Market Insights: Stat of the Week - Will 2016 be the year for the TSX?

Will 2016 be the year for the TSX? 

From our readings over the course of this week, one particular statistic has really caught our eye.  This year will most likely mark the fifth consecutive year that the Canadian stock market has underperformed our neighbors to the south.  This has only occurred twice in the post WWII era; the other instance being from 1988 to 1992, when we experienced a similar environment of resource sector contraction, and in general, slow global economic growth.  

So what happened in 1993?  The TSX advanced a whopping 29%, while the S&P500 was only able to rise 7%.  This is not a forecast, but merely an observation which suggests that the time when Canadian equities start to relatively outperform U.S. equities may be much closer than many expect.  What we do know for sure is that any market over time tends to return to the mean.