Market week: Record highs all around

Stock indices jump on rumors of trade progress

The major U.S. and Canadian stock indices climbed into record territory again this past week, as investor sentiment continued to float on revived hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal, or at least the so-called “phase one” of a trade deal. Larry Kudlow, economic advisor the U.S. President Donald Trump, said on Thursday there had been “very good progress” and that talks had been “constructive. That was enough to set off a late-week rally in stock markets, despite Mr. Kudlow’s caution, in the same speech, that while Trump “likes what he sees, he’s not ready to make a commitment, he hasn’t signed off on a commitment for phase one, we have no agreement just yet for phase one.”

Still the S&P/TSX Composite Index closed Friday above 17,000 for the first time ever, gaining nearly 1% on the week, helped along by gains in financial and industrial stocks. The U.S. blue-chip S&P 500 Composite Index also advanced nearly 1% on the week, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rallied 0.8%. The venerable Dow Jones Industrial Average also marked a milestone, closing above the psychological threshold of 28,000 on Friday.

Index	Nov. 15, 2019, close	Day	Week	Year to Date
S&P/TSX Composite	17,028.47	0.3%	0.89%	18.89%
S&P 500 Composite	3,120.46	0.8%	0.89%	24.48%
Nasdaq Composite	8,540.83	0.7%	0.77%	28.72%
Gold (US$)	$1,469.10	-0.2%	0.51%	14.80%
Oil (WTI) (US$)	$57.80	1.8%	0.63%	27.28%

FUND NEWS

* Franklin Templeton winds up large-cap fund. Franklin Templeton Canada said on Friday that it will terminate the Franklin Templeton Canadian Large Cap Fund, on or about Jan. 17, 2020. In a release, the company said the management team “has decided to allocate their investments to other investment funds to more effectively implement their asset allocation strategies.”

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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.