Terrible month for North American Stocks

🤦‍♂️Terrible month for North American Stocks 🤷‍♂️

US and Canadian equities tumbled during the week, declining even further on Friday to finish April as one of the worst months since the pandemic roiled the markets in 2020. US S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost 3.63% and 4.17%, respectively, and Canada’s S&P/TSX declined 1.70%. Tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 13.51% in April.

High inflation, tightening monetary policy, the war in Ukraine, and a new round of lockdown in China have dented the markets’ sentiment and elevated concerns about the economic outlook and the breadth of possible economic recession. The US economy shrank 1.4 in the first three months of the year, the first quarterly decline since 2020. Still, there is no consensus on whether this decline is the beginning of the next recession. 

While Commodity prices such as oil and base metals remain elevated, financial assets keep taking the hit, and cryptos are no exception. Bitcoin and Ethereum, which were long argued to be a suitable hedge for inflation, fell in correlation with stocks, losing 14.46% and 13.51% of their value in April. 

West Texas Intermediate remains elevated at 103.88, and gold stands at 1891.1 an ounce. US dollar continues to hold the ground against other major currencies, especially against the beaten Japanese Yen at 130.2 JPY.