Welcome to The Daily Mail
Written by Senior Portfolio Manager, Eric Stodt
Each morning, Eric assesses the current market pulse and summarizes his thoughts in a short e-mail to keep his clients up to date on any relevant happenings. He presents quantitative and qualitative data on topics including the latest index trends, commodity prices, and the value of the Canadian dollar. An example is shown below:
March 21, 2024
Canada’s TSX index touched a new all-time record this morning, finally besting its previous high water mark from two years ago. The S&P500 is also breathing rarefied air, but that’s hardly newsworthy given it’s been setting new bars almost daily for two months now. Yesterday’s announcement from the Federal Reserve was word-for-word identical to their last meeting, however, the post-announcement media scrum gave the impression that they are focusing on downside risks to the US economy and are leaning toward rate cuts this summer. Things will undoubtedly change, but at this point they expect the benchmark rate to be 1.5% lower by the end of 2025. I know I sound like a broken record, but changes in monetary policy have been, are now, and always will be the single most influential factor in the direction of markets. The Fed signaled they were finished raising rates on November 1st last year, ending the gale-force headwind markets had been battling for almost two years and sparking a rally in the S&P500 that now exceeds 25%. The tailwind started building in December, and is still gathering steam. The TSX is up 100 pts. The Dow is up 348 pts.
The Canadian dollar initially rallied after the Fed announcement, but is fading again down 24 bps to US$0.7388 this morning. Oil is down 53 cents to US$80.75/barrel. Natural gas is off 3 cents to US$1.66/mbtu. Silver is down 17 cents to US$24.93/oz. Gold is up $14 to US$2196/oz.
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