Market week: Stock gauges edge to new highs

Still no agreement on U.S.-China trade pact

Fueled by strong job creation and low unemployment, robust consumer spending, dovish monetary policy, controlled inflation, and underlying economic growth, the main U.S. stock indices posted another week of gains, again closing in on record highs. Stock markets got a boost as China’s Ministry of Trade announced an agreement with the U.S. to eliminate some tariffs as part of the first phase of the trade pact. But U.S. trade representatives said no agreement had been finalized and that the final deal would have to be approved by President Donald Trump. Still, traders pushed the S&P 500 Composite Index to a 0.9% gain on the week, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.1% on the week,

Gold fell 3.3% on the week as investors rotated away from safe-haven assets back into equities, while crude oil posted a 2.2% weekly gain. Toronto’s benchmark stock gauge, the S&P/TSX Composite Index, advanced 1.7% on the week.

Index	Nov. 8, 2019, close	Day	Week	Year to Date
S&P/TSX Composite	16,877.42	0.4%	1.71%	17.84%
S&P 500 Composite	3,093.08	0.3%	0.85%	23.39%
Nasdaq Composite	8,475.31	0.5%	1.06%	27.73%
Gold (US$)	$1,461.70	-0.2%	-3.30%	14.22%
Oil (WTI) (US$)	$57.44	0.5%	2.15%	26.49%

FUND NEWS

* CI buys WisdomTree ETFs. CI Financial Corp. and WisdomTree Investments, Inc. announced on Nov. 7 that CI will purchase all shares of WisdomTree Asset Management Canada, Inc., which manages WisdomTree’s Canadian exchange-traded funds. The deal adds an additional 14 ETFs with $958 million in assets to CI’s current ETF lineup, boosting CI’s ETF assets to $8.9 billion. The WisdomTree Canada ETFs will be rebranded CI WisdomTree ETFs and WisdomTree will continue as the index provider for the WisdomTree Canada ETFs that currently track WisdomTree's proprietary indexes.

“We will be maintaining the existing lineup of WisdomTree ETFs with no changes to their current investment objectives and strategies,” said CI Chief Executive Officer Kurt MacAlpine. “The CI WisdomTree funds will represent a distinct offering within our overall ETF business,” he added.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.

* iA Clarington launches new global equity fund. IA Clarington Investments Inc. on Nov. 4 debuted its new IA Clarington Loomis Global Equity Opportunities Fund. The fund is actively managed by veteran Loomis Sayles managers Ellen Riley and Lee Rosenbaum, who aim to identify high-quality companies with excellent prospects for attractive total return potential, using a disciplined, bottom-up approach to security selection. It will have a concentrated portfolio of 35-65 holdings, representing Loomis Sayles’ best ideas.

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.