Market week: Trade, growth fears weigh on markets

Eurozone, U.K. cut forecasts

The major North American stock market indices closed Friday with gains on the week, as investors overcame trepidation about the progress of U.S.-China trade talks. U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that he would not be meeting with China’s President Xi Xinping before the March 1 deadline for a trade deal. Meanwhile, both the Bank of England and the European Commission cut growth forecasts for both the U.K. and the eurozone overall, as uncertainty over Brexit and the slowdown in China’s economic growth impact the European economy. Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 0.8% on the week, as financials and industrials helped buoy the market against a slide in energy issues, facing headwinds from a 4.7% drop in crude oil. The U.S. broad blue-chip S&P 500 Composite Index closed marginally higher on the week, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5%.

Index	Feb. 1, 2019, close	Day	Week	Year to Date
S&P/TSX Composite	15,633.33	-0.5%	0.82%	9.15%
S&P 500 Composite	2,707.88	0.1%	0.05%	8.02%
Nasdaq Composite	7,298.20	0.1%	0.47%	9.99%
Gold (US$)	$1,317.90	0.3%	-0.34%	2.99%
Oil (WTI) (US$)	$52.72	0.2%	-4.73%	16.10%

FUND NEWS

* RBC pool changes names, managers. RBC Global Asset Management announced on Feb. 8 that Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd. has been appointed as sub-advisor of RBC Private Canadian Growth & Income Equity Pool and that the name of the Pool will change to RBC Private Fundamental Canadian Equity Pool, effective Feb. 27. In a release, RBC said, “The Pool’s new name more clearly identifies its investment strategy and process. There is no change to the Pool’s investment objectives.”

* National Bank’s new ETFs debut on TSX. Four new ETFs from National Bank Investments began trading on the TSX on Feb. 8. Annamaria Testani, Vice-President, National Sales at National Bank Investments, said, “We believe our first ETFs provide a compelling way to gain non-traditional active and alternative niche exposure and diversify portfolio risk.”

NBI Global Real Assets Income ETF (TSX: NREA) invests in other mutual funds holding companies in industry sectors associated with real assets.

NBI Active Canadian Preferred Shares ETF (TSX: NPRF) invests in mutual funds that hold preferred shares of Canadian companies and other income-generating securities of Canadian companies.

NBI Canadian Family Business ETF (TSX: NFAM) invests in a portfolio of mutual funds designed to track the NBC Canadian Family Index, which measures the investment return of publicly-listed family-owned Canadian companies.

NBI Liquid Alternatives ETF (TSX: NALT) aims to provide a positive return while maintaining low correlation to, and lower volatility than, the return of the global equity markets. It holds long and short positions on financial derivatives that provide exposure to different major global asset classes, such as government bonds, currencies, equities or commodities.

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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.