MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Wednesday. Quotations in Canadian funds. Australia dollar 0.964 Brazil real 0.3503 China renminbi 0.1915 Euro 1.5124 Hong Kong dollar 0.1694 India rupee 0.01861 Indonesia rupiah 0.000091 Japan yen 0.01174 Malaysia ringgit 0.3164 Mexico peso 0.06561 N.Z. dollar 0.9076 Norway krone 0.1556 Peruvian new sol 0.3929 Russia rouble 0.02019 Saudi riyal 0.3537 Singapore dollar 0.9668 South Africa rand 0.09539 South Korean won 0.001176 Sweden krona 0.1468 Switzerland franc 1.3343 Taiwanese dollar 0.04301 Thailand baht 0.04033 Turkey lira 0.2498 U.K. pound 1.6969 U.S. dollar 1.327 Vietnam dong 0.000057

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index rebounded from Tuesday’s broad sell-off, but investors remain on edge, says a market observer.

“I would say yesterday’s sell-off is probably a more accurate representation of where people’s heads are at out there,” says Ryan Crowther of Franklin Bissett Investment Management.

The S&P/TSX composite index surged to close up 218.02 points to 15,095.02, a day after losing 194 points.

The key energy, materials and industrials sectors that account for about 40 per cent of the index led the recovery on higher crude oil and gold prices. The January crude contract rose US$1.20 to US$54.63 a barrel and the December natural gas contract was down 7.2 cents to US$4.45 per mmBTU. The December gold contract jumped US$6.80 at US$1,228.00 an ounce and the December copper contract gained 2.8 cents at US$2.79 a pound. Crowther says market sentiment has changed from a year ago when U.S. tax cuts drove economic growth and heightened corporate profits. The focus now is on headwinds such as earnings growth, higher interest rates, trade and inflation. “There’s lots of things to be considering on the risk side of the equation that are more clearly in focus right now than they would have been a year ago,” he said in an interview. Business conditions remain good but the market is discounting valuations, which present buying opportunities for investors.

Slowing global growth at the later stages of the economic cycle doesn’t necessarily mean a recession is near, Crowther said, even though discussion of such an event as early as 2020 is ramping up.

The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.36 cents US compared with an average of 75.42 cents US on Tuesday. The optimism was initially seen on Wall Street until the end of the day as the Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.95 points at 24,464.69 heading into the Thanksgiving holiday. The S&P 500 index rose by 8.04 points to 2,649.93, while the Nasdaq composite gained 63.43 points at 6,972.25. Investor anxiety is translating into increased volatility, said Crowther. “I think investors are much more on edge currently and I think that’s what’s manifesting into these a little bit more magnitude in terms of the day-to-day volatility.”