Market week: Stocks edge back

A pause in the string of fresh record highs

The major North American stock indices ended the week just a hair below breakeven from the previous Friday’s close, as traders seem to have discounted any quick progress in the U.S.-China trade talks and engaged in some profit-taking following a run of record-high closes. Even though both U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping issued positive comments on trade negotiations, the so-called Phase 1 deal is no closer to completion. Hopes for a speedy – or any – resolution faded again as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission labelled Chinese government-controlled telecom giants Huawei and ZTE as security risks, which means they are blocked from accessing U.S. government funding or supplying companies that do so. The FCC also proposed that any telecoms that currently get government subsidies dismantle equipment supplied by Huawei and ZTE.

The market pretty much shrugged off the ongoing trade shenanigans, but got a bit edgy about a report that that Bridgewater Associates, which runs the world’s largest hedge fund, had placed a US$1.5 billion hedge to protect its US$150 billion assets against a market drop before next March.

Both the blue-chip S&P 500 Composite Index and the tech-weighted Nasdaq Composite Index edged back 0.3% on the week, while Toronto’s S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped 0.4% week-over-week as both gold and crude oil remained flat, providing little impetus for the TSX either way.

Index	Nov. 22, 2019, close	Day	Week	Year to Date
S&P/TSX Composite	16,954.84	-0.3%	-0.43%	18.38%
S&P 500 Composite	3,110.29	0.2%	-0.33%	24.07%
Nasdaq Composite	8,519.88	0.2%	-0.25%	28.40%
Gold (US$)	$1,469.10	0.4%	0.00%	14.80%
Oil (WTI) (US$)	$57.86	-1.2%	0.10%	27.42%

FUND NEWS

* Scotiabank shuts down high-yield fund. Scotia Managed Companies Administration Inc. announced on Nov. 18 that it is terminating its Advantaged Canadian High Yield Bond Fund (TSX: AHY.UN) on Dec. 30. In a release, the manager said that because the size of the fund is expected to shrink following the annual redemption of units on Dec. 15, “it will no longer be economically feasible to continue the fund.” The fund’s Class A units will trade on the TSX until Dec. 24.

* NEI revamps two funds: Northwest & Ethical Investments Inc. announced on Nov. 18 that it plans to change the names and make other changes to two of its funds.

Effective March 2020 and subject to approvals, the NEI Jantzi Social Index Fund will become the NEI ESG Canadian Enhanced Index Fund. The fund will change its benchmark index from Jantzi Social Index/Sustainalytics to a new custom NEI index calculated by Solactive AG. In addition the fund will expand its current focus on large-cap Canadian companies to also include medium-cap companies.

The NEI Balanced RS Fund will change to NEI Global Sustainable Balanced Fund. The fund will change from a multi-manager, multi-asset structure to a single manager, multi-asset structure with Impax Asset Management Limited as the sub-advisor. The fund’s benchmark will also change to reflect the fund’s global mandate.

Monitor the main stock and commodity indices daily with the Fund Library’s interactive Markets Page.

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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.