Market Insights

When the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) crossed a new high of 40,000 in May, it achieved a milestone that appeared implausible given recent popular sentiment. Just two years earlier, central banks were still on the path of aggressively hiking rates to curb inflation. Gloomy equity market forecasts abounded. Fast forward to today, and interest rates remain higher than anticipated.

What happened in July? After Canada Day on July 1 and U.S. Independence Day on July 4, economic events, news and data provided the impetus needed for equities and gold to rise. The exception for equity indexes was the NASDAQ that fell along with the Canadian dollar, oil and government

Markets were mixed over the course of last month: the S&P/TSX Composite was the only major North American equity index to lose value, while the U.S. indexes climbed.  The NASDAQ leapt approximately 6%, the S&P 500 rose approximately 4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average brought a 1% positive gain.

While delivering 2% negative returns, Canada’s TSX managed to fare slightly better last month than U.S. equity indexes. U.S. equity indexes reversed the gains earned in March, and as well as some of February’s advances. The Canadian dollar also declined relative to the USD by more than 1.5%.

Despite its 31-day length, March 2024 had just 20 trading days in Toronto and New York.  Additionally, the first quarter (Q1) effectively concluded at end of day on March 28.  In 2025, Good Friday, will fall on April 18, three weeks later than this year.