The S&P TSX composite index screen at the TMX Market Centre in downtown Toronto is photographed on Friday, November 11, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin
TORONTO – Equity markets have been zigzagging throughout the day while digesting multiple developing stories, including two recent bank failures, the U.S. government’s plan to backstop the financial system and changing investor sentiment about interest rate hikes.
While equity markets were largely down to start the trading day as they caught up to the latest news about the closures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, U.S. indexes recovered as the morning progressed, with the Nasdaq in particular making gains of more than one per cent.
However, even as the U.S. market reversed its earlier losses, bank stocks continued to drop as Wall Street worries about further failures in the financial sector.
Meanwhile in Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 123.28 points at 19,651.64 mid-afternoon, reflecting continued weakness in the energy and financials sectors.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 115.47 points at 32,025.11. The S&P 500 index was up 25.40 points at 3,886.99,while the Nasdaq composite was up 141.22 points at 11,280.11.
Some of the optimism helping buoy shares Monday is likely due to hopes that the Federal Reserve will be less aggressive in its tightening at next week’s interest rate meeting.
Markets had been largely pricing in a raise of a quarter of a percentage point, after briefly swelling expectations last week to half a point over hawkish comments by Fed chairman Jerome Powell.
But on Monday, Goldman Sachs forecast a pause in rate hikes due to the two bank collapses.
For the tech sector, which has been particularly sensitive to interest rate increases, this would be welcome news, and on Monday the Nasdaq has been outpacing other indexes
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.83 cents US compared with 72.43 cents US on Friday.
The April crude contract was down US$1.85 at US$74.83 per barrel and the April natural gas contract was up 11 cents at US$2.54 per mmBTU.
The April gold contract was up US$48.00 at US$1,915.20 an ounceand the May copper contract was up two cents at US$4.05 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2023.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)
