After the rally that we've had, there's always that retesting of the lows, and that's what we have to do. |
Bank results have been in line with expectations. But the talk is more the rebound in the oil prices and the pick up in the resource stocks as the quarterly earnings come out. |
Bank stocks are acting better, and, of course, mother Bell (BCE Inc.), and then you combine that with the oils, which were a little bit better on Friday, and you have some pretty good participation in the market. |
Base metal prices have been much firmer lately, with declining inventories for zinc pushing up prices. |
But the market is fragile and confidence is fragile. |
Gold is a safe haven and there's expectation that with the bloated trade deficit in the U.S., the U.S. dollar is vulnerable. |
I think that 25-basis points is the likelihood, and I think that has been built into the market. |
If you mark-to-market the portfolios together, you are looking at multibillion mark-to-market losses, particularly with gold at $500-plus. |
In a period when there were a lot of M&A heated activity they, by virtue of being in the penalty box, could not realistically look at anything because there would be a question mark as to whether you could really close any transaction in a reasonable time. |
It looks like the resource stocks are going to carry the day again. We will probably have a much stronger opening. |
It looks like the technology stocks are recovering, so that's helping the market tone. |
It sure was a light trading day. London was closed and it's the last week of August, which tends to historically be a light trading period. |
It was a bit skewed because a lot of the participants south of the border were away, but it was a pretty broad-based rally. |
It was really a flat, flat market and by and large the dominant theme was the constrained trading because of the holiday. |
It will be another commodities day. I think we will have a stronger open here even in the face of higher interest rates. |