Small cap stocks healthily outperformed large caps in February, which shows investors are taking some risks despite recent volatility, says Prab Sagoo, associate director at Nasdaq Advisory Services, in his weekly market commentary.

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The Small Cap Index was up by 3.6%, he adds, topping a 2.3% gain by the Equal Weight Index. As of last week, both the TSX Composite and the TSX 60 were slightly in the red month-to-date.

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More highlights

  • Market expectations for Canada’s Q4 GDP reading were set for very low or flat growth. And, turns out, the economy delivered growth of 0.8% during that period. Plus, December’s gain of 0.2% was slightly above expectations. However, the economy was up only 0.5% from a year earlier, due to factors such as weak business capital spending and a dip in consumer spending.
  • At the end of the week, we’ll see data on both domestic and U.S. labour markets. More pain is expected for Alberta, while a pick-up in Ontario and Quebec manufacturing may offset some of the pessimism. For its part, the U.S. labour market has been pretty healthy of late. If this continues, it could offset market worries about the prospect of another rate rise. Read: This year, the Fed will be more defensive
  • Monday saw producer prices rise for the first time in six months, heavily influenced by the weakened loonie.