Toronto stock market to end volatile week

The Canadian dollar hovered around 69.5 cents cents US Thursday as stock markets underwent a volatile morning session.

The loonie, which has declined for 10 consecutive trading days against the US dollar, finished the day down 0.81 of a USA cent to 68.82 cents USA, a level not seen since April 2003. “My belief is that later in the year we will start to move up…. but certainly the way the market acts here has been very vicious since the start of the year”.

The dollar fell roughly half a percent against both the euro and yen and China’s yuan was also back under pressure in offshore markets after Shanghai stock markets slid to their lowest point since December of 2014. “But, if you’re an American that’s thinking about going to Toronto, or possibly buying property in Canada, right now you’ve got about a 35 percent to a 45 percent discount on what the prices were a year or two ago”.

The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 390.97 points or 2.39 per cent to 15,988.08, while the S&P500 shed 41.51 points or 2.16 per cent to 1,880.33. February gold bullion gained $17.10 to US$1,090.70 a troy ounce.

While markets have been on a wild ride this year, Nakamoto said he believes things will improve.

All of that looked like the latest leg of a now deep-rooted concern in markets over the outlook for global growth and prices of commodities and other traditionally higher-risk asset markets.

“The oil market is just a mess and it all seems to be stemming from that”, said Tobias Davis, a currency hedging manager with Western Union in London.

“We had a long period of time where the Canadian dollar overshot on the upside when it was trading well above par, and now we are likely trading well below a fair fundamental value”, he said.

“When we see the dollar drop like that, I think there is a sense of – I shouldn’t say loss of national pride – but less confidence in what’s going on in Canada”, he said.

Today marks the 11th straight day that the Canadian dollar has dropped against the USA dollar.