To my clients:
It was an up week for North American stock markets with the Canadian TSX finishing up 0.3%; the U.S. Dow Jones Index up 0.9%; and the U.S. S&P 500 up 0.2%.
As we head into the “end of summer” long weekend (the autumnal equinox notwithstanding!), it will be an exceedingly short update with just the following points:
- After the early August extreme spike in volatility, this metric has trended back down, although is still somewhat above levels that have persisted for much of 2024. I’d expect these modestly higher volatility levels to continue through year end.
- While I will be focusing less on inflation moving forward, its worth noting that the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation (the PCE Index) printed mostly in-line with expectations, with a modestly better than expected year-over-year number at 2.5%.
- As I focus less on inflation, I will instead be focusing more on economic metrics and looking for constructive trends on that front (in other words, treating good economic news as… good news!). Next week being the first week of a new month will see the release of the Big 3 economic indicators – most notably the U.S. Employment Report. We shall see how these economic data points are trending.
That’s it for this week. All the best,
Nick
Nick Scholte, CIM, FCSI
Senior Portfolio Manager
Scholte Wealth Management
RBC Dominion Securities Inc. │ Tel: 604.257.7569 │ Fax: 604.235.9950
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