Market View

Futures of major indices point to a slightly positive day today. After plunging 21.6% in April, Canadian wholesale trade data for May is expected to have risen by 8.5%. Bank of Canada keeps key interest rate on hold at 0.25% as Governor Tiff Macklem reassures low-interest rates for at least two years. Canada added over a million jobs in June as businesses reopened. Hiring in the trade, transportation, and utilities sector led to the hiring additions. Gold dipped while the US dollar rose slightly. The Canadian dollar was 73.67. U.S. S&P500 was up 2.0% this week and the TSX ended the week up 2.8%.

This week's loss in the technology sector was counteracted by gains in healthcare 7.6%, energy 5.8%, and telecommunications 5.8%. Financials rose 4.3% while technology slid 3.5%. The most heavily traded shares by volume were Air Canada, B2Gold Corp, and Algonquin Power & Utilities.

5 from 5i

Here are five reads we found interesting last week:

• Stocks turned upside down? The COVID-19 Beta effect, by Derek Horstmeyer and Chaitanaya M. Vij of The CFA Institute
• Who gets to be reckless on Wall Street? by Emily Stewart on Vox.com
• The leveraging of America: how companies became addicted to debt, written by Mark Vandevelde of the Financial Times
• Ten steps to a better investment experience, written by Carolyn Gowen of thefinancialbodyguard.com
• Re-examining diversification: 20/20 Perspective, posted on the Acadian website

Happy Reading & Stay Safe!

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Disclosure: Please note that the author does not hold a financial or other interest stocks or funds mentioned.