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Close Edition. Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Curated market context for passive investors.

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$45.71
-0.80%

Headline

XEQT closes down 0.80% as technology weakness and rising yields pull all four sleeves lower.

XEQT closed at $45.71, down 0.80% on the day, extending losses that were already in place at midday and finishing somewhat weaker than the afternoon snapshot. All four sleeves finished in negative territory, with surging bond yields and AI-related selling setting the tone globally. The largest single drag came from the U.S. sleeve, where a steep decline in technology shares weighed most heavily, while international developed markets also contributed meaningfully to the loss. Emerging markets posted the sharpest sleeve-level decline at 2.53%, though their smaller portfolio weight limited the impact.

How large is today's move?

Larger-than-usual day · Today's -0.80% move is 1.4× the 20-day average move.

This scale measures size, not what to do. Larger moves are a normal part of holding a global all-equity fund.

The Regions

  • Canada

    25.64% of XEQT

    • XIC.TO
    -0.84% -0.21 pts from XEQT

    The Canadian sleeve fell 0.84%, contributing 0.21 percentage points to XEQT's decline. Among the sectors tracked, materials and information technology were the heaviest drags, falling 2.29% and 2.43% respectively. Canadian energy was the clear exception, rising 1.17% alongside firmer crude, though it was not enough to offset broad weakness ahead of a midnight deadline for U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.

    Canada market region icon

  • United States

    45.07% of XEQT

    • XTOT.TO
    • ITOT
    -0.64% -0.29 pts from XEQT

    The U.S. sleeve closed down 0.64%, the largest absolute contributor to XEQT's loss at 0.29 percentage points. Technology shares fell 2.47% among the sectors tracked, carrying the bulk of that drag as AI-related selling continued for a third straight session. Health care and energy were notable exceptions, each gaining more than 1.5%, while financials edged slightly higher.

    United States market region icon

  • Intl Developed

    24.38% of XEQT

    • XEF.TO
    -0.98% -0.24 pts from XEQT

    International developed markets were the second-largest sleeve drag, falling 0.98% and subtracting 0.24 percentage points. Japan was the dominant source of weakness among the areas tracked, sliding 2.85% as long-term government bond yields in the U.S. and Japan hit their highest levels in decades, according to BNN Bloomberg. German equities also fell, with chip-related stocks among the steepest losers, while Australia managed a modest gain of 0.20%.

    Intl Developed market region icon

  • Emerging Mrkts

    4.74% of XEQT

    • XEC.TO
    -2.53% -0.12 pts from XEQT

    Emerging markets posted the session's steepest sleeve-level decline at 2.53%, though the sleeve's 4.74% weight in XEQT capped its contribution at 0.12 percentage points. South Korea fell 8.13% among the areas tracked, with the KOSPI swinging sharply intraday as U.S. rate anxiety and Middle East tensions weighed on sentiment. Taiwan dropped 3.16%, while China and India were comparatively resilient, each declining less than 0.5%.

    Emerging Markets market region icon

Colored bars represent biggest contributors to XEQT's move today (threshold = ±0.1 percentage points). Returns are daily ETF price moves for tracked regional or sector categories and may differ slightly from raw index movements.

The Hold Line

All four sleeves closing lower in the same session is less common than it might seem, and the breadth of today's decline tells the more meaningful story. The damage was concentrated in tech-linked exposures and interest-rate-sensitive markets, with energy providing the clearest buffer. A session where rising bond yields and geopolitical strain push equities lower while crude firms is exactly the kind of cross-current XEQT is built to absorb across its four geographic sleeves. The fund's three-month gain of 5.85% provides a useful anchor for what a single down session actually costs.

Signals

  • 01

    VIX rises as risk appetite retreats

    The VIX, a measure of implied volatility in U.S. equity options reflecting how much uncertainty traders are pricing in, rose 4.28% to 15.84, consistent with a broad risk-off session touching all four geographic sleeves. For XEQT holders, a VIX at this level is unremarkable by historical standards; the fund's 14.59% year-to-date gain was built through sessions like this one.

  • 02

    Global bond yields reach multi-decade highs

    Long-term government bond yields in the U.S., Japan, and Germany reached multi-decade highs on the same day, a synchronized move that weighed on equity markets well beyond the U.S. sleeve. When sovereign borrowing costs rise across multiple major economies simultaneously, the headwind for growth and technology stocks tends to be felt globally, which is visible in the breadth of today's decline across all four XEQT sleeves.

  • 03

    Energy gains offset broad Canadian weakness

    WTI crude oil rose 0.82% to $84.43, and Canadian and U.S. energy sectors each gained more than 1.1% among the areas tracked, providing the clearest countervailing force in an otherwise uniformly negative session. The divergence between energy and the rest of the market, including a 2.29% decline in Canadian materials, shows sector rotation within the Canada sleeve rather than uniform domestic weakness.

Keeping Perspective

XEQT has been here before

Today's dip may feel worrying, but XEQT is a globally diversified fund designed to be held for the long term. Comparable declines have happened before. The examples below are the closest prior moves in XEQT's own history and show what followed.

Hover or drag across a chart to explore its recovery timeline.

Comparable days

  • -0.80% on Apr 15, 2024

    Recovered in 14 days

    Day of drop Apr 12 to Apr 15

    $30.13 $29.89 -0.80%

  • -0.80% on Jan 25, 2022

    Recovered in 3 days

    Day of drop Jan 24 to Jan 25

    $26.34 $26.13 -0.80%

  • -0.80% on Jun 20, 2023

    Recovered in 15 days

    Day of drop Jun 19 to Jun 20

    $26.54 $26.33 -0.80%

Bigger market moments

Recovery durations represent day counts from first drop. Red represents path to lowest point in a plot. Green represents the recovery from it.

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Event Window

Key events from the last 20 days

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Jul 21 to Aug 18 · $44.98 → $45.71

+1.62%