IAIC Market Update - November 29, 2021

(source: Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/markets, MSCI https://www.msci.com/end-of-day-data-search and ARG Inc. analysis)

What happened last week?

• North American equity indices dropped more than 2% on Friday and drove the grid above to another pandemic-related “all red” week due to fears that renewed domestic restrictions and lockdowns, as well as curtailing the movement of people, raw materials and finished goods could damage the pace of economic recovery. Global equities represented by MSCI’s All Country World Index (ACWI) was down almost 3% for the week. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil fell by more than $10/barrel and more than 13% on Friday. Gold held steady on Friday, gaining $1.20 per ounce, which demonstrated its value as a ‘safe haven’, at least for a day.
• These one-day losses (except for gold) followed the observance of Thanksgiving across the U.S. and continued the tradition of a light trading day with volumes down more than 20% compared with the previous Friday. This would have been the second consecutive “all red” week had S&P 500 lost value last week. Two consecutive weeks where all our indicators have lost value has not happened in 2021 and not since the darkest days of the pandemic.
• Despite the recent setbacks equity indices in North America are up 14-22% in 2021 and 17-28% from a year ago.
  
  

What’s ahead for this week?

• In Canada, building permits, industrial product and raw materials price indexes for October will be released. November’s employment report is scheduled along with real GDP for the third quarter.
• In the U.S., October’s pending home sales, construction spending, factory orders, wage rate and the employment report for November will be announced. 
• Globally, Germany and the Eurozone will announce their latest data on employment, inflation and consumer confidence. OPEC+ will conduct another meeting in response to the recent variant news from Africa and the release of strategic oil reserves by several governments to lower the price of oil to soften inflation.