Canada’s main stock index nudged slightly higher Thursday as investors took a “wait and see” approach in advance of highly anticipated new employment data coming Friday.
Kevin Headland, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife Investment Management, described it as a “sideways market” day as all of North America’s major stock indexes bounced between slightly negative and slightly positive territory on light volumes throughout the trading session.
Ultimately, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 31.10 points at 19,577.04, while in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 85.68 points at 32,726.82. The S&P 500 index closed down 3.23 points at 4,151.94, while the Nasdaq composite closed up 52.42 points at 12,720.58.
“August is typically a slow month anyway,” Headland said. “Basically, everyone is waiting for tomorrow.”
With August featuring fewer economic data releases than a typical month,…
