Investors shrug off war tensions, rise on Monday
Surprisingly, markets on both sides of the border Monday reversed course and rose from pre-market negativity to close optimistically in the green. New York’s major indices were down half-a-percent Sunday night to early Monday morning, anxious over the rising war rhetoric from Tehran and Washington, but during the trading day climbed and closed as high as half-a-percent in the positive. The TSX followed suit by closing 0.23% up. Conversely, light crude began the session 1% higher, but finished Monday down 0.32%. Investors ignored the war drums beating on both sides and kept buying. Whether this is wise or foolish, we’ll see in the days ahead.
Despite the decline in crude, oil stocks like Suncor rose 3.17% as Canadian energy as a whole gained 2.22% as Monday’s strongest sector on the TSX. Tech also fared well, up 1.27%, with Shopify gaining 2.24%. South of the border, Facebook made a new 52-week high, rising 1.55%. and fellow tech giant, OLED, gained 1.67%. Tech stocks finished strong, though the Dow was mixed. Suffering the most from the current mideast hostilities is Saudi Aramco, which has been tumbling since the drone attack that killed Iran’s top general. We’ll see if North American markets continued to be as resilient as teflon.
🛢 Suncor Energy Inc +3.17%
🏂 Shopify Inc. +2.24%
🕵️♂️ Facebook +1.55%
🧬 Universal Display Corp. +1.67%