Bourstad stock market simulations - Summary of
the markets for the week ended on March 28, 2025
Stocks down and commodities up over the past week
Stocks are down for the fifth week, while commodities are up for the
fourth week since the start of the 2025 Bourstad Challenge. During the week, Statcan
published Canada's gross domestic product for January 2025 which rose by 0.4% compared
with December, a rise particularly attributable to mineral, oil and gas
extraction, utilities, construction and manufacturing. On Friday, Prime
Minister Carney and President Trump had a first meeting on the telephone, which
was respectful according to reports from both sides. In the United States, the
measure of inflation based on personal consumption expenditures for February
was released; the annual rate for the full basket remained at 2.5% on a yearly
basis, while the rate for the basket excluding food and energy was up 0.2% to
2.8%. Over the coming week, we'll be watching: in Canada, the February
international trade balance (Thursday) and March employment data (Friday); in
the US, February durable goods orders (Wednesday), the February international trade
balance (Thursday) and March employment data (Friday). Elsewhere in the world,
we'll be keeping an eye on the Eurozone's March consumer price index and
February unemployment rate. We'll also be on the lookout for the US to impose
tariffs on its partners and adversaries on Wednesday April 2.
The six stock markets we follow ended the week down. Only the Shanghai
and Toronto stock exchanges limited their losses to less than -1.0%, with
declines of -0.4% and -0.8% respectively. The New York and Tokyo stock exchanges
posted declines of -1.5%, while the Paris Bourse lost -1.6%. Finally, the
NASDAQ 100 fell by -2.5%.
Yields on 10-year government bonds are up in two of the four top-rated
countries we track. Higher yields mean lower bond prices, given the inverse relationship
between yields and bond prices. U.S. bond yields, the main benchmark on the
market, are down -2 bps at 4.24% (1 basis point or bps = 0.01%). The Canadian
bond rate rises by 1 bps, leaving the Canadian rate 123 bps lower than the US
rate. Germany's bond yield falls -3 bps to 2.73%. Japan's bond yield rose by 4
bps to 1.55%.
On the commodities market, three of the four commodities we track are
up. The biggest rises were seen in the commodities most closely followed by the
financial press, with gold up 2.1% and US oil up 1.6%. Copper was the other
rising commodity, with a gain of 0.3%. The only commodity to fall was corn,
which lost -2.4%.
In the crypto-currency sector, the two cryptos we follow are both down:
bitcoin by -0.3% and ethereum by -4.9%.
On March 28, it cost
0.3¢ CAD less to buy one US dollar than on March 21. The euro and yen diverged
against Uncle Sam's dollar, with the single European currency up 0.1% and the
Japanese currency down -0.4%.
See the detailed table by following this link:
https://iclf.ca/DL/BT25_sommaire_marches_250328.pdf
Paul Bourget
Project Director, Bourstad
CIRANO
paul.bourget@cirano.qc.ca
About CIRANO (www.cirano.qc.ca )
The Center for
Interuniversity Research and Analysis of Organizations (CIRANO) is a
multidisciplinary, liaison and transfer research center, whose mission is to
accelerate the transfer of knowledge between the research community and users
in industry and public services.
About BOURSTAD (www.bourstad.ca )
The Bourstad program
is an activity of the Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis of
Organizations (CIRANO) which receives support from many partners for this
financial education project: the Autorité des marchés financiers, its main partner,
TD Bank, CFA Montreal , the Canadian Investment
Regulatory Organization (CIRO), Les Affaires, Finance Montreal, TMX Group,
Hyprasoft, Groupe Investissement responsable
and QuoteMedia.