MARKET SUMMARY— After a very difficult start to 2016, global financial markets improved through February and early March. On a fundamental basis, the fears of deflation and possible recession that took grip through January faded to cautious optimism by late February as most financial markets responded positively by rebounding from the sharp declines experienced in the prior two months. While investor sentiment remains tentative, the extent of the earlier panic was clearly overdone.

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MARKET SUMMARY— Global equity markets were hammered through the last month of 2015 and further punished during the first month of 2016. The Canadian bell weather S&P/TSX Composite gave back 3.41% to end the year, and proceeded to lose a further 1.44% in January. On a full year basis for 2015, the S&P/TSX handed investors a loss 11.09%, while the smaller capitalization S&P/TSX Venture index returned negative 24.42%. The high dependency of the Canadian economy on resources sectors and their concentration in our equity indices, in conjunction with a commodity death spiral, made Canadian equity markets among the worst global performers in 2015.

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MARKET SUMMARY— September provided another weak showing for global equities as Canadian equity market continued trending lower. The broad based S&P/TSX Composite index lost another 3.67% on a total return basis for the month. Smaller capitalization stocks were hammered as the TSX Venture plunged, taking back 6.16% from investors over the same period. On a more encouraging note, a solid rebound in June and July’s GDP data may indicate suitable improvement for the Canadian economy which seems to have come out of the so-called technical recession.

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MARKET SUMMARY— Canadian equity markets continued to struggle with the broad based S&P/TSX Composite index shedding 4.04% on a total return basis through the month of August. The back-to-back decline of Canadian real GDP in the first and second quarters of this year lead to fear that the economy had fallen into recession, combined with ongoing concerns of continued weakness for commodities and the slowdown in the emerging markets, particularly a faltering economy in China. Smaller capitalization stocks also got hammered as the TSX Venture plunged, taking back 5.88% over the last month of the summer.

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MARKET SUMMARY— Canadian equity markets were flat to slightly down with the broad based S&P/TSX Composite index delivering a negative 0.32% total return for July. Canadian equity markets have lagged most of the developed world and have barely eked out a positive total return with year-to-date performance of +0.59%. The recurring theme of resource and commodity price weakness continues to weigh heavily on the energy and materials sectors, as valuations succumb to renewed pressures and corporate cash flow retracement driven by production cutbacks and further curtailment to corporate exploration programs.

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