S&P/TSX composite up on energy gains Monday, U.S. markets also rise
TORONTO — Strength in energy stocks helped buoy Canada’s main stock index Monday, while U.S. stock markets also posted gains.
Monday saw a carry-over of the market’s upward momentum from the past couple of weeks, particularly on the Dow Jones index, said Angelo Kourkafas, an investment strategist at Edward Jones.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 34.61 points at 20,582.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average ended up 183.55 points at 35,411.24. The S&P 500 index was up 18.30 points at 4,554.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 26.06 points at 14,058.87.
The biggest event this week will be the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision Wednesday, said Kourkafas, but there’s no shortage of new information for investors all weeklong.
“Clearly this is going to be a big week for investors with economic data, the Fed and corporate earnings,” he said.
The Fed is widely expected to announce another quarter-percentage-point hike, said Kourkafas, echoing the Bank of Canada’s recent hike.
The overall narrative in Canada and the U.S. has been that inflation is moderating while the economy remains resilient, said Kourkafas, and more data Monday in the U.S. helped support that narrative.
“That feeds into expectations that what we’re going to hear from the Fed on Wednesday might prove to be the last rate hike,” he said.
Of course, even if Wednesday is the Fed’s last hike of the tightening cycle, they wouldn’t say so, said Kourkafas _ officials will want to strike a balance between acknowledging progress but leaving the door open for further action should that progress stall.
“They don’t want … the markets to get ahead of themselves,” he said.
U.S. earnings continued to roll in on Monday, and this week will see a third of
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