(source: Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/markets, MSCI https://www.msci.com/end-of-day-data-search and ARG Inc. analysis)

What happened last week?

• North American equity markets continued to react to news that economies are slowing. 

• On Friday, equities rebounded with all major Canadian and American indexes rising. 

  • The up-and-down days of the week produced uneven results for the week for the indexes. 

  • The TSX and NASDAQ gained the amount that the S&P 500 lost, about two-thirds of a percent.

  • The Dow, comprised of the 30 largest industrials, lost nearly 3% for the week, even after rising 1% on Friday.  

What’s ahead for this week?

• In Canada, the Bank of Canada will release its latest monetary policy and interest rate announcement on Wednesday morning at 10 am Eastern.  Moderating domestic and U.S. inflation data, along with employment and GDP, will heavily influence decisions on rates and liquidity.

• In the U.S., the week will start slowly for economic announcements, but gain momentum as fourth quarter GDP, trade balance, real consumer spending and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) are released.  Personal income and spending, and the PCE price index for December are scheduled for Friday.

• Globally, celebrations of China’s new year on January 22nd have slowed economic activity and raised the concern of further outbreaks of Covid following the extensive amount of travel associated with the holiday.  Japan will release its latest CPI, which may provide some insight into the Bank of Japan’s surprise interest rate decision last week.

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