Can energy rescue the TSX?

The TSX could get a boost from a sector that’s weighed it down in past months, says Prab Sagoo, associate director at Nasdaq Advisory Services, in his weekly commentary.

Highlights:

• We continue to experience notable levels of volatility in equity markets, something that is likely to continue for the near term and possibly increase as we get closer to the September Federal Reserve meeting.

• Oil prices are also experiencing heightened levels of volatility, with the commodity having gained close to $10 per barrel over the last three sessions. The latest spike came after comments from OPEC indicating the possibility of a reduction in supply. If this were to occur, we could see the heavily weighted energy sector push the TSX higher instead of hindering it, as has been the case over the last several months.

• Domestic GDP data shows Canada slipped into a technical recession. However, if the U.S. economy continues to perform well (as demonstrated by the last weeks GDP figures), then this recession may prove to be quite shallow.

• We may also see some derisking at the tail end of this week as some investors will be reluctant to hold sizeable exposure in this volatile environment going into the extended weekend break.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.