TSX moves lower, Wall St. takes a breather after last week’s records

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index moved lower Monday, while Wall Street largely started off in the green but lost steam throughout the day.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 88.84 points at 21,324.31.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 62.30 points at 39,069.23.The S&P 500 index was down 19.27 points at 5,069.53,while the Nasdaq composite was down 20.57 points at 15,976.25.

Monday was a quiet day, without major news to drive the markets, said Lesley Marks, chief investment officer of equities at Mackenzie Investments.

Investors were still digesting the news from last week, when stocks surged after another blowout earnings report from chipmaker Nvidia, she said.

“I think investors are really just trying to figure out their positioning for the rest of the year, given the strong moves that we’ve seen already year-to-date globally.”

However, it’s a good sign that markets continued to hold on to last week’s gains, said Marks.

Right now, there are two main things driving U.S. equities, she said: the ongoing resilience of the economy, and optimism around tech growth on the back of artificial intelligence.

“So you have two very favourable tailwinds that can actually rationalize the levels that we’ve seen,” she said.

Because of that, concern over interest rates is being overshadowed, said Marks — even though the market has had to significantly temper expectations for cuts in 2024 over the past couple of months.

This week will see new data on Canada’s economy, which hasn’t been as resilient as the U.S., noted Marks. Canada will also get an influx of earnings from the big banks.

In the U.S., the U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation is coming out, she added, and investors will look to see whether it’s consistent with recent data that’s been higher than expected.

“It’s a very big week for data all around the world,” said Marks.

The Canadian dollar traded for 73.99 cents UScompared with 74.11 cents US on Friday.

The April crude contract was up US$1.09 at US$77.58 per barreland the April natural gas contract was up five cents at US$1.74 per mmBTU.

The April gold contract was down US$10.50 at US$2,038.90 an ounce and the May copper contract was down seven cents at US$3.83 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press