According to a report by Maclean’s magazine, since the market peak in 2008 just before the great recession, and out of 106 world stock markets, Canada stands at 105th. It’s the worst performer next to, now catch this, Venezuela.
The energy sub-index has fallen by more than a third as the TSX has gained only 14 per cent in the last 10 years, whereas the S&P 500 rose 101 per cent.
And with Canadian crude oil prices trading at a huge discount, the equity markets don’t appear they’ll get better any time soon, as things aren’t improving this year.
In 2017, energy dropped 10 per cent to restrain the TSX to a meagre 6 per cent advance (vs a gain of 19.4 per cent for the S&P 500).
So far this year, energy is again the worst performing sector in Canada, helping to drag the TSX into a 5.3 per cent slide.
Is there a message here?