Indexes reluctant to close in the red, but finish near recent highs

The Canadian Vanguard Stock Market Report – Monday, August 18, 2025 Edition

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The Toronto Market

The TSX composite index gained 17.36 points or 0.06%, to close the session at 27,922.85. The TSX was in the red for most of the session but in the final hour climbed up to close in green, above Friday’s session’s close.

                                                                                                                             

The Market Breadth:  Seven of the ten sectors gained. Retail stocks called the shots today. Durable Consumer Goods & Services gained a healthy 1.47% to lead the sectors. Healthcare gained 1.03% and Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services gained 0.98%. Technology gained 0.86%, Utilities managed a gain of 0.14%, Industrials gained 0.12% and Telecommunications Services gained a mere 0.03%. Basic Materials declined -0.02%, Financials declined -0.03% and Energy, today’s laggard, declined -0.30%.

Industry Groups:  The top five industry groups in the TSX today were: Office Equipment, up 33.99%; Media Diversified, up 6.12%, an improvement on Friday’s performance; Aluminum, up 5.88%; Pharmaceuticals – Generic & Specialty, up 5.05%; and Beverages – Non-Alcoholic, up 4.91%.

Today’s Market Statistics:  The issues that declined (Decliners) barely edged out those that gained (Advancers). There were roughly six Decliners for every five Advancers, or a more exact ratio of 1.16-to-1.0. In real numbers, there were 993 Decliners to 889 Advancers while 182 stocks remained Unchanged.

Today, there were 143 new 52-Week Highs and 10 new 52-Week Lows. There were 248 new 52-Week Highs and 12 new 52-Week Lows on Friday.

The total volume of shares traded at the TSX today was 347,408,753, or about the same as the volume of 349,033,989 shares traded on Friday.

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The US Markets

Today was another mixed market session. Dow Jones Average index declined -34.30 points or -0.08%, to close the session at 44,911.82. The S&P 500 index barely declined, down -0.65 points or -0.01% and closed the session at 6,449.15. The Nasdaq Composite gained 6.80 points or 0.08%, and closed the session at 21,629.77. In small caps, Russell 2000 gained 7.95 points or 0.35%, and closed the session at 2294.47. The small caps recovered some of the losses of the past two sessions. Several of the small cap stocks did well, also. Russel was the only index with a relatively decisive gain today. Dow Jones index essentially reversed Friday’s 34.86 points gain.

The Market Breadth:  Five of the major sectors gained. Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services gained 0.46% to lead the sectors today. Telecommunications Services was up 0.30%, Industrials gained 0.29%, Durable Consumer Goods & Services gained 0.08%, and Technology gained 0.04%. Financials declined -0.06%, Utilities was down-0.445, Basic materials declined -0.45% and Energy, the day’s laggard, declined -0.54%. It was a rather subdued session as there were no major gains and only relatively mild declines. Retail stocks dominated in both the US and Toronto markets.

Industry Groups:  The top five industry groups in the US markets today were: Retail – Department Stores, up 3.34%; Rails & Roads – Passengers, up 1.95%; Auto & Truck Manufacturers, up 1.41%; Paper Products, up 1.24%; and Heavy Electrical Equipment, up 1.13%.

Today’s Market Statistics

At the NYSE, the issues that gained (Advancers) outnumbered the issues that declined (Decliners). There was one Advancer for every Decliner, or a more exact ratio of 1.16-to-1.0. In actual numbers, there were 2,222 Advancers to 1,907 Decliners with 339 Unchanged.

Today, there were 188 new 52-Week Highs and 36 new 52-Week Lows. There were 244 new 52-Week Highs and 45 new 52-Week Lows on Friday.

The total volume of stocks traded today at the NYSE was 4,239,477,394, or 10%, one tenth, lower than the total volume of 4,668,976,979 shares traded on Friday.

On the NASDAQ, the Advancers outnumbered the Decliners today. There were roughly three Advancers for every two Decliners, or an exact ratio of 1.22-to-1.0. In actual numbers, there were 2,521 Advancers to 2,053 Decliners with 291 Unchanged.

Today, there were 142 new 52-Week Highs and 74 new 52-Week Lows. There were 177 new 52-Week Highs and 100 new 52-Week Lows on Friday.

The total volume of shares traded at the NASDAQ today was 8,513,033,853, or 1% – one hundredth, higher than, but practically about the same as the total volume of 8,442,217,588 shares traded on Friday.

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Stocks In The News /Stocks To Watch

The Toronto Market

Technology drives power generation, and large scale generation will be needed by the data centers. Most green energy sources will not be capable of efficiently producing the massive amounts of power required by these energy-hungry facilities. For now, the only real alternative capable of meeting the demands of the colossal data centers currently planned  is nuclear power.

Uranium is the primary fuel for nuclear reactors, including small modular reactors (SMR). This brings us to Cameco Corporation. Whether from a technical or fundamental perspective, Cameco is uniquely positioned to benefit as these nuclear stations come online – even in the planning stages. When it comes to powering data centers, Cameco stock (CCO) should definitely be on your watchlist.

Some retail companies are due to release earnings results this week on the US side. Some of the retail stocks to keep an eye on in the TSX are Aritza Inc (ATZ), Gildan Activewear (GIL) and Dollarama (DOL).

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The US Markets

The rally remains alive, although aging. A stock in the news today is Palantir Technologies (PLTR). The stock has been a big winner this year. Nothing goes up forever. PLTR stock has declined over the last four market sessions. There was no big decline, but four consecutive sessions of decline are not typical of PLTR stock. On August 13, PLTR stock opened at $189.00, touched $189.46 and closed at $184.37, volume was 53.6M. Today, August 18, the stock opened at $175.27, touched a high of $177.90, closed at $174.03 and declining four consecutive sessions. The low today was $171.39, and volume was 62.6M. The stock closed well off the day’s low, which is a plus.

A stock in the news today is Intel Corporation (INTC).  SoftBank Group is investing 2 billion dollars in buying INTC stocks.

There is no shortage of stocks currently doing well as indexes remain within an eye’s view of their recent highs. A number of airline stocks are well worth keeping an eye on. Two of such stocks are SkyWest Airlines (SKYW), Ryanair Holdings Plc (RYAAY) and LATAM Airlines (LTM).

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NOTICE TO READERS 

Our readers are strongly advised to conduct their research into individual stocks before making a purchase decision. In addition, investors are advised that past stock performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation. Any recommendation is not a guarantee of any particular stock’s future prices, and The Canadian Vanguard  accepts no responsibility or liability for investors’ or readers’ purchases.

The Canadian Vanguard’s Stock Market  Reports, https://www.thecanadianvanguard.com/category/stock-markets/ are composed by senior Financial Industry and Information Technology professionals. We deliberately neither engage nor deploy AI tools to produce these reports.