Equities
Canada’s main stock index fell at Monday’s opening bell with energy and financial stocks under pressure. On Wall Street, key indexes were also in the red at the start of trading amid contagion fears following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.
At 9:31 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 265.86 points, or 1.34 per cent, at 19,509.06.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 89.71 points, or 0.28 per cent, at the open to 31,819.93.
The S&P 500 opened lower by 26.47 points, or 0.69 per cent, at 3,835.12, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 97.43 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 11,041.46 at the opening bell.
Early Monday, all eyes were on the banking sector after the failure of the Santa Clara, California-based bank triggered contagion concerns. Early Monday, shares of U.S. regional bank First Republic were down more than 60 pre cent in early trading while shares of PacWest Bankcorp slumped more than 50 per cent.
“SVB’s flash crash raised questions that other similar local banks in the U.S. could also experience liquidity issues and may not be able to pay their depositors back, unless they also start selling their probably loss-making portfolios,” Swissquote senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said in a note.
“The contagion risk remains for small banks with highly rate-sensitive clients, but the U.S. authorities now step in to avoid contagion. They said that SVB depositors could access their money today,” she said.
However, she also noted that concern about the situation could convince the Federal Reserve to change its course on rate hikes. She said it’s now possible the U.S. central bank could pullback on an expected 50-basis-point increase this month or forgo an increase altogether.
Over the weekend, the Federal Reserve, Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced in a joint statement that “depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13. No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer.” The agencies also said that they would enact a similar program for Signature Bank, which the government disclosed was closed Sunday by its state chartering authority, according to Reuters.
In this country, Canada’s banking regulator took control of Silicon Valley Bank’s domestic operations on Sunday, as governments, along with tech sector CEOs, spent the weekend scrambling to limit the impact of a leading global technology financer’s sudden collapse, The Globe reports this morning.
In Britain, meanwhile, HSBC said on Monday it is acquiring the U.K’ subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank for 1 pound. “This acquisition makes excellent strategic sense for our business in the UK,” HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said in a statement.
Elsewhere, Canadian investors will got household-debt-to-income figures from Statistics Canada.
The agency said, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the household credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income improved to 180.5 per cent in the fourth quarter from 184.3 per cent in the third quarter, and was down from 184.5 per cent at the end of 2021. In other words, there was $1.81 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income in the fourth quarter of 2022, Statscan said.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 2.32 per cent by afternoon with bank stocks under pressure. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 1.91 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were off 2.71 per cent and 2.53 per cent, respectively.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended down 1.11 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.95 per cent on gains in technology stocks.
Commodities
Crude prices fell in early trading, underpinned by optimism over China’s recover and a softer U.S. dollar but offset by continued worries about the road ahead for U.S. interest rates.
The day range on Brent was US$82.25 to US$83.48 in the early premarket period. The range on West Texas Intermediate was US$76.14 to US$77.47.
“It’s like the battle of surging activity data in the East meets macro malaise in the West”, Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management, said.
“From an oil trader’s perspective, the U.S. dollar should pull back as traders give up on a re-acceleration of Fed hikes; this, in turn, clears a path for more robust Chinese fundamentals to dominate commodity trading,” Mr. Innes said.
Reuters reported that comments over the weekend from Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser on crude demand from China also offered some support.
“If you considered China opening up and a pick up in jet fuels and very limited spare capacity, we are talking 2 million barrels, so as I said we are cautiously optimistic in the short to midterm and the market will remain tightly balanced,” he said.
In other commodities, gold prices rose as investors sought out safe-haven assets amid concern over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Spot gold was up 0.6 per cent at US$1,878.54 per ounce by early Monday morning. Earlier in the session, bullion hit its highest since Feb. 3 at US$1,893.96.
U.S. gold futures gained 0.9 per cent to US$1,884.30.
Currencies
The Canadian dollar was up early Monday morning as its U.S. counterpart fell against a group of world currencies on speculation the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank could move the Fed to pause rate hikes.
The day range on the loonie was 72.15 US cents to 72.93 US cents in the predawn period.
“The CAD is trading a little firmer against a generally soft USD but it has edged off earlier highs,” Shaun Osborne, chief FX strategist with Scotiabank, said.
“Canada’s jobs report Friday may not move the needle for the BoC at the moment but the strong report—in pretty much all aspects—does tilt risks towards the BoC having to return to tightening down the road.”
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six rivals, fell 0.55 per cent to near one-month lows of 103.67 after Goldman Sachs said it no longer expects the Fed to deliver a rate hike at its March 22 meeting, Reuters reports. The index was last at 103.85.
The euro was up 0.72 per cent at US$1.072, hovering near the one-month high of US$1.0737. Sterling was last trading at US$1.2114, up 0.71 per cent.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was down at 3.602 per cent.
More company news
Pfizer will spend US$43-billion to buy Seagen and deepen its reach into treating cancer. The pharmaceutical giant said Monday that it will pay US$229 per Seagen share. “Together, Pfizer and Seagen seek to accelerate the next generation of cancer breakthroughs and bring new solutions to patients by combining the power of Seagen’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology with the scale and strength of Pfizer’s capabilities and expertise,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said in a statement.
Economic news
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s national balance sheet and financial flow accounts for Q4.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press