and The Debt Crisis – A different Approach Required
National Debt is the new weapon of domination of nations by other nations- domination via wealth transfer. It is very attractive – lucrative to the lender nations because it is almost totally risk free to the “lending” countries. It is in reality, the modern evolution of slavery. The people are enslaved within the borders of their own countries. One interesting fact about the foreign loans is that the only thing the citizens in the debtor country see is the debt. It is hardly ever possible to easily see what was purchased with the money or any benefits to any community within the debtor country. The interest rate on the loan is tied to the rates in the lender country. The borrowed money is hardly ever taken out of the lender country. The loan is tailored in every aspect to benefit only the economy of the lender country. There is often no realistic way the debtor could ever pay back the debt. It is really predatory lending and both the lender and the debtor country officials signing for the loan know this.
Big businesses in Africa are very often owned by non-African investors which is not a bad thing and even should be expected and encouraged given the history of the region. A major problem arises with investors who are in Africa to “take out only” – “minimal footprint for maximum returns” investors. These category of people are not investors but day-traders to put it in a stock market parlance. In Africa, critical natural resources are mined through companies controlled mostly by foreign interests who tend to encourage and incentivize African leaders to live and operate like the colonialists. Africa should always encourage investors but do everything to make things difficult for day-traders masquerading as investors.
The officials of the debtor country are happy to take the loan because they often personally are laughing all the way to the bank once the loan is approved or renewed. The Politicians of the lender country are even happier because they get to ship part of their economic problem to another country. The lawyers, bankers and other professionals in the lender country get to make easy money and they would of course, charge premium for any related service. There is always competition by professionals in the lender country to work on third world debts – their incentive is minimum accountability and the possibility of maximized fees. The losers, of course, are the citizens and future generations in the debtor country.
The West Africa region is one of the few parts of the world which is naturally over blessed. Yet poverty now dominates. When I was nine years old, in the 1950s, I was helping my grandmother in the village to clean up after a session of grinding corn to make what was then called pap (OGI in Yoruba language). I lazily swept the waste and some corn across the yard in to the small garden area in front of the house. Three months later at the next school term holidays, I was harvesting corn. It had rained often and the soil was rich enough for the corn I had swept in to the garden to germinate, grow and produce new fruit without any input or effort from any human. When in 2023 I read about food insecurity in West Africa I have a problem believing it. May be the foreign loan salesmen in Africa have been too successful. Poverty in Africa, especially in West Africa, is man-made. The problem is largely, the result of bad leaders creating and fueling perpetual suffering among the populace in the midst of plenty.
It will probably be a good idea to prohibit African politicians and government officials from taking foreign loans without public referendum approving the loan first. It should be clear to most people capable of good reasoning by now that Africa will never develop until foreign loans are totally banned or at least have citizen approval. Pretty well everything is imported in the West Africa region. In Nigeria, the biggest country in the region, manufacturing has practically disappeared. “Planting cash crops is better than planting food crops”, an erroneous idea which we were taught as elementary school pupils in the fifties now rules the country. A trial experiment we can perform is to “Ban African leaders from freely taking foreign loans for just five years”. We would likely see inflation drop drastically and some manufacturing, disciplined work culture and related employment return to the West Africa region. In fact, the GDP in countries such as Nigeria will surely rise and some of the rampant corruption will most certainly disappear.
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