Canada 1, America 0

The week’s winners and losers:

Winner: Canada. The TSX made a new all-time high Friday, closing at 16,899 and gaining 1.3% for the week. Surprisingly, two dark-horse sectors propelled this rise: banks and oil. Last weekend’s attacks shutting down Saudi’s oil production propelled WTI nearly 15% on Monday, but it slunk 6.5% since then. Canadian oil stocks still benefited, though. A week ago, Suncor closed at $40.35. Yesterday, it held at $42.11, enjoying a 5.3% rise in just seven days. Whitecap Resources fared even better, leaping 11.6% after it closed yesterday at $4.84. Meanwhile, Canadian banks have been quietly creeping up. Royal Bank closed the week 2.5% higher at $107.96, creating a new 52-week high.

Loser: America. Despite the US Fed cutting interest rates on Thursday by 25 basis points, the Dow closed the week down 1.05%, the S&P 0.51% in the red, and the NASDAQ 0.72% lower. Perhaps the negative sentiment had something to do with Trump tweeting mid-Friday that he doesn’t need to close a trade deal with China before the November 2020 election. This pronouncement reverses all his previous promises. That said, the drop in American indices Friday was muted compared to past Trump tweets. Are investors starting to take his tweets less seriously, and focus on hard metrics like earnings and debts? I hope so.