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Stock Market- by SM...02/01/09

Canadian Exchange Rates- by SM...02/01/09

Recession- by MAS.. 05/12/08

The stock market is where people trade and sell public stocks. Each stock is valued at a different amount, and you can buy as many of those stocks as you would like.

There are many different types of stock markets around the world. A few of them are “New York Stock Exchange” (NYSE), “Toronto Stock Exchange”, “Paris Stock Exchange”, and “EASDAQ Stock Exchange” (Belgium). In Canada, we have 3 stock markets; the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Montreal Stock Exchange, and the Vancouver Stock Exchange.

Last year, in the Toronto Stock Exchange, it had a very bad year. Starting off at approximately 15,000 points on December 31^st, 2007, it dropped to approximately 9,000 points as of December 29^th, 2008. That is a 5,000 point loss in one year.

The Toronto Composite Index takes all the company stocks (there are hundreds) and gives the average beginning, the end, and how much lost. Nortel and RIM are a few of the companies in the stock exchange (Nortel has lost lots of money.)

It is said that the decline is due to the economic slowdown (the recession), which was started in the US by the subprime crisis (mortgage and credit). The predictions are that the recession will last up to 5 years, thus enabling us to think that this decline will too.

During the past weeks, have you been listening to the American and Canadian dollar exchange rate? Ever been wondering what one Canadian dollar is worth in another country? The following are the exchange rates between Canada, and 10 countries.  (CD = Canadian Dollar)

     Recession can affect us in many different ways, like losing our jobs. As you may know, the u.s is in recession. You may ask yourself, does this affect us or how does this affect us. Well, the U.S. recession is recession and it does affect us because almost all of our exports are from the states.

      Right now, already a lot of people in Ontario lost their jobs from the recession. Luckily, the Bank of Montreal economists are predicting that we will not be evolved in the recession. But, they said that the Canadian economy will slow down by the second quarter, before that it picks up in the second half.

      Our prime minister, Stephen Harper and finance minister, Jim Flaherty, have warned of an unexpected slowdown in Canada’s economy, hinting any new big tax cuts or spending programs in the future, but it is not really likely. 

     Now that the U.S. is in recession, that will cause a slowdown in Canada’s first half of the year. Although the Canadian economy did really good last year, on strong commodity prices, while the U.S. economy did bad, lots of economists are thinking if the U.S. is either in a recession or  really close to a recession, for the first time ever since 2001.

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