Indexes Pare Losses, as NASDAQ closes well off Lows

The Canadian Vanguard Stock Market Report – Wednesday, August 20, 2025 Edition

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The Toronto Market

The TSX composite index gained 54.88 points or 0.20%, to close the session at 27,878.76.

                                                                                                                                 

The Market Breadth:  Five of the ten sectors gained. Basic Materials, up 1.30%, was the top sector. Gold miner stocks were undoubtedly the best performing group on the TSX today. Energy gained 1.02%, Utilities gained 0.43%, Durable Consumer Goods & Services gained 0.42% and Telecommunications Services gained 0.37%. Financials was down -0.06%, Technology was down -0.73% and Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services declined -1.10%.

Industry Groups:  The top five industry groups in the TSX today were: Office Equipment, up 21.54%, for the second session running; Fishing & Farming, up 5.85%; Textiles & Leather Goods, up 3.85%; Beverages – Non-Alcoholic, up 2.64%; and Precious Metals & Minerals, up 1.90%.

Today’s Market Statistics:  The issues that gained (Advancers) outnumbered those that declined (Decliners). There were roughly five Advancers for every four Decliners, or a more exact ratio of 1.25-to-1.0. In real numbers, there were 1,048 Decliners to 840 Advancers while 187 stocks remained Unchanged.

Today, there were 162 new 52-Week Highs and 17 new 52-Week Lows. There were 210 new 52-Week Highs and 18 new 52-Week Lows yesterday.

The total volume of shares traded at the TSX today was 335,274,538, or 2% higher than the volume of 328,807,245 shares traded yesterday.

Market Roundup Report

The markets were a bit bearish today. The daily volume of shares traded at the TSX has remained steady in the last four sessions. Several gold miner stocks gained.  Some of the gold miner stocks that were up today included: Franco-Nevada Corp (FNV), Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd (AEM) and Barrick Mining Corp (ABX). The top thirteen stocks at the TSX today were miners, with at least ten gold miners among them.

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The US Markets

Today was another mixed market session. Dow Jones Industrial Average index, the top performer among the indexes, gained 16.04 points or 0.04%, to close the session at 44,938.31. The S&P 500 index declined -15.59 points or -0.24% and closed the session at 6,395.78. The Nasdaq Composite declined -142.09 points or -0.67%, and closed the session at 21,172.86. In small caps, Russell 2000 declined -7.25 points or -0.32%, and closed the session at 2269.35. The Dow Jones index gained 10.45 points yesterday, so there was a slight improvement today but, still relatively small.

The Market Breadth:  Six of the major sectors gained. Durable Consumer Goods & Services gained 1.02% to lead the sectors in the US markets. Energy gained 0.91%, Healthcare gained 0.57%, and Financials gained 0.34%. Telecommunications Services gained 0.26% and Utilities gained 0.21%. Basic Materials declined -0.05%, Industrials declined -0.18%, Technology declined -0.66% and Discretionary Consumer Goods & Services declined -0.86%. Retail stocks were tops yesterday, but they are the laggards today.

Industry Groups: The top five industry groups in the US markets today were: Marine Port Services, up 8.74%; Retail – Drugs, up 3.27%; Tobacco, up 2.26%; Precious Metals & Minerals, up 1.92%; and Reinsurance, up 1.81%.

Today’s Market Statistics

At the NYSE, the issues that declined (Decliners) outnumbered the issues that gained (Advancers). There was one Decliner for every Advancer, or a more exact ratio of 1.02-to-1.0. In actual numbers, there were 2,078 Advancers to 2,043 Decliners with 350 Unchanged.

Today, there were 168 new 52-Week Highs and 62 new 52-Week Lows. There were 205 new 52-Week Highs and 62 new 52-Week Lows yesterday.

The total volume of stocks traded today at the NYSE was 4,554,953,266, about the same as the total volume of 4,511,128,035 shares traded yesterday.

On the NASDAQ, the Decliners outnumbered the Advancers today. There were roughly six Decliners for every five Advancers, or an exact ratio of 1.18-to-1.0. In actual numbers, there were 2,484 Decliners to 2,099 Advancers with 197 Unchanged.

Today, there were 118 new 52-Week Highs and 108 new 52-Week Lows. There were 142 new 52-Week Highs and 74 new 52-Week Lows yesterday.

The total volume of shares traded at the NASDAQ today was 8,057,833,807, or 8% lower than the total volume of 8,774,783,187 shares traded yesterday.

Market Roundup Report

Palantir Technologies, PLTR, continued to decline and has now declined six consecutive market sessions.  The NASDAQ was down -5% earlier in the session but rallied well off the day’s lows to close pretty well at the last close, almost even with the previous close. The NASDAQ pullback came with lower volume. Gold stocks staged a comeback today. AngloGold Ashanti (AU) made healthy gains.

Oil Price: Oil prices rose about 1% to $63.10 a barrel earlier today. US Oil price was at $63.14 per barrel, as of the time (11:30 pm ET, Wednesday) of this post update.

10 –year Treasury Yield:  US Treasury yields were lower for the second straight session. The 10-year yield, down one basis point, was at 4.295%, as of the time (11:30 pm ET, Wednesday) of this post update.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is at $113,769.00, up 0.24% as of the time (11:30 pm ET, Wednesday) of this post update.

After-hours action: Stock Futures are mixed but almost flat this evening. Dow Futures is up -4.00 points or -0.01% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures is up 4.75 points or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 futures is down 29.50 points or 0.13% as of the time (11:30 pm ET, Wednesday) of this post update.

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