Article source: ConstructConnect

As a month, February is habitually a few days short, but that doesn’t make it less than mighty.

In this most recent February, there’s been a doping controversy in the women’s figure skating event at the Winter Olympics. Vladimir Putin has been having a will-he or won’t-he attack moment along Russia’s border with Ukraine. Anti-vax truckers have been pinching off U.S.-Canadian entry points.

Also, we’re in the 24^th month of a pandemic in North America, compounding the isolation that comes at this time of year anyway, from the stretching out of winter. Inflation has been going through the roof, making Valentine’s Day disgracefully expensive. (Sorry, I just threw in that last bit, which I’ll be sure to regret, when my wife reads it.) And the Queen has COVID; and there still aren’t enough quality new shows to stream on TV.

Against the foregoing backdrop, there are the following nuggets to be gleaned from the latest public and private sector data releases.

(more…)

Article source: ConstructConnect

As of January 31, 2022’s closing values, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) registered the strongest year-over-year advance among North America’s four major stock market indices (Table 1). Its lead over the S&P 500 index in second place, however, was miniscule, +21.7% to +21.6%.

Perhaps the bigger story was NASDAQ’s relatively poor showing, +8.9% y/y. NASDAQ has been the traditional frontrunner for years.

The TSX and S&P were also winners on the world stage (Graph 5), although there were some good gains y/y by exchanges in Europe. STOXX Europe was +18.8% y/y; the London FTSE, +16.5%; and the German DAX, +15.2%.

It’s important to note, however, that few of the indices worldwide made headway on a month-to-month basis in January. Only two of the 14 indices set out in Table 2 managed m/m advances, the London FTSE, +1.1% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng, +1.7%. The latter’s uptick should be viewed cautiously, given the Hang Seng’s -15.8% showing year over year.

(more…)