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Market week: U.S. stocks flag on weak job creation

Published on 10-08-2021

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S&P/TSX buoyed by rising crude oil prices

 

Stock markets put in a lacklustre week, as investors dampened their enthusiasm for buying on Friday following a surprise downturn in U.S. job creation in September. Only 194,000 jobs were created in the month, compared with street expectations of 500,000. Meanwhile, wages increased at an annual 4.6% rate while the unemployment rate dropped to 4.8%, suggesting a tightening labour market. Bond yields edged up again, with the U.S. 10-year Treasury Note finishing the week at 1.613%. However, the weak jobs report is unlikely to derail the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s plans to taper its bond purchase program.

The S&P 500 Composite Index posted a 0.8% gain on the week, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended flat. Toronto’s S&P/TSX Composite Index put in the best performance, gaining 1.3% on the week, buoyed by gains in the energy sector as crude oil gained 5.1% on the week. Gold continued slipping, edging back 0.2% on the week, for a 7i.3% year to date loss.

Fund news

* Mackenzie launches private infrastructure fund. Mackenzie Investments announced on Oct. 5 the launch of its Mackenzie Northleaf Private Infrastructure Fund. The fund aims for long-term capital appreciation and income generation through investments in conservatively positioned infrastructure projects (such as wind farms, fibre networks, and toll roads) across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Public investments will typically represent 20%-25% of the fund’s net asset value to facilitate liquidity.

Compared with traditional private infrastructure funds designed for institutional investors, this fund offers several features for retail investors, including a $25,000 investment minimum, monthly purchases, annual redemptions, no hard investor lockup, and quarterly distributions.

The fund will achieve its exposure to private infrastructure by investing in Northleaf infrastructure funds and assets, including Northleaf Infrastructure Capital Partners III, which directly invests in infrastructure projects with a focus on mid-market transactions in OECD jurisdictions.

* Horizons consolidates HND shares. Horizons ETFs Management announced on Oct. 8 that it plans to consolidate shares of the BetaPro Natural Gas Inverse Leveraged Daily Bear ETF (TSX: HND). After the close of trading on Thursday, November 4, 2021, the shares will be consolidated on the basis of a 1:10 ratio 1:10. When a share consolidation occurs, the net asset value per share is increased by the same ratio as the share consolidation so that the share consolidation has no impact on the value of the investor's total share position. An investor's cost per share is also increased by the same ratio as the share consolidation, although their total cost remains unchanged.

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