Equities in Canada’s largest centre took a breather from the heights to which they flew Tuesday, as tech weakness overcome gains in energy and communications.
The TSX Composite Index stepped back 20.44 points to finish Wednesday at 21,998.38.
The Canadian dollar soared 0.68 cents to 80.02 cents U.S.
Tech stocks proved the worst culprit, with Shopify staggering $98.97, or 12.9%, to $665.66, while Lightspeed POS sagged $1.96, or 6.1%, to $30.09.
Pot stocks slid, too, Tilray giving back 57 cents, or 7.7%, to $6.80, while Aurora Cannabis sank 19 cents, or 4.5%, to $4.04.
Consumer staples had a rough go of it, with North West Company slipping $1.36, or 3.6%, top $36.01. while Jamieson Wellness sickened $1.20, or 3.4%, to $33.92.
Pointing higher were energy issues, Secure Energy Services soaring 35 cents, or 5.8%, to $6.41, while Tourmaline Oil jumping #2.96, or 4.7%, to $66.15.
In the communications field, Rogers heightened $2.57, or 3.5%, to $76.36, while Corus Entertainment gained six cents, or 1.3%, to $4.56.
In utilities, Superior Plus leaped 26 cents, or 2.2%, to $12.10, while Brookfield Infrastructure Partners moved up $1.58, or 1.9%, to $85.00.
On the economic slate, StatsCan reported March’s consumer price index rose 6.7% on a year-over-year basis in March, up from a 5.7% gain in February. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.9% in March.
Moreover, the agency says, new home prices for Canada rose 1.2% compared with February. Prices were up in 18 of the 27 census metropolitan areas surveyed and unchanged in nine from February to March.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 7.43 points to 885.35.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher, with energy climbing 1.5%, communications clicking 1.4% higher, and utilities better by 0.7%.
The three laggards were information technology, which took a beating of 5.2%, while health-care ailed 2.5%, and consumer staples fell behind 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
It was a divided market on Wednesday as traders evaluated a rush of first-quarter results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on the back of strong earnings from Procter & Gamble, while the NASDAQ Composite was dragged down by an epic plunge in shares of one-time darling Netflix.
The 30-stock index gained 249.59 points to close at 35,160.79.
The S&P 500 tailed off 2.76 points to 4,459.45.
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 166.59 points, or 1.2% to 13,453.07, but was still on pace for a weekly gain.
Netflix fell 35% after its quarterly results showed a loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, its first reported subscriber loss in more than 10 years.
That was its biggest decline since 2004, and the streaming company is now the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, down 63.1%. The company’s quarterly results were followed by a wave of downgrades by 10 Wall Street analysts, who also cited its weak financial guidance.
The Netflix blow-up dragged shares of other streaming companies lower. Disney fell 5.5%, Roku and Warner Bros. Discovery each lost 6.1%. Paramount lost 8.6%.
It also scared investors away from buying other technology stocks ahead of earnings. Tesla, which is scheduled to report earnings after the bell, fell 4.9%. Amazon and Salesforce lost more than 2%.
On the flipside, Procter & Gamble gained 2.6% and helped lift the Dow after reporting better-than-expected results and hiking its full-year revenue guidance. IBM, another Dow component, rose more than 7.1% following a beat on earnings and revenue.
Treasury prices dipped sharply, raising yields to 2.84%, from Tuesday’s 2.94%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices were unchanged from Tuesday at $102.56 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices poked up 40 cents to $1,959.40 U.S. an ounce.