The Daily Chase: Canadian retail sales slow; America Express under pressure

Here are five things to know this morning.

Here are five things to know this morning:

Looking up: While yesterday was sloppy for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, the Dow Jones advanced for a ninth session in a row. That’s the first time that has happened since 2017. The Nasdaq suffered one of its worst days of the year. The losses on the Nasdaq are also notable because they came as the first of the “Magnificent Seven” — (Tesla) reported quarterly results that had blemishes. This could create a shaky setup for others in the group (Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia) when they report. As well, the Nasdaq 100 gets rebalanced today to reduce the weight of the top 10 securities and redistribute it to the smaller issuers. That means we could see big volume on this rebalance particularly as Nvidia and Microsoft will see their index weights reduced substantially. These things matter little in the long-term but it could be a short-term event. The TSX could get a lift from energy stocks as oil is trading higher today. In fact oil is flirting with two-month highs (gee, so is the TSX) and it is on pace for its fourth weekly gain.

Retail sales in Canada slow: Canadian retail sales stalled in May (yes, that is the most recent data). StatsCan reported no growth in spending when you exclude autos compared to a roaring 1.2 per cent gain in April. Remember that was BEFORE two rate hikes by the Bank of Canada. We got a flash estimate for June which also signalled subdued spending. Barry Schwartz of Baskin Wealth told Paul Bagnell this morning it means the Bank of Canada should stop hiking rates ASAP.