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Our continuing coverage of COVID-19's effect on global markets

This week, we noticed that the difference between the Blue Chip Swap rate and the "official" Argentine Peso/US Dollar exchange rate reached 100%.

Our continuing coverage of COVID-19's effect on global markets

Our continuing coverage of COVID-19's effect on global markets

Gold reached US$1900/oz in the last few days and is closing in on an important milestone: US$2000/oz. Should it break through that barrier, it could be on track to run significantly higher.

The cash position of Canada's domestic banks, which typically grows at a few percent a year as the carefully tuned balance sheets of banks keep up with economic growth, almost doubled in the first few months of 2020, growing from $310 billion at the end of 2019 to $604 billion at the end of April.

Today's trading was positive, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining almost 2% from its previous close, and the S&P TSX Composite gaining 0.5%. The big news, however, was the S&P 500 opening above 3000 and closing at 3036.25.

This week saw the release of some grim economic data, a weird twist on the oil problem, some positive days of trading, and the beginning of the reopening process for North America.

This week's trading was broadly positive, with most major indexes consolidating the rapid gains they made after the March 23rd lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is over 24,000, and the S&P 500 has actually gained over the last year.

Today's trading continued the broadly unspectacular but positive gains we've seen over the past couple weeks. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 0.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.6%, and the S&P 500 closed up 0.9%.

After a string of positive days, today global equity markets stepped back. The S&P 500 fell 0.9%, the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 1.2%, and the S&P/TSX Composite fell 2.9%.

Today's trading continued last weeks light gains, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing above 24,000 for the second time since March 10th. Volatility in WTI oil continued apace, as the price of June WTI contracts declined more than 20%, but Brent Crude closed down 6.3%.

Today's trading lacked the sizzling action of previous weeks, although that's likely a welcome change. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1.1%, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 1.2%, and the price of oil (Brent crude, to be precise) added 2.4% after a wild week, closing down 22% from last Friday.

Today's trading saw a lift in global equity markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average increasing by over 500 points and the S&P/TSX Composit closing up 2.4%. The real story, of course, was oil, which rebounded sharply, with the price of WTI closing up 20%.

Today's headlines were dominated by a paradoxical piece of news: the price of oil has gone negative, briefly reaching -$37/barrel USD. But what does that actually mean? How is the price of oil measured? Can I buy all the oil in the world and lock in an enormous profit? What does this mean for the economy, in the near, intermediate, and long term? And why does this all revolve around Cushing, Oklahoma?

Today was a quiet day in the markets, and the first double (not triple) digit move in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in weeks. Today's trading followed the release of US initial jobless claims data, which indicated that 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment last week.

The Bank of Canada last published a Monetary Policy Report on January 22nd. Although it came out just 84 days ago, it reads like a parchment scroll from antiquity. It does not include the words "COVID," "virus," or "outbreak." It predicts that growth in the Canadian economy will accelerate in 2020. To say the least, it was due for an update.

A month ago, we started recommending a basket of large, dividend-paying stocks that had reached impressive yields. A lot of people thought we were crazy buying into a market that was falling off a cliff, and in some cases they were right. The volatility this basket has exhibited since we recommended it is well above average.