S&P/TSX composite down Thursday, U.S. markets post small gain despite morning rally

The S&P/TSX Composite fell about 70 points on Thursday, while the US market posted a slight gain.

J. Zechner Associates chairman and lead equity manager John Zechner said markets recovered on Thursday after falling late Wednesday in response to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comments on the banking crisis. , said it could not sustain its rise.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 72.86 points to 19,459.92.

New York’s Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 75.14 points to 32,105.25. The S&P 500 Index rose 11.75 points to 3,948.72 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 117.44 points to 11,787.40.

The Nasdaq led the market with a gain of just over 1%, reaching almost a 300-point gain (2.5%) in the morning. Energy, meanwhile, was weighing heavily on the TSX.

Investors are still grappling with uncertainty about where the Federal Reserve will head interest rates next and concerns about the swirling banking sector, according to the Associated Press.

Zechner said the market, while volatile, was surprisingly resilient given the bad news this month.

“So it wouldn’t be too surprising if there was a little profit-taking,” he said.

Mr. Zechner said talk of a credit crunch is definitely weighing on investors’ minds, but it’s a combination of what the Federal Reserve is saying about rate hikes and market expectations of rate cuts by the end of the year. There is still a large gap between

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Either way, “it’s all about macros now,” Zechner said.

But now that the latest interest rate decision has gotten out of the way after the Federal Reserve hiked rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday, the market is left wondering how companies have been doing this so far. I’d look at first quarter earnings in the US to see how much. Zechner said even if the full impact of the interest rate and banking crisis is not felt this quarter.

The Canadian dollar traded at 73.15 cents compared to 72.93 cents on Wednesday.

May crude oil contracts fell 94 cents to USD 69.96 per barrel, while May natural gas contracts fell 2 cents to USD 2.28 per mmBTU.

The April gold contract was up $46.30 to $1,995.90 an ounce and the May copper contract was up 8 cents to $4.12 per pound.

© 2023 The Canadian Press