On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 1.1% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
A notable decliner was American Express down 4.4% to $77.32. Its earnings per share for Q1 were up 11% but “the market” seemed to have been taken somewhat by surprise by the currency impact. I have been noting that U.S. companies with substantial business outside of the U.S. would report an impact from the high U.S. dollar (unless hedged for which is short-term at best). I did not highlight this in the case of American Express but in retrospect I should have recognized that this was one of the companies to be hit. In any case the company still seems somewhat attractive and I added 100 shares to my position on Friday.
One of the few stocks on our list that rose on Friday was the RioCan preferred share up 4.4% to $20.88