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Stocks rallied again in July, lead by the U.S. technology group as investors celebrated second quarter earnings that beat expectations and looked forward to more easing from global central banks, especially the U.S. Federal Reserve. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell then did deliver on July 31st the ‘expected’ first interest rate cut since the Financial Crisis in 2008. However, he did not indicate that this was the first of more cuts, instead pointing to the Fed’s “data dependency” for future rate moves. For the month the TSX Composite in Canada was basically unchanged as further weakness in the Energy sector (down 4%) and Health Care (down 13% due to Cannabis stocks) offset slight gains in the Consumer and Information Technology sectors and a 9% gain in the gold stocks. U.S. stocks were relatively stronger due to their heavier weight of technology stocks and a slight recovery in the financial sector. Overseas markets were mostly down, particularly in Asia, with drops of almost 5% in South Korea and India. (more…)