Market week: Stock gauges flat on week

U.S. jobs report keeps markets afloat

The main North American stock market gauges rallied on Friday as a strong U.S. job creation report for April buoyed market sentiment, and helped lift U.S. markets out of a slump on Thursday to close Friday just a hair above breakeven for the week. In fact, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at another record high on Friday, boosted by gains in Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), following news on Thursday that conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) has been purchasing shares in the e-commerce company. The blue-chip S&P 500 Composite Index followed suit, with a 0.2% gain on the week. Despite a 0.5% rally on Friday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX Composite Index, lagged on the week, losing 0.7%, as a 1.5% weekly drop in the price of crude oil weighed on the energy sector, and financials remained rangebound following the U.S. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments on Wednesday that no rate moves in either direction were imminent.

Index	May 3, 2019, close	Day	Week	Year to date	April 30, 2019, close	April 2019
S&P/TSX Composite	16,494.43	0.5%	-0.72%	15.16%	16,580.73	0.64%
S&P 500 Composite	2,945.64	1.0%	0.20%	17.50%	2,945.83	1.79%
Nasdaq Composite	8,164.00	1.6%	0.22%	23.04%	8,095.39	2.61%
Gold (US$)	$1,279.60	0.6%	-0.66%	-0.01%	1,282.80	-1.45%
Oil (WTI) (US$)	$61.84	0.1%	-1.53%	36.18%	63.91	5.21%

The U.S. Labor Department reported that the economy created 263,000 new jobs in April, far outstripping analysts’ estimates for a gain of 217,000. In addition, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6%, suggesting the U.S. economy is still firing on all cylinders, even as wages grew only 0.2% on the month, for a 3.2% annual rate.

In Canada, gross domestic product declined 0.1% on the month in February (but still posted 1.1% annualized growth), as the mining, oil and gas sectors weighed on GDP, with falling global demand contributing to weakness in the mining sector in the month.

FUND NEWS

* Accelerate introduces alternative ETFs. Accelerate Financial Technologies announced on April 30 that its three new alternative ETFs will begin trading on the TSX on May 10. The funds have a 0% management fee and will earn a performance fee only if they outperform their high-water mark.

Accelerate Absolute Return Hedge Fund (TSX: HDGE). A long-short equity hedge fund targeting long-term capital appreciation and a superior risk-adjusted return relative to the broader U.S. equity market.

Accelerate Enhanced Benchmark Alternative Fund (TSX: ATSX). The ETF combines exposure to the S&P/TSX 60 with a long-short Canadian equity overlay aiming to add incremental performance above the broad Canadian equity index.

Accelerate Private Equity Alpha Fund (TSX: ALFA). Aims for private equity-like investment returns through a diversified long-short portfolio of equity and derivative securities.

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Disclaimer

The foregoing is for general information purposes only and is the opinion of the writer. No guarantee of investment performance is made or implied. It is not intended to provide specific personalized advice including, without limitation, investment, financial, legal, accounting or tax advice.