May 20 CCCanada’s main stock index ended lower on Wednesday, snapping a three-day winning streak. Bank stocks and other financials led a broad retreat, offset somewhat by gains in oil and gas shares.

Of the 26 stocks comprising the S&P TSX Financial Capped Index, only Fairfax Financial and Element Financial managed gains on the day. The worst performing bank was Bank of Nova Scotia, down 1.27%.

 

For a complete video report including a look at today’s leading and losing stocks, please go to: http://www.screencast.com/t/8UAPsRHfTYMm

U.S. stocks closed narrowly mixed on Wednesday, failing to hold record levels, as the Fed minutes mostly confirmed market expectations for a rate hike in the second half of the year. Still, there’s a lot more green in the US Colour Guard than in Canada.

May 20 CC CA and US

In today’s video report, we studied the graphs of a few high VST stocks. Very nice, smooth price patterns all. Stella Jones (SJ) is one of those leaders, and we noted that the Building (Wood Products) Industry Group has broken out of a few weeks downtrend. As you can see in the graph below, the average price of all 13 stocks in the group crossed above the 40-day SMA on April 30. Since then, 9 of 10 stocks in the group priced greater than $1 have made an average gain of more than 9.4% while the TSX has lost (-1.00%). SJ was the top VST stock in the group on April 30. It’s up more than 7.2% from there, and up 42% since January 2.

May 20 Wood Products