Canadian markets drop

The yield on the 30-year U.S.
Treasury bond inched up another
couple of basis points today, as
investors shed them in anticipation
of the U.S. Federal Reserve
raising interest-rates for a
third time this year,
next month.

Most stocks fell today in the
U.S. At the NYSE, losers beat out
gainers by 3 to 2. The Nasdaq
ratio was 21 to 19. Outside of a
few positive earnings reports,
there weren’t many big stories
other than dropping bond prices.
The Dow managed to eke out a
54.45 gain to close at 10,286.61,
while Nasdaq inched up 5.57 to
2,806.34. The S&P dropped 2.13 to
1283.42.

As usual, the story played over
into the Canadian market as well.
The TSE dropped 67.76 to 6969.25,
with paper and forest product and
media and communications among the
only gainers. The ME slipped by
50.92 to 3,696.46. The ASE had
also dropped about 20 points in
late Pacific trading, while the
VSE was creeping down by close to
2 points.

U.S. market analysts remarked
on Bloomberg that the market is
tense, and positive earnings
reports aren’t having the same
effect on share prices as they
did a few months ago. For
example, when Charles Schwab &
Co. hit its third-quarter
estimate – a three cent increase
over the third quarter last, year
its stock gained US$1 to close at
29 11/16. An exception today was
Apple Computer, which gained
US$8 7/32 to $72 1/4 on
third-quarter earnings that
exceeded expectations by 6 cents.