Market Insights

Last Month in the Markets: February 1 – 29, 2024 What happened in February? It was another strong month for equity investors focused on North America.  Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index rose over 1.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 2%, the S&P 500 ballooned by 5.2%, and

Last Month in the Markets: January 2nd – 31st, 2024 What happened in January? The year began with a small decline in the S&P 500 in the first week of January, but after a strong U.S. jobs report, both the S&P 500 and the Dow reached new all-time highs.  Most,

The grids (above) for last month and last year share the same colour-coding.  The performance of equity indexes, currency, commodities, and bonds performed in December as they had all year.  December’s performance further contributed to the overall trends for the year, as each of the equity indexes listed had a strong final month of 2023.
The U.S. equity indexes delivered strong returns, especially the NASDAQ which soared by over 43% in the past twelve months.  The S&P 500 rose 24% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained only 13½%.  The laggard for the major North American equity indexes was Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index, and still delivered a respectable 8% for the year.

The major North American indexes were led by the NASDAQ with a 10½ percent increase, the Dow and S&P 500 at nearly 9 percent, and the TSX delivered a very healthy gain of more than 7 percent. 

On November 1st, the Federal Reserve announced that it was holding interest rates unchanged.  The Federal Funds rate will remain in the range of 5¼ to 5½%.  Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, said that rate reductions have not been considered or discussed for the next interest-rate meeting in December.