By Stewart Lewis
(May 18 – 17:30 ET) – Trading results were mixed today. In the U.S., financial stocks buoyed the Dow Jones industrial average. The Dow added 51 points, to 10821 after dropping 164.83 yesterday. But breadth was negative. Declining issues outnumbered advancers.
The NASDAQ composite index dropped 53.50, to 3591.40, after a roller-coaster day. The tech-laden index gained 72.61 points yesterday.
Blue-chip heavyweights American Express, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan all posted gains. Financial shares had been adversely affected by speculative trading ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates on Tuesday. Investors were sidelined waiting for direction after the Fed announcement.
In Canada, StatsCan reported that the all-items consumer price index fell by 0.4% in April, from March, keeping the year-over-year increase for the month to 2.1%. Analysts had called for a 2.7% climb.
The surprising inflation news came just one day after the Bank of Canada raised its bank rate by 50 basis points to 6%. Today, analysts are saying the soft inflation data suggest that the bank’s tightening program may be approaching its end.
The Toronto 300 composite index dropped slightly after a day of sluggish trading. Advancers and decliners were almost evenly split 568 to 549. Unchanged issues numbered 282.
Among the most active stocks were the TSE darlings. BCE dropped $1.85 to $35.10. Nortel added 50¢ to $85. The two biggest drops were Fairfax Financial which lost $9.50 to $165.50, and JDS Uniphase which lost $9.10, dropping to $129.90.
The CDNX jumped slightly, adding 7.11 to 3437.26. Declining issues exceeded advancing issues by 303 to 277, with 525 issues remaining unchanged.