Tuesday saw a little increase in Canada’s main stock index in spite of losses in utilities and metals firms, while U.S. markets saw gains the day before the central bank is scheduled to announce an interest rate decision.
At 18,873.47, the S&P/TSX composite index finished 16.71 points higher.
The Dow Jones industrial average in New York increased by 123.91 points to 33,052.87. The Nasdaq composite increased 61.76 points to 12,851.24 and the S&P 500 index increased 26.98 points to 4,193.80.
The gross domestic product for August was announced by Statistics Canada on Tuesday. The Canadian economy shrank slightly in the third quarter, according to an initial assessment, and was unchanged for the month.
Purpose Investments’ chief investment officer, Greg Taylor, stated that the revelation wasn’t particularly shocking.
“I believe that everyone was realising that the trend was slowing down when you look at the performance of the markets, and particularly the banks,” the speaker stated.
“This simply indicates that the Bank of Canada needs to put this on hold, at the very least.”
The Bank of Canada recently said that it will not be raising interest rates as the impacts of its rapid cycle of rate hikes continue to play out in the markets.
Canada’s markets hardly moved in the green after the GDP announcement; there was no significant reaction.
According to Taylor, the markets have had a difficult month or several months.
Ahead of a bevy of anticipated news later in the week, U.S. markets also saw a little increase.
Investor attention will be focused on Apple’s third-quarter results report on Thursday, which Taylor noted is a significant sentiment indicator.
The US Federal Reserve is expected to make its interest rate announcement on Wednesday. Similar to the Bank of Canada, analysts have predicted that the central bank would likely maintain its key rate.
Payrolls on Friday are among the significant U.S. economic indicators that will be released later this week, according to Taylor. According to him, investors will be watching those figures closely for a clue about the central bank’s future monetary policies.
On Monday, the US dollar was worth 72.29 cents, while the Canadian dollar was worth 72.09 cents.
December natural gas was up 22 cents at US$3.58 per mmBTU, while December crude was down US$1.29 at US$81.02 per barrel.
December copper was down one cent at US$3.65 a pound, while December gold was down US$11.30 at US$1,994.30 an ounce.