Stocks Weaken on Last Day of Quarter Ahead of Powell Address

Canada's main stock index opened lower on Monday, hurt by consumer discretionary and mining stocks, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech later in the day.

The TSX Composite Index fell 69.73 points to open Monday at 23,887.09.

The Canadian dollar inched up 0.02 cents to 74.04 cents U.S.

In corporate news, the Toronto-Dominion Bank is nearing a possible guilty plea on criminal charges that its U.S. unit failed to curb money laundering, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The lending giant began the week off 25 cents to $85.43.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange slid 4.17 points Monday to 578.97.

ON WALLSTREET

Those moves come after the major averages notched their third consecutive week of gains. Markets had a rough start to what is historically the weakest month for the stock market, but rebounded as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a super-sized half point.

Month to date, the Dow has gathered 1.5%, and the S&P 500 is 1.6%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ has advanced 2.5% in September.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked down Monday, the final trading session of what’s shaping up to be a winning month and quarter.

The blue-chip index fell 113.46 points at the outset to 42,199.54

The S&P 500 index faded 10.79 points to 5,727.38

The NASDAQ Composite retreated 44.78 points to 18,074.81.

The Dow has led the way this quarter, climbing more than 7%. The S&P 500 is ahead 5% and the NASDAQ has added 2.4%, since July began.
Nvidia is on track to notch its first losing quarter since 2022, underscoring the changing views on mega-cap technology after capturing investor attention for more than a year.

Looking ahead, October has a troubling history for markets. It’s known as a time of extreme volatility with some of the more notable Wall Street drawdowns occurring during the month.

Prices for the 10-year Treasury sagged to raise yields to 3.77% from Friday’s 3.75%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices dipped 34 cents at $67.84 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices flopped $15.80 to $2,652.30 U.S. an ounce

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