On Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.7%.
Most of the stocks on our list had modest moves such as plus or minus 1.5% or less. Bombardier was down 1.8% to $1.60 as S&P downgraded its credit rating to single B minus. That is an extremely poor credit rating reflecting a risk of insolvency. I am not sure that is justified given the government support the company has gotten. I finally sold my shares recently just over $2.00.
On Friday, statistics Canada reported the inflation numbers for August. The media focused heavily on the headline 1.1% year-over-year number and pointed to a weak economy. But the core number was still up 1.8% year over year. However, the core index was flat in August. Given seasonal adjustments and statistical measurement uncertainty I am not going to read much of anything into this.
But retail sales for July were also reported and indicated weak growth in July versus June although the growth remained relatively strong year over year. Alberta was down 3.8% year over year which is decidedly weak.
Meanwhile it is reported that in Fort McMurray there is a real shortage of staff for places like fast food outlets. So, apparently the economy is not so bad there.